Ft. Worth McDonald's "Misfire Miracle"

D

Double Naught Spy

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/26/203348/gun-misfires-prevents-possible.html#.UkVp2j_nOQI

Video here for a while anyway....
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/
http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/23541252/gun-of-robber-jams-while-trying-to-shoot-ft-worth-mcdonalds

I am dying to know what gun he was using. I can't tell from the video on my computer. The "miracle" term is not mine.

So a guy who is reported earlier as being suicidal by his mother 2 counties away turns up in a McDonald's trying to rob it, but repeatedly trying to kill employees and patrons. The gun misfires despite repeated attempts to pull the trigger or clear the malfunction in the store.

One employee fights with him, but does not disarm him.

Crazy guy goes outside and the gun fires into the air. He comes back in and it doesn't work...again. He goes back out and gets it to fire 2 shots at a passing car. And you can read the rest of the details about him.

Apparently, in the interim, numerous people were able to scramble away, but were directly threatened by him twice inside (2 events).

Despite being Texas, McDonald's not posting 30.06 signs, etc., nobody seemed to have a gun and use it to protect themselves against the gunman. Despite the first attempt and quite some delay between the first and second event, nobody thought to lock the doors.

Interesting and weird SD situation. Nobody got hurt, but apparently not because of any sort of grand self defense skills or security applications.
 
The employee had an opening, and he should have taken it. When the shooter left the building the first time, he should have locked the doors.

If I were in that situation, I'd have assumed that the shooter had either left the safety on, or he had failed to chamber a round. In either case, I'd still work under the assumption the gun could quickly be rendered operable and, and I'd have fought accordingly.
 
Despite the laws to the contrary, many people in Texas think its illegal to carry a gun into Walmart ect...

Many people think you have to have a chl to have a gun in the car...
 
The employee may not have been able to lock the doors. Most McDonalds in my area don't have thumbturn deadbolts, they have either deadbolts that need a key to operate from either inside or outside, or (more often) a pushbar on the inside that needs a key to open from the outside and a special tool (a hex key, I think) to unlock or lock from the inside.
 
Clearly the would-be gunman needed on of those 98,000 Tauri from Brazil. THEY would have fired ...e
 
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One of our McDonalds here in Oklahoma has a "no weapons allowed" sign.

I guess the Fort Worth McDonalds forgot their sign, cause I'm sure that would have deterred the (almost) shooter.
 
operator error is the cause and rightfully so. be glad the guy did know tap rack bang or any of the gun's nomenclature.
 
Despite the laws to the contrary, many people in Texas think its illegal to carry a gun into Walmart ect...
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But those people should not be CHL holders who are tested over such information.

The very real fact remains that what, ~ 2% of the viable population that could get a CHL has a CHL and only a tiny percentage of CHL holders actually carry on a regular basis.

Here we have an ongoing gun event, tauted as a potential shooting spree and apparently was an attempted shooting spree and nobody CHL holders around who were armed that attempted to do anything. It is a reality of these types of events at this time.
 
Of course, there's a chance that even if a chl holder was present, they may not have chose to act..... That would lower the odds even more...
 
Most McDonalds in my area don't have thumbturn deadbolts
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That strikes me as a huge loophole in security. There are times when it's advisable to lock a given building down, and the staff on hand should have the ability to do so.
 
Tom Servo said:
That strikes me as a huge loophole in security. There are times when it's advisable to lock a given building down, and the staff on hand should have the ability to do so.
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It may not be ideal for security, but it's far better for fire safety and there's a higher probability of a fire or similar emergency requiring a rapid evacuation than there is of an armed robber or shooter being spotted at a time and in a place giving an employee (or customer) an opportunity to lock the door. And those doors aren't bullet resistant glass -- locking them might not be much of a deterrent.

There was a Burger King near me that had thumb turn deadbolts. The fire marshal cited them multiple times for locking the doors when there were still customers inside. BIG no-no. I guess the franchisee finally got tired of paying the fines, because those locks have been replaced. Panic bars let people out even when locked to the outside, but panic bars ALL require a tool to release the bar and lock the outside.

Bottom line -- it's much more likely that people will need to get out than that somebody may need to be kept out.
 
It may be fire codes and security that decide the type of lock, but I doubt it. Thinking back to my mischievous childhood days, I might have locked my friends or siblings out of McDonalds at least once had they had thumb turn locks.
 
As for the chances of a CHL holder carrying on the premises, there are 26,000,000 people in Texas, with only 584,000 of them having a current license to carry.

That's about 1 in 44 Texans toting concealed legally.

Given that not 100% of them carry all the time, the chances are pretty good none will be present at your average MickyD's.
 
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Instead of locking the doors while the criminal went outside, I have a better idea!

What they SHOULD have done while he was outside is, take a big piece of paper and write "no guns allowed" on it, then tape it to the door. I'm certain he'd think twice before coming in again. :rolleyes:

In all actuality that was a very weird situation, and I'm glad nobody was hurt.
 
Malfunctions/failures to fire happen all the time, especially with inexperienced users, poorly built guns, poorly maintained guns, bad ammo, etc. Statistically speaking, you get enough robberies with enough poorly made, poorly maintained, bad ammo guns being used by inexperienced or mentally unstable people and you are going to have events where the intended outcome is not as the unstable person intended.
 
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No more comments about divine intervention, please. They're off-topic here: we don't do religious discussions. Drop the subject now.
 
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