“Demetri Johnson placed a drive-thru order early Thursday, received his food and pulled away,” Nashville’s whas11.com reports. “He drove back through the drive-thru, complained about a missing cheeseburger. The manager asked him to park and said he would bring out the missing sandwich . . .
Johnson is accused of walking into the restaurant a few minutes later with a pistol, racking it and demanding that staff fix the order, police said. He and the three women with him also wanted fresh fries and new soft drinks. They left after receiving their food.
This incident raises some important questions:
1. The antis’ use rare but highly publicized stories like this to assert that any gun owner could snap and put members of the public in danger. Therefore no one should be allowed to carry a gun. So it’s important to ask, was Mr. Johnson carrying his firearm legally? The pic above looks like a mug shot. So . . . no?
2. Regardless of his legal status, assuming Mr. Johnson didn’t leave a round on the restaurant’s floor, why was he carrying a pistol without one in the pipe? That’s just wrong.
3. Did Mr. Johnson point his gun at anyone? While that open air racking business is a clear case of brandishing, I would hope the McDonald’s customer/perp kept the gun’s muzzle pointed in a safe direction – and his finger off the trigger.
4. How many minutes elapsed between his order and his ballistic complaint? I’m not saying that Mr. Johnson was anything less than irresponsible for introducing a firearm into the discussion about the failed provision of his missing McDouble cheeseburger, but I bet he was cooling his low blood sugar heels for more than a “few” minutes.
What can we learn from this? I’m thinking that the incident teaches us that A) some gun owners are dangerous fellows who risk ruining it for the rest of us, and B) McDonald’s is correct to start taking items off their menu to improve customer service. And, it seems, to protect their staff from irresponsible gun owners like Mr. Johnson. Seeing as the company disarms its workers.