This gives me cold shivers

Courtesy of Tamara, we learn of an unbelievably stupid stunt by a theater in Missouri.

Goodrich Quality Theaters has come under fire this week after its Capital 8 theater in Missouri hired a fake gunman for an "Iron Man 3" screening during the opening weekend of the film.

To be expected, the character, who wore full tactical gear and carried a fake gun, did not go over well as some patrons feared the worst. Jefferson City police officers responded to what they believed to be an active shooter situation after receiving several 911 calls from concerned moviegoers...

After the officers arrived, it was revealed that the armed man was just a hired hand -- one of several the theater enlisted for the showing.

There's more at the link.

I got cold shivers reading that account.  You see, if I'd been in that theater, I would have been armed.  After the Aurora incident, that's a given.  If that gunman and his colleagues had come busting into the theater in an attempt to frighten me and other viewers, some of them would almost certainly have left on stretchers, either in ambulances or in the coroner's van.  It's as simple as that.  I probably wouldn't have bothered to ask what they were doing.  In that environment, knowing they had no business there, just seeing people not in uniform, carrying guns and behaving in a threatening manner, would have initiated my response.

If imbecility like this is to be a hallmark of theater managers, perhaps those of us with our heads on straight should avoid such places altogether!





Peter