Finally made it to the end of this one. Pretty interesting discussion overall. Here's my thoughts.
After the Paris attacks, there were strong threats against the White House and Washington, DC as a whole. Months earlier I had already booked a weekend getaway for the weekend after the attacks and I was staying right next to the White House. Even though my family strongly suggested I cancel my trip, I didn't change my plans. Did anything happen? No. Did I feel safe? Relatively. Did I make sure I paid attention to what was happening around me? Absolutely. We need to live our lives. BUT, we also need to understand that there are certain potential targets more valuable than others. Sure we can all sit back and say "it can happen anywhere," but then we're ignoring the fact that there's a far GREATER CHANCE it will happen at an iconic location such as the White House, the Statue of Liberty, or yes, even Disney. That's what Disney and the other theme parks are addressing right now. Forget the probability that there was a credible threat against the parks (which there certainly could have been). Disney knows how iconic it is. It knows it embodies the American ideals of freedom, fantasy, and [most of all] excess, and it knows that these are the exact things somebody somewhere wants to destroy.
Disney has to be working on how to make this more seamless. They have to figure out how to scan people prior to reaching the entrance plaza, because once they go full 100% screening for everybody I know that the current space at the entrance plaza cannot accommodate the crowds/bottleneck that the screening area will become. But with the busiest weeks of the year upon us, including the night where the Magic Kingdom has the most people condensed into as small an area as possible, they had to throw something together...and fast.
As far as toy guns go, I'm honestly amazed it took them this long to implement the ban. Ever since the Sandy Hook shootings I found it odd that Disney would continue to sell anything that even remotely resembled a firearm in their parks. I'm not saying I'm against firearms, just that I found the whole concept of kids being sold the things a bit bizarre. Playing with toy guns as a kid I certainly understand the childhood innocence of it all, but unfortunately the world has changed so much in the past 20 years that these are no longer innocent games.