A few days after a mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart store, a man walked into a Wally World in Springfield, Missouri wearing load bearing equipment and a slung AR. While he reportedly did nothing more than walk around and film himself with his phone, the reaction was pretty much what you’d expect after a similar high profile incident.
After he was arrested, he claimed it was all just a “social experiment,” but he’s been charged with making a terrorist threat.
While nerves may have calmed slightly in the intervening days, Walmart shoppers are still jumpy. But like 15 other states, Missouri is a constitutional carry state. And like more than 40 other states, open carry is legal there.
So when two men walked into a Kansas City Walmart over the weekend while open carrying handguns — not conducting a “social experiment,” just to buy some ammo — police were called and the store was evacuated.
Here’s the AP’s account of what happened . . .
Two men with handguns in their waistbands alarmed shoppers when they entered a Kansas City-area Walmart on Sunday, but police say they were just buying ammunition for target practice.
Kansas City, Missouri, Police Sgt. Jake Becchina says the men were cooperative and were released because they hadn’t violated Missouri law.
Shopper Clennon Jones said he saw officers speed into the parking lot and one jumped out with shotgun in hand. Jones says shoppers streamed out of the store and warned others not to enter.
Missouri does not require a permit to openly carry a firearm for those 19 years or older. The Walmart store the men entered does not prohibit guns in the store.
Walmart officials didn’t immediately respond to a message.
Earlier this month, 22 people were killed during a mass shooting at another Walmart in El Paso, Texas.
Since then, there have been a number of incidents at Walmart stores around the country. Last week, prosecutors charged a 20-year-old manwith making a terrorist threat after he walked into a Springfield, Missouri, Walmart wearing body armor, carrying a loaded rifle and handgun, and filming himself with a phone.