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An Oklahoma man in a tactical vest with an AR-15 and a holstered pistol prompted local businesses to lock their doors. And even as people in a Target parking lot called 911 to say the armed man was headed inside, police said he wasn’t breaking the law..

While Oklahoma’s “constitutional carry” law means it’s not illegal to carry an assault-style rifle, such as this AR-15 with a loaded magazine, police say that “if somebody is causing you concern or putting you in fear for some reason, that’s what 911 is designed for.”

An incident in Broken Arrow a week ago raised fresh questions about how witnesses and law enforcement should respond when people walk around in public armed with assault-style rifles.

A man in a tactical vest with a semi-automatic rifle and holstered pistol prompted Broken Arrow Justice Center employees to lock their doors June 13, according to a news release.

AT&T store employees who then saw the man proceeded to “run out the back of the store,” and multiple 911 calls came from the parking lot of a Target store that he was walking toward, Broken Arrow police said.

But “quite honestly, nobody needs to be walking down the street with a rifle,” Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton said in an interview about dealing with such situations. “But I don’t make the laws; we just try to live by them and do a very difficult job in a world that’s got those people in it.”

In the case of the man in Broken Arrow, police said that for three reasons — he didn’t have the firearms with him when he tried to enter the Justice Center; the AT&T store did not have a “no firearms allowed” sign posted; and he did not actually try to enter the Target — no laws were broken with regard to his carrying the semi-automatic rifle. He was arrested, however, after he was found to have a recently-issued unrelated warrant and to be in possession of an over .45-caliber firearm and brass knuckles, both of which are illegal in Oklahoma.

“If I spook the right person, they might send me to meet Jesus,” Walton said. “Here’s a guy with a rifle that can take me and a lot of other people out, but he’s not doing anything. Now I got to make a decision. That decision is a lot tougher now.”

Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said at a Tuesday night forum on active shooters that there is also the concern of people who purposely try to instigate issues with officers to start a Second Amendment fight.