The demonstration was called “to exercise the newly codified rights in the Missouri Constitution,” he said. Voters in August passed a state constitutional amendment strengthening the right to own firearms. The Missouri Legislature passed a separate law that effectively removed municipal bans on openly carrying weapons.

The combination appears to make it legal for anyone with a concealed weapons permit to carry a weapon openly as well. Smith and his supporters contend that anyone who can legally own a weapon can now carry it openly without a permit.

The event Saturday should “demonstrate the legality of it,” Smith said.

At an afternoon news conference, Mayor Francis Slay called the armed stroll a “scene out of a bad Western.”

“This is not Deadwood, South Dakota, in the 1870s,” he said. “In Deadwood, there was no law, but in Missouri, it is the law,” he said referring to the legal ability to walk around openly carrying guns. “I don’t know what is worse.”

He said the law on guns is now “confusing,” even to police. Aides said it is under legal challenge.

Slay denounced the demonstration and called for stricter controls on the carrying of guns.