One of the men who

through downtown Gresham and Southeast Portland Wednesday has an extensive history with Medford police over his practice of openly carrying a rifle in parks, in businesses and other public places.

Medford police have received at least 67 complaints about Warren R. Drouin openly carrying a semi-auto rifle or handgun in a wide range of public settings between June 2011 and December 2012, according to agency records. One episode generated more than two dozens calls to police. At least one Medford business barred him from the property because of his behavior.

The 22-year-old Medford man is so familiar to police in the southern Oregon city that top officials in the 103-member police force refer to him simply as "Warren" when describing their interactions with him. Officers receive training specifically on how to approach Drouin and others in the so-called open carry movement, which promotes the ability to openly carry guns.

Tim Doney, Medford's deputy police chief, said department officials have emphasized to officers that not everyone openly carrying a weapon will be as benign as Drouin.

"We go out on every one of these calls," Doney said. "And who knows? The next one may be the one that is an active shooter."

On one occasion, Drouin was briefly detained and handcuffed when he showed up armed at the Medford City Hall complex. He's also had contact with police in Ashland, Talent, and Central Point, as well as the Jackson County Sheriff's Office and the Oregon State Police, Doney said.

"Law enforcement has to and does respond to these," Medford police Chief Tim George wrote in an email to The Oregonian. "It eats up valuable police resource time. That alone is disturbing."

Added George: "Being legal does not mean it is a wise thing to do. Responsible firearms owners would not and don't do this."

No charges were filed in Wednesday’s public display of firearms. But people were worried.

Drouin and Steven M. Boyce, 22, of Gresham, were spotted with assault rifles over their shoulders in Gresham and Sellwood Wednesday, prompting 10 calls to 9-1-1 dispatchers, according to Portland Bureau of Emergency Communications.

Listen to the 9-1-1 calls:

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.

The first sighting came at North Main Avenue and Northwest 8th Street in Gresham at 11:59 a.m.

The men were soon spotted parading down East Powell Boulevard in front of Jazzy Bagels.

"They freaked out the customers," said Meghan Browne, 22, who works at the shop.

"They freaked out the customers," said Meghan Browne, 22.

She was scared too.

"My heart started racing right away," Browne said. "We didn't know what they were doing."

She said there were about a dozen people in the popular lunchtime spot, with four or five young children. One of the mothers went out and questioned the men, asking them if their weapons were nonlethal.

The two were later seen in Portland's Sellwood neighborhood at 1:49 p.m., according to 9-1-1 reports.

Portland police spotted the pair near

, triggering a lockdown at a daycare center.

One shop owner in Sellwood, clearly distraught, told dispatchers she and another employee hid in a backroom after locking the front door.

While she waited as a dispatcher checked for more information, the shop owner could be heard whispering to someone who was with her about ways to barricade the door: "This is just a plan, it's not going to happen," she said.

. A search of Oregon court records showed no criminal cases against either man.

Sgt. Pete Simpson, a Portland Police Bureau spokesman, said one of the long guns was an AR-15. The second weapon was a similar long gun. One of the men also carried a handgun on his belt.

Both men had concealed handgun licenses and videotaped their interaction with Portland police, Simpson said. The rifles remained slung over their shoulders. Police did not check serial numbers on the guns because the men's permits were in order.

"Every situation is kind of different," said Simpson. "If we have information that somebody has committed a crime, we're gonna have our guns out.

"Had they been threatening or menacing anybody that would have trumped their right to open carry. We would have investigated that as a crime."

Drouin broadcasts his experiences with toting guns in public.

In a video posted on Drouin's YouTube channel, where he goes by the username "

," he documents his interactions with police.

"I'm actually a gun right activist," he tells one Medford officer, in a video uploaded on Aug. 25, 2011. "I believe in our rights, and I want to educate every person about our rights."

Drouin, on his Facebook page, says he was home schooled and offers the following description, which contains spelling errors: "I am a full flesh libertarian and a gun right extremest. We the people should control our government and bring us back to when we had and own our Life, Liberty, and Property. I hate socialist, dictators, and corrupt Government. We are losing are rights every day while not knowing it and then it become to late."

Boyce and Drouin became Facebook friends Dec. 24, according to Boyce's Facebook page.

OpenCarry.org, which promotes the ability to "openly carry properly holstered handguns in daily American life," does not allow discussion of publicly carrying long guns in the group's online forum.

The

states, in part: "This web site is focused on the right to openly carry properly holstered handguns in daily American life. We do NOT promote the carry of long guns."

But John Pierce, a co-founder of the Virginia-based group, said he does not oppose the actions of Boyce and Drouin.

"We don't condemn him for taking what is clearly a legal act," he said. "He is exercising his rights in a way that is making people uncomfortable. So in that regard, the police are having to respond. It sounds like the police are responding very professional, which I find very encouraging to hear."

But the incident disturbed those gathered at Jazzy Bagels in Gresham.

Browne said the shop's business slowed for about an hour while the men marched up and down Powell Boulevard, passing West Gresham Grade School, the post office and other stores several times.

At one point, Browne went out to talk to them, snapping their picture and asking them about their weapons.

"They were very proud to say they were real and that they were exercising their Second Amendment rights," Browne said.

But she said the incident was disturbing.

"I cannot believe it's legal to carry an assault rifle like that outside," she said. "I'm for the right to bear arms but walking around with an assault rifle takes it to another level. They're not meant for hunting. They're for warfare. They should be kept locked at home. "

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