TAHLEQUAH — As he paddled toward a gravel bar on the Illinois River earlier this month, Dustin Davis slipped a hand underneath his shirt, unclipped his gun belt and dropped his weapon into the cockpit of his kayak.

The pistol isn't a problem when he's in uniform, he said, but Davis, was wearing a gray T-shirt, and the gun left a noticeable bulge in the small of his back.

Davis pointed his fiberglass boat at the river bank, where other boaters had beached their kayaks and rafts and a party had broken out.

"I'm going to go mingle," he said.