GRAND RAPIDS, MI – When a woman called 911 to report a man with a gun, she was stunned to hear a dispatcher say he could openly carry a holstered pistol.

“Well, you’ll probably see more and more of it. Since all the school shootings and such, people are exercising their open-carry (rights),” the dispatcher said.

The call, just before noon on March 3, outside of Third Reformed Church on Michigan Street NE, put Grand Rapids Police on a collision course of sorts with open-carry advocate Johann Deffert.

Report: Lawsuit: Gun owner says Grand Rapids police wrongly detain him for openly carrying pistol

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Deffert, 28, filed a federal lawsuit against Grand Rapids Police, alleging officers violated his constitutional rights after briefly taking his gun and detaining him. His gun was loaded, but police returned it to him unloaded, authorities said

City Attorney Catherine Mish says the police response was “very reasonable” with Deffert, alone, talking loudly outside of a church service.

A recording of the dispatch tape, obtained Monday, Dec. 30, by MLive and The Grand Rapids Press, shows how the dispatcher explained to the caller that the man was legally carrying an open handgun.

Once she hung up, she dispatched two officers to check on a “suspicious person” with a handgun in a holster.

Officer William Moe, the first officer on the scene, said in police reports he ordered Deffert to the ground at gunpoint over Deffert’s behavior.

“Deffert was alone, and was loudly talking to himself,” Moe wrote. “Based on the area, and Deffert’s unusual behavior, R/O (responding officer) was concerned Deffert may have mental issues and was about to commit a violent crime."

Deffert did not have psychological issues. Nor did he have a criminal record.

Police eventually said everything was OK. The man told police he was “open carrying.” Moe released him.

Deffert said police violated his constitutional rights, assaulted him and falsely imprisoned him.

Steven Dulan, Deffert's attorney and a spokesman for Michigan Coalition of Responsible Gun Owners said in the lawsuit his client's "act of openly carrying a pistol in public was intended, in part, to increase awareness that open carry is lawful in Michigan and to rally public support, therefore qualifying it as symbolic political speech."

He said Monday that legal gun owners openly carrying pistols are periodically stopped by police across the state. Such lawsuits are necessary to educate citizens and police that law-abiding gun owners can open-carry, he said.

His client, he said, was talking or singing as he walked down the street.

“That’s not unlawful.”

John Agar covers crime for MLive/Grand Rapids Press E-mail John Agar: jagar@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ReporterJAgar