Heavily armed man in body armor arrested after causing panic in Missouri Walmart

Days after a shooter opened fire in an El Paso Walmart, another heavily armed man walked into another Walmart. Springfield, Missouri, police Lt. Mike Lucas told reporters, “He walked in here, heavily armed with body armor on, in military fatigues, and caused a great amount of panic inside the store” as shoppers’ minds went to El Paso and Dayton.

The 20-something white man was wearing fatigues and body armor and carrying a tactical rifle, handgun, and 100 rounds of ammunition. Basically the mass shooter uniform, in other words. While panicked shoppers fled after a store manager pulled a fire alarm, the man “was taking video on his phone and making comments to people while pushing a shopping cart,” the Springfield News-Leader reports.

The—what do we call him? pretend shooter? potential shooter? menacer?—jackass was detained by an armed off-duty firefighter, and Lucas said, “His intent was not to cause peace or comfort to anybody that was in the business here. In fact, he’s lucky he’s alive still, to be honest.” The question, though, is whether what he did was technically illegal. Missouri allows open carry of firearms, with a critical exception: It’s illegal to display a firearm in an “angry or threatening manner.” Does walking into a store in a chain that’s recently experienced a mass shooting carrying the equipment for a mass shooting count as threatening? Stay tuned.