UPDATE: Okmulgee Council NOT planning to ban Open Carry

An Okmulgee City Councilor says a poorly-worded agenda is what sparked widespread concern among citizens that the council was contemplating a ban on the State's new Open Carry law.

"If you just read how the agenda item was written, it would lead you to believe that we were considering prohibiting firearms," said City Councilor Terry Bemis.

In fact, it did lead many people in Okmulgee, including another councilor, to think just that, and also led to some erroneous news reports.

Earlier, when KRMG News talked to Councilor E.O. Horn, he himself was under the impression that the council was considering a ban and told us he was firmly in favor of keeping Open Carry in place.

He said he's got close to 50 phone calls from constituents, urging him to vote against the ban.

Bemis also got calls from many concerned citizens.

As it turns out, Bemis says Okmulgee already HAS  a ban on Open Carry, an ordinance that's been in place for roughly 40 years, but was instantly null and void with the passage of the State's Open Carry law.

He says tonight's action was simply intended as a "housekeeping" effort to bring the local laws in line with the new state law.

Instead, the effort sparked confusion because of the way the agenda item was phrased.