Anyone who expected to see “Rambo” or “Dirty Harry” types at a picnic Sunday celebrating the right to openly carry handguns would have been disappointed.

On the contrary, it was a sober and decidedly nonflamboyant group that assembled in the neighborhood park adjacent to the Marvin Gardens subdivision.

Many were former military personnel, and the consensus seemed to be that they wanted to put a sensible face on the issue of openly carrying handguns — a right that Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen recently said exists in Wisconsin.

Pat Rose and his wife, Angel, drove to La Crosse from their home in Cudahy, a Milwaukee suburb.

He said he came to the picnic to demonstrate that open carry is legal.

“I support the Second Amendment,” he said.

His father, Jerry Rose of Blair, agreed. “I think it’s important to make people aware that it’s legal to do it,” he said.

Both wore reproductions of vintage instruments in their holsters. Pat Rose had a copy of a “1911” style military handgun, while is father had a reproduction of a Civil War-era gun.

Jerry Rose said he believes that former military people were more likely to be in favor of gun rights, while those who haven’t been in the military are more likely to oppose them.

Diane Reid of Blair served in the Navy, and she said her father had always been a hunter, and had taught her to use firearms responsibly.

She said she wanted “to give a public face to firearm owners, to show that we’re all law-abiding citizens. We’re not asking for anything that’s not in the Constitution.”

Jake Gosh of La Crosse, who was sitting at a picnic table with his friend Jake Maland of La Crosse, said he was there “practicing our constitutional rights.”

Gosh works as a mechanic at City Brewery, and Maland is an intensive care and pediatric intensive care nurse at Gundersen Lutheran.

Gosh said he grew up on a farm, where weapons were just another tool. The picnic, Maland said, is a “celebration. It’s a win for civil rights.”

They both said they believed that they have a right to carry and own firearms for personal protection.

Maland said he now keeps his loaded weapon in a nightstand next to his bed. But he and his wife will soon have their first child, so he said he will keep the weapon in a gun safe with a touch-tone lock, so that it will safely be out of reach of children, yet quickly accessible.

Bill Schmitz of Redgranite, Wis., had a vanity license plate on his mini-van that said, “LOKNLD” (lock and load).

He and his wife Deb teach a variety of weapons-related classes — including one on how to responsibly carry concealed weapons. Wisconsin does not have a law allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons but neighboring states, with the exception of Illinois, have such laws.

“It’s about your rights and responsibilities,” he said. “We want you to know what the liabilities are.”