Posted on 08/06/2007 5:45:15 PM PDT by Dada Orwell
Below is a video of my August 5 open carry incident in New Hampshire. It starts audio-only then the video picks up a minute or two later when our pro photographer runs to the scene.
Basically I'm a liberty activist here; I wear a holstered pistol in public roughly once a week. It's legal in New Hampshire but not that common south of the notches. Cops sometimes ignore, sometimes harass you for doing it. When that happens to me, I don't get angry but use the chance to educate police about the open carry rights of NH citizens.
I was walking 50 yards from my car to the monthly Free Stater meeting at Murphy's Taproom in downtown Manchester. I usually open carry to that meeting.
I was noticed by a state trooper, but I noticed him too and called the Free Staters' emergency hotline before he got to me. In the video you hear my call realtime, as I report my situation and try to explain to our listeners what's happening.
Folks inside the bar also came running out to support me. Police thought it was pre-planned it happened so fast, like they'd been set up or something. But this is just how our guys react when they're nearby. I appreciate the fact that the police were able to maintain calm and respectful demeanor despite some of the anger directed against them by the crowd. But of course look I forward to the day when they don't make such stops in the first place.
Note that I am able to lawfully refuse them when they ask for my "papers" and personal information. If you think this is a better outcome than you'd get where you are now.....move your ass up here and share our freedoms!
Visit www.FreeStateProject.org
Thanks to all who showed support during and after this incident.
Hopefully this video will remind people New Hampshire does allow open carry, that officers here do handle themselves better than in most states, and that the Free Staters are continuing to improve level of support which is available to freedom lovers when police take exception to their responsible exercise of rights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXnK5UyRI&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fnewhampshireunderground%2Ecom%2Fforum%2Findex%2Ephp%3Ftopic%3D10019%2E45
Here's a YouTube video of his son attempting to chew her out about it.
You don't have to be pro-war in order to support individual liberty.
Mike is right. Here in NH you are allowed to carry inside any establishment serving alcohol, as long as the owners don’t have any rules against it and signs posted (I’ve never seen any). Because of this, I’d say that New Hampshire enjoys better gun laws than even Texas, where it’s posted ILLEGAL BY STATE LAW to carry into a bar.
Personally, I’m 27, and go to the pub several times a week to eat, have a pint, meet friends, etc. I carry daily, everwhere I go, including into every bar or pub I frequent. The only difference between Dave Ridley and Mike and myself is that I CCW. Dave does most of the time except for when we are out together in groups. I agree with Dave that open carrying while among other polite, well-dressed, ordinary folks goes a long way towards demonstrating that open carry is really NO BIG DEAL.
Although, Mike... after seeing this video I might open carry more frequently just to see what happens.
Stay safe you two. See you guys soon!
It’s true that there’s been incidents of black officers shot. Most often my friend would be in his car and the gun would be in the glove. There’d be some real interest along the lines of “hey, what do we have here” but of course then the paperwork would be produced.
And sometimes he’d be in the car with another guy who just happened to be a detective on the NYC force too.
More to the story than Dean or the papers wrote. it is in an area where you would probably not want to be at 0200.
War Is the Health of the State - by Randolph Bourne
With the shock of war, however, the State comes into its own again. The Government, with no mandate from the people, without consultation of the people, conducts all the negotiations, the backing and filling, the menaces and explanations, which slowly bring it into collision with some other Government, and gently and irresistibly slides the country into war. For the benefit of proud and haughty citizens, it is fortified with a list of the intolerable insults which have been hurled toward us by the other nations; for the benefit of the liberal and beneficent, it has a convincing set of moral purposes which our going to war will achieve; for the ambitious and aggressive classes, it can gently whisper of a bigger role in the destiny of the world. The result is that, even in those countries where the business of declaring war is theoretically in the hands of representatives of the people, no legislature has ever been known to decline the request of an Executive, which has conducted all foreign affairs in utter privacy and irresponsibility, that it order the nation into battle.
While I have often disputed and argued with Russell and others about the character and nature of the liberation of Iraq and the important role that the US military in bringing it about, and the long-term benefit it will bring to the world, I have never felt that their position is utterly devoid of merit. They just have different fundamental values than I, and weigh the balance of state-sponsored violence vs. state-sponsored tyranny differently than I do.
In GA we are required by law to show a cop our CC permit if we are carrying and if asked for it. The only time I have been stopped for a traffic offense I had my gun in the glove box. The cop didn't ask to see a permit because he didn't see the gun. But if he had seen the gun and he had asked to see my permit, I would have had to show the permit or else I probably would have been taken to the station house and booked for refusing his lawful request.
Just my HO, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that I should be required to show a CC permit since carrying either concealed or openly anywhere off of your own property without that permit is illegal in GA. Except that you can legally have a gun in your car if the gun is either visible or in the glove box or console. All in all, GA gun laws aren't nearly as harsh as many other state's laws, but IMHO no permit or license should be required by any state or local government in order to exercise a constitutionally protected right such as freedom of speech and the RKABA.
Why not? Why would you want her to cede her neighborhood to the criminal element regardless of the time of day? She works non-stop during the day, and doesn't sleep much, so why not go out for a walk at 0200? The night air is cool and brisk and refreshing.
What if the story is exactly as she says it is, and there really is an authoritarian rot lurking within the culture of the State Police?
Yes. No license is needed to carry a loaded firearm openly on one's person in New Hampshire. Indeed, it's not even legally required to identify yourself to a police officer if they don't have a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been, is being, or is about to be committed by you.
Agreed.
I realize that cops have a tough job at a usually sub-par wage, and that most of the people who they do serious business with are lowlife scumbuckets who are often released by bleeding heart judges and juries after endangering the lives of the cops who brought them in. But even so, it's not too much to ask of people who are given that much authority over their fellow citizens that they at least know what the laws are and how far they can go without overstepping their authority.
Well, I'm glad you found a way to get some excitement there in New Hampshire. Try marching around in front of some elementary schools openly...Might get exciting...Give you guys something to yuk it up about at the next meeting at "Murphy's Taproom".
Why are you being a dick? Aren’t we on the same team here?
So why even post this on the Internet? The cops know what the law is in this regard. This guy parading around with his sidearm, is like throwing down a piece of raw meat, and waiting for flies to land on it, with the results being kinda predictable.
If he was so concerned about "teaching the cops", why not go to the police stations and offer classes?
You don’t need a CCW permit to carry openly here in NH. Dave’s handgun is clearly visible, it is very clearly OPEN CARRY. No permit is necessary.
The only issue might be having to produce some kind of identification, even a library card or something (LOL!) to the officer, but I am willing to gamble that Dave knows more about those laws here in NH than I do.
Because as this video makes the rounds of police scuttlebutt via e-mail, it'll wind up being a lot less expensive than driving from one end of the state to the other to walk police officers through the basic Constitutional rights they swore an oath to uphold.
If they knew the law in this regard, then they had no more reason to detain him than they'd have on seeing an old man driving lawfully down the road without his seatbelt on here in New Hampshire.
Do you think that cops should be able to pull anyone over for no reason other than to check and make sure they have a valid drivers license? That's what's going on here.
Besides, you have to find out where the flies are in order to swat them.
I work a day job, have consulting customers after hours, own my own record label, work on two political campaigns and still try to get out and have a social life. I work around the clock.
I routinely ride my bicycle at night in Manchester NH. For me, 2am isn’t “late”. It’s quiet, it’s cooler, there is no traffic in the city, and you can see headlights from several blocks away. I wouldn’t even THINK of leaving the house without a handgun, and when I ride my bike, I sometimes open carry.
Peaceful citizens have a right to live, work and travel anywhere the please, and they have a right to self-defense in those areas as well. When I first moved to NH I was poor because I had taken all my savings to move. I lived in the ghetto because that was all I could afford at the time. Most people in poor neighborhoods are just trying to do the best they can with what they have. Because they live in bad neighborhoods they are at significantly greater risk of being crime victims than those in the suburbs. Poor inner city people in Manchester have the same rights to travel freely and safely anywhere, at any time, as do people in the wealthiest suburbs in NH.
CheezLouize, who wudda thunk that, and in the northeast to boot.
I know VT doesn't require a permit to carry concealed or openly, but I figured that NH was too close to MA for that. Seeing someone besides a cop carrying a gun would probably cause a MA Kennedyite to drop dead of cardiac arrest.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.