In New Hampshire, it’s legal to open carry a gun on public property and plenty of private property (where the property owners welcome it). However, concealing the gun is illegal without a “license” from the state. The “live free or die” state is frequently touted as being more gun friendly than other states, and that’s definitely true. However, if the state people decide they don’t like you, the concealed carry statute is written with a loophole they can drive a Mack truck through:
shall issue a license to such applicant authorizing the applicant to carry a loaded pistol or revolver in this state for not less than 4 years from the date of issue, if it appears that the applicant has good reason to fear injury to the applicant’s person or property or has any proper purpose, and that the applicant is a suitable person to be licensed.
The “suitable person” loophole appears to allow police to deny someone a concealed license for anything they want and so far the NH supreme court is backing them up. In 2014 Derrick J was denied a concealed license by Keene Police for basically not being obedient to police, as they later explained in court. Keene’s district court judge Edward J Burke agreed that despite Derrick J being completely peaceful, the Keene Police’s decision to deny him was legal.
The latest development in the ridiculous concealed carry denial saga is my recent rejection by Keene Police (PDF). This time their rationale for denying my supposed right is not because of what I’ve done in the past, but merely because there’s a “current drug investigation” involving me.
So, now all the police in New Hampshire have to do to deny you the right to defend yourself via concealed carry is open an investigation into you. When do they have to close said investigation? Apparently there’s no specific timeframe.
Liberty-minded state reps have been working to end the concealed license requirement entirely, but thus far it has been stopped by the governor, Maggie Hassan. Another bill attempted to remove the “suitable” loophole from the statute. Perhaps the next election will shake things up a bit more in favor of liberty. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for more on the 2016 election.
Meanwhile, I’m still considering re-applying for the concealed license, likely being denied again, and then taking the mandatory appeal to the district court just for fun.
On Monday’s episode of Free Talk Live we went into detail about Rich Paul’s recent arrest in Salem, NH for possession of cannabis. We spent most of the last hour of the show discussing it. In short, a few weeks ago, Rich and a friend were heading back from dropping an activist at Boston airport and stopped off at a rest area once back in New Hampshire. While there, they smoked a joint before heading back out on the road. They were immediately pulled over before even leaving the rest area, as it turns out they had smoked up in the middle of an undercover police operation that was monitoring the rest area that day for heroin deals.
According to Rich, the police seemed disappointed they didn’t bust any heroin and would have been willing to issue them summonses and release them on the scene, but Rich’s passenger did not have ID on him, so they were taken back to the police station for booking. Ultimately they were released on PR bail and issued court dates. Both have been charged with Class A misdemeanors for possession, which means they could take this to a jury trial, unless the state reduces the charges to Class B.
If it does go in front of a jury, it will be the first time an NH liberty activist has gone to jury trial for simple possession. Rich is looking forward to his chance at a jury trial, especially since he is a minister of the Church of the Invisible Hand and considers cannabis to be a sacrament.
One big, and as-yet-unanswered question is whether the state will motion the court to impose Rich’s suspended sentence from his previous conviction for selling cannabis. Stay tuned here for the latest.
Last night I went to Strange Brew Tavern in Manchester for their 200th bitcoin meetup. It is the longest running consecutive bitcoin meet up in the world — going for almost 4 years now.
People talked about mining ethereum and being dash masternodes — they talked about successful strategies for encouraging businesses and individuals to take cryptocurrencies as payment — and they talked about achieving more personal freedom in New Hampshire. I was impressed by the turnout. About 2 dozen or so people. A range of all types: gay and straight, techies, real estate people, media people, old, middle aged, and young mothers and their children. The group gets the whole back room in the tavern and received excellent service the whole night.
A friend of mine threw a viewing party for Victimless Crime Spree last night in Manchester, NH. Everyone in attendance had already seen the film, some of them several times, and because of that something unique happened: Audience members began interacting with the various scenes in the movie. During “Give Peace a Chance,” they lit up. During the crossing guard scene, they took out their cameras and recorded. This inspired a bunch more suggestions. This list was sent to me today, and I had to share it. Throw your own viewing party for Victimless Crime Spree, and play along!
Here are the audience participation parts:
WHEN: Lady cop yells, “I give you an order and you gonna obey it!”
AP: Yell “Don’t tell me what to do!”
WHEN: Derrick J tries to light the bowl at the “Give Peace A Chance” rally.
AP: Spark up! (more…)
This April 20th, about a hundred people from all over the New Hampshire area gathered at the Concord State House for the 7th annual rally to end Prohibition. I was there with my camera to capture the event. People smoked pot. They played music. They wrote messages with chalk. They gave speeches and live-streamed interviews. They even gave away pornographic calendars sponsored by local businesses. Happy people living in peace.
Supposedly armed bureaucrats are “just following orders” when they kidnap and cage these peaceful people for having the wrong plant in their pockets, but when these same people gather together in large numbers, the evil law enforcers leave them alone. It’s a simple numbers game. An individual is an easy target. By outnumbering the bad guys, good guys can prevent and negate potential conflicts.
That is the lesson of the 420 Rally in Concord, and it is the strategy employed by the people moving to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project. People who believe in liberty are coming together in one geographic location to live free and achieve liberty in our lifetime. The more of us there are, the less likely a potential conflict.
The day after this rally, people calling themselves the NH Senate voted to continue the war on peaceful cannabis consumers. Here’s what one of the so-called “Senators” told the Concord Monitor: “We are in a war…The last thing we need is to tell our citizens that it’s okay to use a little marijuana or any other illegal substance.”
I’ve got news for you, dude. It *is* okay to use marijuana. It’s NOT okay to be threatening peaceful pot smokers. We’re past the point where we have to defend marijuana. We’re at the point where the bureaucrats have to defend being against it. With each passing day, people are gaining more courage to live free as bureaucrats are becoming more impotent. These guys are criminals wearing badges, we smoked pot right in front of them, and their hired henchmen didn’t lift a finger to stop us. So they can either write some more words on paper for us to ignore, or they can put down the badges and join humanity.
The torch, which looks like a big joint with real flame emanating from a gas tank it its tip, began its trip in Maine and will end in Miami. New Hampshire was its first symbolic passing, and as you’ll see from the hundreds of pictures linked below, everyone got a chance to take a symbolic toke!
Libertarian Presidential Candidate Darryl W Perry Takes a Rip
Though the time of the event was “high noon”, dozens came out to attend! That should be a good indicator for the attendance of next week’s seventh-annual 4/20 event at the state house in Concord, which should be even better attended as this event was put together in a hurry.
Join us to celebrate ending prohibition on Wednesday 4/20 at 4:20pm at the state house in Concord, NH! The following day on 4/21, please come to the NH senate chamber at the state house to see if they will approve cannabis decrim this year finally or once again kill it after the house of representatives overwhelmingly approved it.
Kudos to NH Hempfest‘s organizers Rick and Laurie as well as the Rebel Love Show for putting together such a successful event on short notice and good luck to the cannabis torch as it makes its way down the east coast to Miami.
What a great group!
Here are hundreds of photos from yesterday’s festivities:
