The NH Pink Pistols, an LGBT-themed firearms group, practiced shooting targets at Granite State Indoor Range in Hudson yesterday. 8 people came to shoot. Last month there were 5 of us, and the previous month only 4. The range was clean, the staff was friendly, and the range was easy to use. Apparently the facility is less than 2 years old. We each shot individual targets for practice, but we also played a game of Battleship using a creatively designed target. Afterwards, some attended a Liberty Meetup in Nashua, but I had to run — I had a date at Street — a Portsmouth restaurant that now accepts bitcoin!
New, unexpected people came to this event — they must have heard about it from Facebook. The NH chapter of Pink Pistols is “officially closed” because we don’t have board members and bureaucracy to the satisfaction of the national group. I will wait for a few more successful meetups before I re-establish the group as “official”. I had a fun time, we tried out each other’s firearms, we got some practice with our own, and some even learned techniques to improve their shooting. If you’re LGBTQ and live in the Shire, please join the NH Pink Pistols Facebook Page for updates on our group and the location of our next shoot.
Last year in a surprising decision from the district court level in New Hampshire, Manchester resident Alfredo Valentin was exonerated from the “wiretapping” charges against him for secretly recording Manchester police when they were searching his home for a tenant’s drugs. The court was clear in its ruling that secretly recording police is protected by the first amendment.
“Essentially, Mr. Valentin was arrested and charged twice because he chose to exercise his constitutionally-protected right to record the police,” said Gilles Bissonnette, Legal Director for the ACLU-NH. “We need to encourage more citizens to do what Mr. Valentin did. Here, the officers’ decision to arrest and prosecute him is indicative of a broader, troubling trend in which police continue in a variety of ways to hinder people’s right to record their work in public.”
I organized an NHexit event in Portsmouth this Friday called “NH Independence Celebration“. People from Keene, Manchester, Nashua, and Portsmouth attended. Dave Ridley of New Hampshire’s #2 YouTube channel shot video from a safe distance across the street. Shire Dude live-streamed video while making commentary and chatting with curious passers by. One person waved a blue flag with a peace sign. Another waved a yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flag and a sign that read, “I LOVE AMERICA, NOT D.C.” Some conducted a 3-question poll about secession from a random sampling of Portsmouth’s downtown. Music by The Beatles played from a small portable speaker. In total the event was 1 hour.
Poll respondents were asked to read 3 short statements and rate their level of agreement or disagreement with each one. 17 people participated. The results are as follows (click image to enlarge):
Dave Ridley just published the first video from yesterday’s NHexit protest and litter pickup outside a federal building in Manchester. He got a couple interviews with attendees and plenty of footage of the event from various points. Here’s hoping we’ll see more events in public promoting NH independence.
Less than a week after Great Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, a group of New Hampshire residents has decided it, too, wants out – of the United States.
“NHexit,” named after the Brexit, or “Britain Exit” campaign, is a new movement that now exists to represent those hoping New Hampshire will someday part ways with the Union and create its own republic.
At their first-ever event on Sunday night, 13 demonstrators gathered with signs displaying phrases like, “Get DC out of NH” and “New Hampshire Independence Now” in front of Manchester’s Norris Cotton Federal Building, a structure that NHexit founder and organizer Dave Ridley said he “would like to see turned into a shopping mall.” (more…)
Patients have died while waiting for the state bureaucrats to finally allow the four legally-authorized medical cannabis dispensaries to open. Despite medical cannabis passing in 2012, bureaucrats dragged their feet on implementation until now, four years later the dispensaries are finally opening. So far there are locations in Plymouth, Dover, and Lebanon. Until the ultra-restrictive medical cannabis statutes are changed, the fourth facility still-to-open in Manchester will be the final one for the whole state.
Worse, apparently patients are assigned to a specific dispensary and can’t buy at the other three locations. All of these restrictions are continued, desperate attempts by the state to control a plant they’ve never been able to control. One patient, speaking anonymously, told me that he would no longer be buying from the dispensary as the quality of cannabis he can find on the black market is better.
Cannabis needs to be legal to possess, grow, transport, and sell with no government involvement whatsoever. Without true market competition, the government-approved, artificially-limited number of dispensaries will never be able to reach their full potential.
This is going to be a big election year with many prohibitionist senators leaving office as well as the governor, who has long stood in the way of any meaningful decriminalization. Cannabis freedom activists have pledged to make sure legalization is a major issue this election season.
Meanwhile, the state’s medical cannabis program continues to slowly move ahead. WMUR got to take a look inside one of the few legal growing operations in New Hampshire – here’s the video:
