Handgun Carrier Discrimination in New Hampshire

The Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News reports:

'The bottom line is that this type of thing shouldn't be happening in a state where (carrying a pistol) is perfectly allowed,' said [Peggy S.] Dean, a lawyer and consulting counsel to Gun Owners of New Hampshire, the gun-rights advocacy organization.

Dean, in a routine followed often in the 10 years she has lived on Warren Street in Concord, was taking a late-night walk on June 16. She was on Pleasant Street out by St. Paul School when state trooper Abbott Presby stopped his cruiser.

'He must have asked me six times for a driver's license. Then he proceeded to ask what I was doing there and I kept asking him, 'Are you detaining me?' Dean said.

She didn't have her driver's license. She had a cellular phone, a credit card, her license to carry a concealed pistol and her Glock 23 in a nylon, neon-pink fanny pack.

Dean wrote a letter to state police Col. Frederick H. Booth citing her constitutional rights and complaining of her 'detention' by Presby.

'Had I not vigorously, repeatedly and firmly asserted that I wanted to (be) released from this detention I could have been illegally held there indefinitely. I firmly believe that it was only after I explained to trooper Presby that I was an attorney that the impetus to release me awakened,' Dean wrote.

Three months later, state police Lt. Mark J. Myrdek responded, writing that a review of the incident had found Presby's 'actions and conduct were justified, lawful and proper.'

Of course they were. I would have stopped her too, for openly carrying a neon-pink fanny pack.

More...

On March 27, 2004, at about 9:15 p.m., three police officers in uniform and two detectives in plain clothes converged on Michael Pelletier as he thumbed through a book at Barnes & Noble store in Manchester. Pelletier and his wife had marked their 11th anniversary with dinner, then gone to the bookstore, where his coat stayed in the car. He had forgotten the change in attire left visible the holstered Glock 30 pistol tucked into his belt at his back.

A shopper telephoned police.

Pelletier said the officers 'basically grabbed me by the shoulder, disarmed me and took me out of the store. They ran my license and registration and the serial number on the gun and stood around lecturing me for 20 minutes. It was irritating, but at least I wasn't arrested.'

'What boggled my mind was that out of at least seven officers and dispatchers involved not one seemed to know that open carry is legal in New Hampshire and they basically treated this like they would a felony stop. . . . I wasn't doing anything illegal. I was minding my own business and I think they could muster the ability to treat me with courtesy and respect in that situation,' said Pelletier, who lives in Merrimack and is a West Coast transplant drawn here by the Free State Project's pick of New Hampshire in 2003 as the place to promote its minimal-government agenda.

Yes, they're professionals, after all, they should have been able to treat you that way. They should have known their own state laws.

Here's a good one:

Like Pelletier, David Ridley's move to New Hampshire was inspired by the Free State Project. He came from Texas, which he described as having restrictive gun licensing laws.

Compared to California/New York, no. Compared to New Hampshire/Vermont, yes. Compared to the U.S. Constitution, yes. If I were to leave Texas for that reason, I personally think I'd pick Vermont.

Furthermore...

'When you come to a place where the right is recognized by government and you've never had it before, it's a right you want to celebrate. At the same time, if you don't exercise the right, I think you will eventually lose it. So for me, open-carry is primarily a political thing,' said Ridley, who lives in Keene.

Ridley had changed jackets and was engrossed in lettering a placard on the hood of his car in a supermarket parking lot in Salem on March 21 when five police officers, responding to a citizen's call, asked about the holstered Glock 19 on his hip.

"They said, 'You alarmed a person who saw the gun.'"

'When that is the situation, they have to respond to the call. I understand that, but what was wrong was when they started talking about arresting me when I hadn't done anything illegal,' Ridley said.

In responding to a letter from Ridley, Salem Police Chief Paul T. Donovan wrote that his officers would continue to respond 'with an open mind' when a complaint comes in about someone carrying a firearm.

If I lived in New Hampshire, I would prefer that they respond with a thorough knowledge of their own state laws, rather than an open mind.

Lastly...

'In this day and age where people have committed some very violent attacks using firearms, it is understandable that people who do not understand the values of law-abiding firearms owners run scared. We need to work at improving our image with those who don't understand,' Donovan wrote.

This sounds like it was written by just a gun owner, but it was actually written by the police chief. I completely agree with his statement about improving "our" image, but I also must keep in mind that this was written in a lame attempt to excuse the incompetence of his own officers.