Open Carrying

[michaeledward]

This is an intersting video.

The primary subject is very calm, cool, and collected.

Some of his friends get a bit .... well, a bit.

P.S. the video comes on about a minute and a half into the clip.

 

[Monadnock]

You beat me to it!

They guy carrying is pretty calm and collected, but yes, I thoguht the other raving fool was going to get them all a free night in the Manch PD.

 

[KenpoTex]

(note: I didn't watch this again because as soon as I heard the first few seconds, I remembered watching the whole thing a couple of years ago when it first hit the 'net.)

That guy is a dickhead (the driver, not the cop). The only half-way "good" reason I've ever heard for open-carry is so that we as gun owners can show the people around us that we're not a bunch of nut-jobs...IMO, people like this guy just give the rest of us a bad name.

 

[Monadnock]

This video looked like it took place just a few days ago. (Murphy's taprrom just opened here in Manchester) But I've never heard of the guy, so he may have done this in other places.

 

[michaeledward]

This video is from August 5, 2007. This subject has at least one other video on You Tube.

Here are his comments from the local newspaper message board.

http://forum.nashuatelegraph.com/viewtopic.php?t=939

Below is a video of my August 5 open carry incident in Manchester. I was walking to Murphy's Taproom from my car with a holstered Glock 19. Free Staters have a meeting there the first saturday of each month; many open carry. A state trooper was driving by, noticed me and stopped me. I called in to Porcupine 411 (a sort of private 911) and broadcast an announcement of the encounter. The video begins with the first part of the call, audio only. There was a videographer inside setting up to record the meeting. He saw what was happening, came running out after a minute or so; that's where the video picks up.

Open carry is legal in New Hampshire but not super common south of the notches. Cops sometimes ignore, sometimes harass you for doing it. When the latter happens to me, I don't get angry anymore but use the chance to educate police about our open carry rights.

Friends 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. This would have been a SWAT event in most states. But of course look I forward to the day when they don't make such stops in the first place without probable cause.

I realize open carry is controversial, but it's an important right, one of the few still respected by law (or lack of law). Rights not exercised atrophy and disappear. Drop our guard and one day we may end up like Texas where you can lose your license if your weapon ever becomes visible. The sight of guns on hips tends to remind criminals in New Hampshire...they're better off committing crimes in Mass.

Note that I am able to lawfully refuse the cops when they ask for my "papers" and personal information. Live Free or Die is not dead yet.

 

[jks9199]

This guy is like the members of Opencarry.org here in VA; he's looking for a cop to over-react when they come across him. It's awful convenient that there just happened to be a guy nearby to video the event... It's awful convenient that as soon as he was stopped, everyone inside came out.

(They wouldn't have liked my response to the crowd...)

I read the 2nd Amendment conservatively; I believe that there is an individual right to own guns -- but not all guns, and that some regulation and control is reasonable (just like we regulate and control driving). I don't have a problem with open carry; it's legal here in VA. But you can expect me to chat with you and to determine whether you're legally in possession of a gun. And, in this particular case, I might have waited for him to LEAVE the bar, and determined whether you'd been drinking. (And, with the broadcast, the crowd, and the one guy's antics -- I probably could have articulated disorderly conduct.)

But what these groups don't seem to get is that they end up harming their own cause much more than they help it. You can't watch this without realizing that the guy was looking for a problem; you can't listen to what he says and how he says it without realizing that he was trying to goad the trooper into an inappropriate response. That's what these groups want -- and it makes them look like trouble makers. The peope who are on the fence are pushed over -- and lots of them aren't going to the side they want.

 

[KenpoTex]

This video looked like it took place just a few days ago. (Murphy's taprrom just opened here in Manchester) But I've never heard of the guy, so he may have done this in other places.

okay, like I said, it sounds like another one that's floating around out there. thanks for the clarification.