imported post
nhoc wrote:
I thought NH law protected gun owners from being charged with these types of crimes simply for exercising their rights. Brandishing was another issue but simply carrying in a non-threatening manner I thought was protected?
I just spend 30 min. or so trying to find anRSA to back this up but I've come up dry. I found some stuff insinuating this but nothing to back it up.
Anyone know for sure who can cite the RSA?
**EDIT: Another 20 min. digging through RSA 159 and the NH constitution. Nothing explicitly preventing these charges but plenty of stuff protecting the right to "BEAR" arms.
No RSA persay, but the NH constitution states:
[Art.] 2-a. [The Bearing of Arms.] All persons have the right to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves, their families, their property and the state.
December 1, 1982
No RSA makes open carry illegal; there for it is not illegal. In NH if there isn't an RSA stating the People can't do something they can.
A number of years back someone (not sure if it was an AG or a assistant to an AG) sent a letter to ALL police chiefs stating that Open Carry was a RIGHT of the people and that other people's annoyance or alarm couldn't not override that right.
The only thing I can really come up with for this event is that he used the firearm in some type of threatening manner such as after having trouble getting what he wanted done he went back to his car to get the gun and went back and was sure to let them know he had it.