In my letter, I mentioned two statutes that could be thought applicable at first glance: RSA 631:4 - "criminal threatening," and RSA 644:2 - "disorderly conduct" - and explained why neither of them were applicable to the situation.
RSA 644:13, "unauthorized use of firearms and firecrackers," doesn't apply either as that only criminalizes the discharge of a firearm within the compact part of a town.
Regardless of how thoroughly other people were wetting their pants, I was committing no articulable crime under New Hampshire law.
My mistake in neglecting to tuck in my shirt upon taking off my coat and thereby spooking the horses, while regrettable, was not a criminal offense.
In my view - as I mentioned in my letter - while the overreaction of my fellow patrons in making panicked calls to the police is understandable (given the drumbeat of mass-media anti-gun propaganda and the associated prevalence of the mental illness of hoplophobia), the execution of a "felony stop" by the officers was at best a serious overreaction, and representative of bad judgement on their part.
Within limits, no real argument from me.
In any case this has been a very educational thread for me in two respects: I was unaware Jeff Cooper's definition of hoplophobia was archived at Brassroots and this is the first I've heard of "The Highroad.org".
I was also unaware "armed to the terror of the public" was not a universal concept.
I will follow your adventures with interest. By all means expose the mechanics of such an incident(911 tapes etc) as much as possible,we can all learn from such encounters.
As you or your lawyer are probably aware, there are provisions for personally suing LEO's who "act outside of statute" and it is possible you have a case for such relief.
It need not be excessively punitive, but certainly cautionary for the individuals involved. The detectives, for example, may need to rethink their impromptu seminars on the right of taxpayers to carry-open or concealed.
Best regards,