Mr. Rice made it quite clear why he took issue. He didn't say Pelletier had done anything illegal, only that he had exercised poor judgement. The two are not one and the same. Read it again from the article:
Commenting on what Pelletier has written on the Internet about his bookstore experience, Rice said, “I think he exercised extraordinarily poor judgment on that particular night (because) he had an open-top holster in the small of his back in an unconcealed fashion. . . .
“Most professionals do not carry a gun there because it’s hard to access the weapon and hard to retain the weapon if someone wants to take it away from you.”
Rice prefers holsters with retention features that thwart efforts to extract the handgun, and he advises students to place the belt holster at their right or left side, where it is protected by the arm.
As a firearms instructor, Rice views concealed-carry as “a good way to deter crime because they don’t know who is carrying.”
Though it is legal to carry a gun in plain view, “open-carry is not a bright idea,” Rice said. “You are a target. If someone comes in with criminal intent, the first thing he is going to do is neutralize any person with a weapon who can hurt him.”
Mr. Pelletier did nothing to earn the poor treatment he received, but that is a different issue that what Rice is saying. Seems to me the author (R. Talbot) is including marginally relevant clutter to expand the story.
"He didn't say Pelletier had done anything illegal"
No, he just went on about the type of holster the guyy had.
And the gun owner was rousted contrary to NH law.
And we have been discussing this.
And you are having a cow about this exactly why then?
You seem to be upset about it being pointed out that Mr Rice made a stupid comment in contrary to NH law.
It isn't far from 'he showed poor judgement *sniffle sniffle*' statements to banning guns.
Just look at NY state.
NH law says open carry is okay.
So why did Mr Rice have an issue with the type of holster the guy had?
If he didn't have an issue with it, he wouldn't have mentioned the holster type.
I think the point is that if officers of state Pro-2nd Amendment organizations can't say something positive about a citizen exercising their 2nd Amendment rights, they shouldn't say anything at all.
Rice had a "falling out" with Go-NH (as well as with other Pro-2nd Amendment orgaizations in his past), so there may be some animosity that he has trouble overcoming with positions on Open-Carry espoused by Go-NH. The record appears to suggest that if one doesn't agree with Rice, he has a tendency to lambast and attack. The fellow certainly does some good, but has a hard time seeing past his limited views on how others should properly exercise 2nd Amendment rights.
One hopes to not see Rice's quotes used by Brady Campaign. It takes only a slight twist to say that if a NH gun-organization officer is critical of open-carry as potentially dangerous to the public, it should be banned.