Open Carry

Portraits from a libertarian jamboree in New Hampshire, an "open carry" state. 
--Jeff Sharlet

I met Alex, a student at the University of New Hampshire, while he was sampling some chili in advance of the big cook-off. Guns are forbidden on his campus, much to his frustration. 

"I've heard that at Dartmouth there's an armory for students' guns," I said. 

Alex didn't like the sound of that. "Might as well hand your gun over to the police." 

"I don't open carry at home," said this man, washing a pot near his family's tent. "I don't want to be a target."

"Is it for hunting?" asked my four-year-old daughter.

"Not this," he said. "It's for protecting my two little girls."

You can just make out Chris Pacia's .40 caliber beneath his boa, donned for the festival's ongoing "Big Day Dance Party." The gun's loaded with 11 rounds; Chris is carrying a specially-made magazine with 15 more in his pocket. He's just come from a talk on investing in ammunition, and he's heard some vendors at the festival will accept bullets as currency. This is Chris' first open carry. He bought the gun a couple of months ago. "After Boston--I mean, the Connecticut thing--I thought, I gotta get a gun before I can't anymore."

Kaylene does like to open carry her own weapon, but this one happens to be her husband's, a .357 Taurus.

"There is chaos and darkness within me," this little boy shouted with glee as he pushed his pals on a roundabout. His father poked his head out from a motel room above a decommissioned police cruiser. "I'm fine!" the little boy hollered. Then, to me: "Want to see my badge?" It read: "Shiny Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights."

***

I took these pictures at the tenth annual Porc Fest. "Porc" is short for porcupine, a mascot members of New Hampshire's libertarian Free State Project decided was friendlier than the "don't-tread-on-me" rattlesnake. I attended just to visit some friends, but as it happens I've reported a bit on the Free State Project in the past.