Hundreds turn out at Statehouse to rally for gun rights

CONCORD – Surrounded Thursday by a sea of banners and signs, Caleab Spencer used a different tool to get his message out. Rather than raising a flag, like many others who gathered in front of the Statehouse for Thursday’s gun rights rally, Spencer, of Newmarket, proudly strapped his Bushmaster 223 rifle across his chest. “I couldn’t think of a better sign,” Spencer said with a laugh as the rally drew to a close. “These aren’t all scary, evil assault rifles,” he said. “Some are just used for protection.” Spencer joined hundreds of other citizens, veterans and gun owners from around the state Thursday to rally for gun rights on the Statehouse steps. The event, called the “Line in the Granite” rally, intended to protest against further gun restrictions, under consideration now in Concord and Washington, D.C. But organizers from the Rochester 912 Project and the Granite State Patriot, two conservative citizen groups who sponsored the event, also wanted to remind state lawmakers of their commitment both to their constituents and to the Constitution. “(Our legislators) have an obligation to the Constitution of the United States and also to New Hampshire,” event organizer Jerry DeLemus, chairman of the Rochester 912 Project, a constitutional rights citizens group, told the cheering crowd.