New Hampshire: Gun Bills Scheduled for Public Hearings on Wednesday

On Wednesday, February 8^th, the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee will be holding public hearings on numerous gun bills. The public hearings will begin at 9:00 AM in Reps Hall, located in the State House. NRA members and Second Amendment supporters are invited to attend, and participate in, the public hearings.

Please contact committee members now and ask them to OPPOSE ALL anti-gun measures that would place further burdens on law-abiding gun owners and sportsmen!

Some of the latest in this line of ill-founded proposals are:

House Bill 59 requires background checks for the commercial sale of firearms, already mandated under federal law. This duplicative and unnecessary legislation is simply a first attempt to enact so-called “universal background checks” for the purchase of firearms in New Hampshire. The bill does nothing to improve public safety and its effectiveness depends on requiring gun registration.

House Bill 76 delays Second Amendment rights by imposing a three-day waiting period before an individual may receive a firearm that they lawfully purchase, with limited exemptions. There is no evidence that waiting periods reduce violent crime. Instead, this simply denies someone the ability to buy a firearm for urgent self-defense.

House Bill 106 allows ex parte orders to suspend Second Amendment rights without adequate due process. Further, if the order is vacated after an individual surrenders their firearms, that individual will have to go to court to have their property returned, unlike when the court wrongfully took it away. Constitutional rights should only be restricted with sufficient due process of law. Due process limits restrictions on constitutional rights to only serious convictions and adjudications that provide procedural protections to the accused, which results in more reliable proceedings.

Again, please contact committee members and urge them to OPPOSE any and all anti-gun measures that will do nothing to reduce violent crime in the Granite State!