Because of your phone calls and emails, on June 7, the Executive Council once again tabled the nomination of anti-gun David Patch for another 5 year term on the Fish and Game Commission. Your calls and emails are working. That is why the Executive Council keeps pushing off voting on anti-gun David Patch.
Your calls and emails are working so well that the Executive Council sought a legal opinion from the New Hampshire Attorney General regarding the meddling by the Fish and Game Commission and Department on legislation that is in no way related to fish, game, wildlife or marine resources.
The Executive Council released the opinion and NHFC obtained a copy. In short, what we have been saying all along is correct, and that is, according to Attorney General Gordon MacDonald:
“The Legislature has directed through RSA 206:4-a V, that the Commission establish positions on legislation affecting specfically defined areas within its jurisdiction. The subject matter of Senate Bill 12 – pistol-and-revolver regulation – is outside of those defined areas. The Commission has apparently had a practice of establishing positions on at least some firearms – related legislation. The stated concern with respect to Senate Bill 12 related to long guns. It is our conclusion that Senate Bill 12 did not amend or alter the existing prohibition on loaded long guns.”
The Attorney General confirmed what we have known all long, that the Commissions objections to SB 12 were just a red herring to kill our Constitutional Carry legislation by anti-gun Chief of Fish and Game Law Enforcement Kevin Jordan. It didn’t work and Jordan’s lies and anti-gun activism caught up with him.
The Attorney General further chastised the Commission for exceeding their authority, weighing in on legislation outside of their statutory jurisdiction saying:
“Legislation affecting firearms is not one the enumerated subject matters appearing in RSA 206:4a, V. Nonetheless, we understand that the department has annually reviewed firearm-related legislation, as reflected in meeting minutes. According to the Department, the purpose of the review is to assess potential impacts on hunting seasons for game animals, its law enforcement division and its enforcement of specific statutes governing how and when firearms are used during hunting seasons…”
Like we have been telling you, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department is a rogue, out of control agency that must be reined in. Without your calls and emails to the Executive Council, no one would have even bothered to request this Attorney General review.
And the problems continue, despite receiving tens of millions of dollars in federal gun tax monies, the department, under the leadership of the apparently incompetent Glen Normandeau, is still requesting over $1.5 million in state tax dollars! Outrageous. Dollars that will be likely used to push and anti-gun, anti-freedom agenda!
Click here to read Attorney General MacDonald’s opinion.
I am calling this a victory, because without your efforts, the Executive Council would have rubber stamped the Patch nomination and we never would have learned what really happened at the Fish and Game Commission. We now know who our true enemies are and we need to continue to fight for change at the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department.
Now that the Attorney General has made a determination, hopefully David Patch and the other Commissioners and Department employees have learned their lesson and will follow the statute and keep their hands off the Second Amendment!
NHFC will use this review and any other available information to call for a restructuring of the department as called for in SB 48. They badly need adult supervision.
In liberty,
Vice President & Training Director – NHFC
