NHFC Members, friends and supporters have done a terrific job calling and emailing State Reps. to voice our opposition to HB 1589. You, the grassroots gun owners are our strength. I want to thank you for responding to Jon’s call for action and also give you a few updates.
First, many of you have sent us responses from State Reps. and several Reps are claiming that you are misinformed and that HB 1589 is not an anti-gun bill. That is a smoke screen. HB 1589 will:
- put people at risk of arrest and prosecution for selling or lending a firearm to a friend or family member;
- force all sales to be conducted via licensed dealers HB 1589 is helping to establish a national gun owner registry;
- create criminal penalties for violating the proposed provisions of HB 1589 such as a fine or jail time.
The state should not be in the business of telling people how to sell, give or lend their personal property.
I’ll be frank with you, I have been in touch with firearms civil rights leaders in Vermont, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Minnesota and Iowa. They are all fighting so called “universal background checks” or bans and criminalization of private sales of firearms. Last year, The Virginia Citizens Defense League defeated a “sell your gun to a friend go to jail” bill. Unfortunately, this type of anti-gun law was passed in Delaware last year! The gun ban elites know that if they can pass HB 1589 here in “live free or die” New Hampshire they can pass it anywhere.
Because of the enormous pressure that you, the grassroots gun owner have put on all State Reps, there is now talk that certain Republican Representatives are working on a “compromise amendment”. This “compromise” is intended to pass the bill in “some form” and is not acceptable. Making an anti-gun bill less anti-gun, is still passing an anti-gun bill. This sort of backstabbing and backroom deal making cannot be tolerated!
Here is what I need you to do. Even though your emails are working, we need to double our efforts and start making phone calls. The bill will be brought to the floor on Wednesday, February 12, 2014. Please call all the Reps. from your own House district, even those who you think might not vote our way. Call them all and demand that they vote HB 1589 ITL, tell them no amendments, no deals, no compromising away our Second Amendment rights!
Click here to find your Reps. and obtain their phone numbers.
If your Representative tells you they are opposed to the bill, respond by asking them to speak against the bill on the floor of the House Chamber. Try to get the Reps to commit to speak against HB 1589 on the floor.
If any of these elected officials sends you an email please forward that email to NHFC.
Finally, please forward this alert to all your gun owning friends, family members and co-workers.
In Liberty,
Scott A. Krauss
Vice President – NHFC
