| Last week, I alerted you about two anti-gun bills that the Senate was going to hold a hearing on (SB 577 and SB 571-FN). The Senate Judiciary committee has not made a recommendation on those two bills, so there is still time to ask them to recommend that these two bills be killed. Here is a link to that email if you did not receive it. (Anti-gun legislation week of January 8th) This week the New Hampshire State Senate is scheduled to conduct a hearing on SB 356-FN, a bill that NHFC supports. Currently, police departments have taken the liberty to hold the property of people who were arrested, but either had the charges dismissed or were found innocent. This little trick of the police has forced innocent citizens such as yourself to have to go to court to get your property back. SB 356-FN would require the police to return your property, including firearms seized, within 5 days. Exceptions include not returning firearms to convicted felons or holding the property if the state files a motion to justify holding the property. This forces the state to justify their actions to hold your property, rather than you having to go to court to plead with government bureaucrats to give your rightful property back to you. SB 356-FN is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Judiciary committee this Thursday January 18, at 1 PM in the State House room 100. I’m asking you to contact your State Senator to SUPPORT this bill, SB 356-FN, before the Senate Judiciary Committee and to SUPPORT it when it reaches the Senate floor. In addition, encourage your State Senator to consistently support our 2nd Amendment rights in all cases, and not allow the gun-grabbers to continue pushing their unlawful agendas. Please contact your State Senator today. Here is a sample email that you can send to them in support of this bill. You can copy and paste this into an email to the Senators, or like last week, go to the hearing link and sign in. This week we are supporting this bill. For the letter below, feel free to modify as needed. Sign in link: Email addresses for Senate: January 15, 2024 Dear Senator, The New Hampshire Firearms Coalition tracks legislation that is of interest to firearms owners in the state. They have alerted me about SB 356-FN, a bill regarding the disposition of property owned by a person who was initially charged with a crime, but who was either found not guilty or had the charges dismissed. Currently, loopholes in the law allow police departments to hold the property of innocent individuals, including firearms, and forcing such individuals to have to go to court to regain their rightful property. Current procedures waste the time and precious resources of both the courts and police departments. SB 356-FN would correct this problem, providing a common sense and simple procedure to have police departments return such property. SB 356-FN is scheduled for a hearing this Thursday before your committee at 1:00 PM. I urge you to support the law-abiding citizens of New Hampshire in stopping the current practice of police departments forcing innocent individuals to go to court simply to get seized property returned to them. |
For Liberty, JR Hoell, Secretary New Hampshire Firearms Coalition |
