| First, I apologize for this lengthy email alert, but it is because there are a total of nine… yes NINE gun bills before the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety (CJPS) Committee next Wednesday, February 8. Before getting to the proposed restrictions on your right to keep and bear arms, I want to thank those of you who supported our efforts to oppose HB 158-FN last week. Whether you showed up at the committee hearing, contacted lawmakers or donated to the cause of protecting 2nd Amendment rights, your support is crucial to this effort. With that said, this coming Wednesday, February 8, the New Hampshire House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee will consider seven bad bills that can dramatically strip you of your precious 2nd Amendment rights. In addition, there are two bills before that committee on the same day that could help support your 2nd Amendment rights. A total of NINE gun bills on one day! The bills come before the CJPS committee starting at 9:00 am. Because of the weighty nature of this day, the NHCF is offering to give away (5) 40-round standard capacity AR-15 magazines in a random drawing near the end of the day. More details will follow, but for now I can inform you that sign in for the giveaway will be during the period of the first hearings, and you must be present to win. The drawing for the names will be mid to late afternoon depending on how the hearings are going. If you can attend that day, plan to arrive around 8:30. All the hearings will be in Representatives Hall of the State House, so there will be plenty of seating. Obviously, the committee expects a large turnout… and we should not disappoint them! We also are planning one other event that day. Stay tuned! The most egregious of these bills is HB 106-FN, scheduled to be before the committee at 1:00 pm. Though titled as relative to extreme risk protection orders, it is best dubbed “The Red Flag Gun Confiscation Act”. Simply put, HB 106-FN will allow anyone, on the mere “belief” of a threat, to have your property seized by the police. You have not been accused of an actual crime, and you have no means to defend yourself in court prior to such seizure. Since this is a ‘civil’ process and not a criminal process, all of the due process protections that one should expect are not available. And once your firearms and ammunition are gone, you must beg a judge to get them back! I’m sure you would agree with me that this is just plain wrong. While HB 106-FN is the one we should be most concerned with, there are a host of other bills before the committee that day. Below is a brief summary of the ones NHCF strongly opposes. HB 32-FN, first on the agenda at 9:00 am, is an effort to impose so-called safe school zones on us but could best be entitled “The Criminal Empowerment” bill. Schools already prohibit students from having weapons, but this bill will prevent you, the law-abiding citizen, from being armed so as to protect others from the wicked creatures who refuse to obey our laws. HB 59-FN, scheduled for 9:45 am, is what can best be described as the “Register All Firearm Sales Act”. It would transform any sale or exchange, even between family members, into a ‘commercial firearms’ transaction that must involve a background check. This would turn two gun owners who trade firearms at the monthly meeting of their shooting club into potential felons for just trading firearms. HB 76, slated for 10:30 am, would impose a waiting period on law-abiding citizens like yourself before you can purchase a firearm. This could best be described as the “Hurry Up and Wait” bill, as you have to indulge government bureaucrats before you can purchase something that is already legal. This would force the average gun owner to make not one, but two trips to the store to pick up the firearm. One to go fill out the paperwork and a second trip three days later to go pick up the firearm. Even NICS is not this bad. HB 78, on the agenda for 11:15 am, can best be called “Uncle Sam Knows Best” bill. This is an effort to rollback last-year’s signing of HB 1178 by Gov. Sununu, which placed important limits on federal government overreach regarding your 2nd Amendment rights that were embodied in such unconstitutional measures as the Crime Control Act of 1990… that our current gun-grabbing President introduced in the U.S. Senate, and another gun-grabbing President named George who signed it. HB 351-FN, following the hearing on HB 106-FN, is scheduled for 1:45 pm. Best dubbed “The Gun Lock Gotcha Act”, this would require private sellers to ensure that anyone buying a firearm from them must have in their possession an “approved” locking device before the sale can be completed. If you, the seller, are unaware of what constitutes “approved,” you could be fined $1,000. This sets up law-abiding citizens like yourself to be victims of government sting operations and would place a chilling effect on private sale of lawful property. HB 444-FN, slated for 2:30 pm, is another “Gun Owner Voter Suppression Act” bill. This would make it illegal for you to carry, even concealed, within 100 feet of a polling place on election day. You get a choice in this dystopian world that these sponsors dream of,feff voting or protecting yourself. They do not want you to have both. Two additional bills that could be favorable to your 2nd Amendment rights are to be heard from 3:15 pm to 4:00 pm. HB 474-FN would prohibit state officials from limiting your 2nd Amendment rights, while HB 512-FN would exempt any firearms manufactured specifically in New Hampshire from federal laws and regulations. While NHCF supports the intent of these bills, we are not certain that they have been adequately vetted before their submission, so we will be watching to see the testimony and to see if the language addresses the court concerns on these issues. I fully realize that all of this makes for a very long day. However, the good news is that many of you that need to travel can help us to kill much of the worst laws being proposed this legislative session in one fell swoop. Make Wednesday February 8, a day for the family and a field trip for any of your school-aged children to learn how free citizens protect their valuable freedoms. We are in this fight together, as a movement and community of fellow patriots determined to protect the birthright bequeathed to us by our Founders after much sacrifice. And remember, we plan to give away those 40-round magazines, so arrive early! I hope to see you there. If you are interested in helping out more, please make sure you stop by to see me on Wednesday. |
For Liberty, JR Hoell, Secretary New Hampshire Firearms Coalition |
