Please contact your state rep and ask them to send HB307 to a Committee of Conference to fix the issues we emailed you about several weeks ago.
Tell them, there is one Senate message that they need to pay attention to: This year a bill (HB307) was filed to ensure that public officials were finally held accountable for breaking the law when it comes to infringing on the rights of gun owners.
For years, the gun owners have had to be hyper-vigilant to make sure local officials did not create local ordinances that restricted our rights to use a firearm on private or public property. Although we had in statute a prohibition that prevented this type of behavior from selectmen and other officials; local officials routinely went ahead and did this anyway.
Imagine what would happen if a small group of local officials who hated hunting were suddenly elected and that favorite hunting spot in the local town forest just became a ‘no-hunting’ zone. Or what about finding out that one of the local landowners who had a large parcel of land was suddenly prohibited from using a home range that they had built years ago.
Don’t think this could happen, well it does: Just a few weeks ago in the town of Washington, a group tried to ban outdoor ‘commercial’ shooting via a warrant article. The good news is the current RSA 159:26 prohibited this from happening and once the selectmen were made aware of the prohibition, the warrant article was withdrawn.
Now fast forward to this year, where the bill that we hoped would penalize this type of mis-behavior was gutted by the NH Senate and if passed into law, this bill would actually take away the protections we currently have, instead of expanding them as we expected.
The following has been law for almost 20 years:
159:26 Firearms, Ammunition, and Knives; Authority of the State. –I. To the extent consistent with federal law, the state of New Hampshire shall have authority and jurisdiction over the sale, purchase, ownership, use, possession, transportation, licensing, permitting, taxation, or other matter pertaining to firearms, firearms components, ammunition, firearms supplies, or knives in the state. Except as otherwise specifically provided by statute, no ordinance or regulation of a political subdivision may regulate the sale, purchase, ownership, use, possession, transportation, licensing, permitting, taxation, or other matter pertaining to firearms, firearms components, ammunition, or firearms supplies in the state. Nothing in this section shall be construed as affecting a political subdivision’s right to adopt zoning ordinances for the purpose of regulating firearms or knives businesses in the same manner as other businesses or to take any action allowed under RSA 207:59.
We have bolded the critical sentence and underlined two sections of importance. First local officials are prohibited from regulating “use”. “Use” includes things like shooting on private land, hunting on town or state owned properties and even hunting along things like the power lines. Second, “or any other matter” was already in law. Now they want to take out “use” and relay on just ‘any other matter’ as the only protection.
Some of the Senators are claiming that they are protecting the rights of the citizens by making these changes. Nothing could be further from the truth. What they did was remove the one word that is at the forefront of the discussion.
One should note that on the same day that the NH Senate killed two good gun bills that were passed by the House last year (HB196, HB197) they also gutted HB 307.
During the Senate Debate on the floor, the Chair of the Justice committee made the following two remarks in reference to this bill: “Municipalities can regulate the use of that gun” and “You can have it, but you can’t use it”.
Here is the text of what the Senate adopted
159:28 Prohibitions; Penalties.
I. No public entity shall, and no private entity leasing or operating in any manner on any property owned, whole or in part, by the state, a political subdivision of this state, committee, or other governmental unit thereof, including a school district or school administrative unit shall regulate or attempt to regulate the sale, use, or possession of firearms; ammunition; ammunition components; knives; firearms components; firearms accessories; and firearms supplies on any property owned, whole or in part, by the state, political subdivision, committee, or other governmental unit thereof, including a school district or school administrative unit, unless explicitly authorized by statute.
Gone is the most critical word in this sentence: ‘USE’. While it is important to possess, if you cannot practice, possession is nothing more than a hobby of collecting carefully machined pieces of metal.
Local selectmen do not have the power to tax firearms, and that would never fly if they tried to do that. Instead, what they attempt to do is to regulate the USE of firearms. They try to regulate when and where they can be used. They attempt to ban shooting ranges and to ban hunting. We cannot allow this!
This upcoming House session, we have the chance to correct this. Either we give up rights that we have had for years and adopt the Senate version of the bill, or we ask for a committee of conference and push to get the necessary word “USE” put back into the bill.
NHFC is requesting that you correct the bill and not let this go forward without the word “use”. There are potentially other issues with HB307 that might end up in a court battle if this does become law. For example the Governor is not allowed under the NH Constitution to do what the bill requires. The Governor cannot just fire the local town employee or official.
All of these issues can be worked out in a committee of conference, so please ask your State Rep to vote to “Non-Concur and ask for a Committee of Conference”. As always, when you contact your State Representatives, by courteous and limit phone calls to before 9pm.
CALL WRITE ATTEND
BECOME AN ACTIVIST FOR THE 2ND AMENDMENT
NO COMPROMISE
For Liberty,
JR Hoell, Secretary
New Hampshire Firearms Coalition
