Please contact the NH Senators about this last minute change to tie our definition of ‘firearm’ to federal law:
Ask them to oppose the firearms definition change in amendment 2022-1807S to HB490.
They are voting on this change on May 5th, 2022. Picture of the change from the April 28th Calendar is below (page 19).
Contact number for the NH Senate is 603-271-2111. Start calling at 8am.
Here is our letter to the Senators:
We ask that you oppose amendment 2022-1807s and if you want to correct something, undue the faulty definition in RSA 173-B that was modified in SB500.
Tying New Hampshire statutes to Federal law, even when a date is included is simply bad legislative practice and in the case of definitions, will cause harm to gun owners as evidenced in the recent court case.
We were just made aware of a last-minute Senate amendment to HB490 attempting to tie our state definition of ‘firearms’ to Federal law. In 2018, NHFC, Inc. clearly opposed a similar change. The definition of firearms in our statutes has always been better then Federal law.
324:2 Protection of Persons From Domestic Violence; Definitions. Amend RSA 173-B:1, XI to read as follows:
XI. “Firearm” means any weapon, including a starter gun, which will [or], is designed to, or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by [force of gunpowder] the action of an explosive.
As we mentioned in 2018 when the Senate attempted this last time, this is an extremely bad idea. Had SB500 been defeated, the recent issues regarding definition of firearm in case law could have been avoided. Had the legislators not messed with the definition several years ago, we would be better off.
CALL WRITE ATTEND
BECOME AN ACTIVIST FOR THE 2ND AMENDMENT
NO COMPROMISE
For Liberty,
JR Hoell, Secretary
New Hampshire Firearms Coalition
