By Jay Simkin
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) backs HB 159-FN, which – if enacted – will forever strip some law-abiding New Hampshire residents of the civil right to be armed.
HB 159-FN is based on errors of fact and law. HB 159-FN cannot be fixed.
First, Chief Bradley Haas was murdered because someone at Dartmouth Hitchcock – which manages the State Hospital under contract – ordained that Chief Haas be disarmed at work.
Chief Haas had a 30-year law enforcement career. After he retired, he put his skills to good use. In the State Hospital’s lobby, he worked next to a metal detector. Metal detectors are used to find weapons. Those near metal detectors, e.g., court officers, are armed. Chief Haas was not shot in the back and was alive – despite his six wounds – when he arrived at a nearby hospital.
Second, it is idiocy to claim that background checks stop bad guys from getting guns. At the end of 2023, there were some 512,000,000 firearms in the U.S. (U.S. Treasury and Justice Department data). It is impossible to control things so abundant and mainly concealable. Absent police state measures, “gun control” is nonsense. To be 100% clear: we reject totally police-state measures, e.g., British or Canadian “gun control” laws.
Third, a person – with mental health issues and involuntarily committed to the State Hospital – needs a lawyer of his/her choice along with a well-experienced psychiatrist, paid with tax-payer funds at that lawyer’s usual hourly rate. A state-supplied lawyer will have neither the time nor money to be useful.
Fourth, the lightning-fast commitment process means no lawyer will have time to gather facts and to find a psychiatric expert to help. Good lawyers – always hard to find – are extremely busy!!! HB 159-FN’s timetable ensures most involuntarily committed will be “railroaded” into the state hospitals and will automatically lose their rights. Forever!!!
Fifth, if the Court uses State-appointed lawyers and psychiatric “experts”, their top priority may be pleasing the State, so that their contract is renewed, rather than defending their client.
Sixth, even if a person regains good health, the State has no way to force the Feds to update its records. The Sixth Amendment’s “Supremacy Clause” controls. States cannot force the Federal authorities to accept State decisions, legislative or judicial.
As to the N𐠟𐠟F, its very name shows it subverts your civil right to be armed. That right has NOTHING to do with sports. Before 1968, the term “sports” or “sporting purpose” was found in NO federal law as to firearms, e.g., the National Firearms Act (26 June 1934) or the Federal Firearms Act (30 June 1938).
The 1968 Gun Control Act’s chief architect – Senator Thomas Dodd (D-CT) – was inspired by the Nazi Weapons Law (18 March 1938). He owned a copy!! Dodd likely acquired it when he helped to prosecute Nazi war criminals (1945-46). In July, 1968, Dodd sent his copy of the Nazi Weapons Law for translation by Library of Congress experts. For proof, see the attached pages from the U.S. Senate’s published hearing records.
Pre-Nazi German law defined “hunting firearms” as “ firearms – designed for – and usually used for the hunting of fair game” (Weapons Law, Regulations, 13 July 1928, §22). As World War I ended (1918), Germany protested U.S. front-line troops’ use of shotguns. See: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1918Supp02/d912 . Plainly, the Germans had peculiar views as to firearms.
Dodd implanted into U.S. law Germans’ views of firearms. Dodd injected “sporting purpose” into U.S. law. This term is found in 18 U.S. Code § 921(a)(2)(B) and § 922(a)(5), (a)(9), (b)(3),(r), and (y)(2)(A). Nowhere is “sporting purpose” defined. So, the Attorney General can ban any firearm, by declaring it has no “sporting purpose”!!!!
Firearm-ownership in the U.S. has always been a life-and-death matter. In Colonial era Massachusetts, being armed was required. “And no person shall travel above one mile from his dwelling house, except
in places where other houses are neare together, w[ith]out some armes, upon paine of 12d for every default…” . Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England; Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, MD, ed.; Printed by order of the Legislature; William White, Printer to the Commonwealth; Boston, 1853; Volume I, p. 190; Spelling as in the 17th Century original. The penalty – 12d (12 pence, or one-twentieth of a British pound) – was then a day’s pay for a laborer. These laws have never been repealed!!
Call or e-mail your representative and urge him/her to vote against HB 159-FN AND any amendments to it. HB 159-FNl simply cannot be fixed.
