December 17, 2007: In a repeat of events from four years ago, the NH State Police have just reversed their policy of turning away applicants for a non-resident carry license because their home-state license is restricted -- for example, to "target and hunting only," common in Massachusetts. Earl Sweeney, Assistant Commissioner of the NH Department of Safety, and a member of the Pro-Gun New Hampshire Council of Advisors, notified us of this change today, and gave us permission to publish his email message, which appears below.
Some background: Prior to the summer of 2003, the New Hampshire State Police would not issue a NH non-resident License to Carry (a concealed pistol or revolver) to applicants whose home-state carry licenses were restricted. Sam Cohen, then a director of Gun Owners of New Hampshire (and now a director of Pro-Gun New Hampshire), worked with John Stephen, then the Assistant Commissioner of the NH Department of Safety, to change this practice, and as of August of 2003, those applicants were issued their NH non-resident licenses (which, by NH law, are valid for "all allowable purposes").
Recently, Pro-Gun New Hampshire discovered that the NH State Police had reverted to their previous policy, and were once again denying NH non-resident carry licenses to applicants with restricted home-state licenses. We contacted Earl Sweeney, who had replaced John Stephen in 2004 as the Assistant Commissioner of the NH Department of Safety; Mr. Sweeney is also a member of the Pro-Gun New Hampshire Council of Advisors. He has given us permission to publish the following email message on this website:
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 3:00 PM
Subject: Restrictions on Non-Resident
Licenses to Carry
To: Sam Cohen, Pro-Gun NH
Dear
Sam:
Some time ago, you corresponded with me regarding a new practice in
the
Department of Safety of restricting non-resident licenses to carry to
mirror
any restrictions placed on the person's resident license to carry in
their
home state. The most frequent restriction would be the one common to
Massachusetts residents, "target shooting only." Out of an abundance of
caution, our License and Permits Unit had been either refusing to issue a
non-resident license and refunding the fee, or placing the same restriction
on the NH license.
I apologize that it has taken a little while to
resolve this because of the
concern that depending on the reason the home
state had placed such a
restriction on the license we wanted to be sure it
would not be seen as
irresponsible for New Hampshire to issue an
unrestricted license. We
consulted with our Attorney General's Office prior
to contemplating any
change in policy.
We have now determined that as
long as we use the normal due diligence that
a local police department would
use in licensing a resident, i.e., record
checks, etc., since in NH a
license can be issued for "any proper purpose",
we will accept applications
from non-residents whose home state licenses
contain some restriction such
as "target shooting only" or "personal
protection only" and will issue them
the usual and customary non-resident
license without including a special
restriction. This becomes effective
immediately.
Very truly
yours,
Earl M. Sweeney
Assistant Commissioner
NH Department of
Safety