Pro-Gun New Hampshire

[Posted March 21, 2010, at 8:45 p.m.]  Last Wednesday, March 17, the New Hampshire House voted 256 to 33 to defeat HB1635, a bill that would have made it a felony to openly carry, with or without a License to Carry, a firearm "or other deadly weapon" -- defined by state law to include knives or "other substance or thing which, in the manner it is used, intended to be used, or threatened to be used, is known to be capable of producing death or serious bodily injury" in any "building, structure, or place owned or operated by the state or one of its political subdivisions [like town libraries, for example], and shall include the university system of New Hampshire and the community college system of New Hampshire" -- with "place" possibly including rest areas on our highways?

[Posted March 20, 2010, at 9:15 p.m.]  Judge Andrew Napolitano, senior judicial analyst for Fox News, spoke at the Free State Project's Liberty Forum in Nashua last night, and was the subject of an article on page B2 of this morning's Union Leader.  The article reported that with a goal of 20,000 pro-liberty activists pledged to relocate to New Hampshire, the Free State Project had already recruited over 10,000, and that over 800 had already moved here.  After quoting a number of Judge Napolitano's statements about the role of government and the principles of liberty, the article went on to say: "For many who attended the conference, Napolitano's words mirrored their own deeply held beliefs and hopes for the Free State Project.  'There is no place in the world that shares more freedoms than the state of New Hampshire, and I'm devoting my time and my life to keep New Hampshire the best place to live," said Richard Aldrich, the [sic] director of Pro-Gun New Hampshire.  'The Free State Project is bringing people of a tremendously high caliber back into our state.'  For Napolitano, a short trip to New Hampshire offered a glimpse of that potential future, where residents like Aldrich and 20,000 others may one day challenge the size and scope of the state's government."

[Posted March 16, 2010, at 10:15 p.m.]  At the March 8 legislative hearing on HB1693, two pro-gun-rights organizations unwittingly gave anti-gun legislators an excuse not to repeal the recent "no guns in the State House" rule.  Sure enough, this afternoon (March 16) the House Legislative Administration Committee voted 10 to 7 to keep the gun ban.  (The full House will vote on the bill later.)

As we reported earlier, last December 21 the Joint Legislative Facilities Committee created a "rule" (not a law) to ban guns "or other dangerous or deadly weapons" in the State House and Legislative Office Building.  The final vote - the second one taken - was along party lines, except for Democrat State Rep. Dan Eaton, a member of the Pro-Gun New Hampshire Council of Advisors, who voted against the ban.  (Rep. Eaton was not present for the first committee vote, which was held without advance notice.)  The actions of this committee flew in the face of a 279 to 19 House vote in 2008 that killed a bill, HB1354, that would have done the same thing by statute.  More recently, the House rejected a similar bill, HB1654; that vote was 300 to 35.  But the Joint Legislative Facilities Committee's "rules" stand without a House or Senate vote.