Pro-Gun New Hampshire

by Evan F. Nappen, Esq.

June 4, 2009

Beware! That folding knife in your pocket may turn you into a criminal if the Obama administration gets its way. Although there has been a lot of fear and speculation that the new administration wants to take your guns, the most pressing threat now is actually to your pocket knives. With the changing of the guard at U.S. Customs, that agency has now embarked on redefining "switchblades" under federal law to include a wide variety of one hand opening knives that never were intended to be prohibited. In fact, many of the knives U.S. Customs now seek to prohibit under the Federal Switchblade Law had not even been invented at the time of its enactment! Furthermore, four previous U.S. Customs ruling letters (prior administrations) specifically determined "assisted opening" knives not to be defined as switchblades.

by Evan F. Nappen, Esq.  [posted 5/26/09]

I feel a very unusual sensation - if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude.

                                                                                                   ~Benjamin Disraeli

President Obama and I differ on a whole lot of things.  But of all the issues on which we differ, gun rights are the most important for me.  Just this week President Obama signed a PRO-GUN bill known as the Coburn amendment, which was attached to an unrelated credit card reform bill.  The NRA-backed Coburn amendment allows loaded guns in national parks. According to the NRA, "This was a major repudiation of the gun control community's anti self-defense agenda."

PRESS RELEASE -- Contact Evan F. Nappen, Esq., (603) 223-0001

Manchester, New Hampshire, April 6, 2009 - A recent gun-friendly outcome in a New Hampshire District Court could have positive implications for those who want to carry a concealed handgun.   Prosecutors at the Manchester District Court dropped both counts of "carrying a concealed handgun without a license" against a man who was described by the media as "heavily armed," carrying two loaded handguns and spare loaded magazines, and wearing body armor. The case received television coverage and national publicity via an Associated Press story.

Posted March 11, 2009:  Attorney Evan Nappen, Pro-Gun New Hampshire Corporate Counsel, was a featured speaker at the Free State Project's 2009 Liberty Forum, hosted by the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nashua March 5-8.  Here he's pictured with two of the other speakers, Dick Heller (of last summer's Heller Supreme Court case) on the left, and Kenneth Royce (A.K.A. author Boston T. Party) in the center of the photo.  Nappen, shown at the right in the photo, gave the introduction to Dick Heller's keynote speech at the Liberty Forum.  

  Dick Heller, Kenneth Royce ("Boston T. Party"), Evan Nappen

NH State Rep. Dan Itse has submitted HCR 6, a resolution to assert states' rights and, in particular, to maintain the right of the people to keep and bear arms in the face of federal infringement.  Seven other states have introduced similar resolutions, and analysts predict that 20 other states will follow this year.  (The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed their version overwhelmingly, 93 to 2; see http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=67229 .) The full text of New Hampshire's HCR 6 is available at http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2009/HCR0006.html .  Note that co-sponsors Rep. Ingbretson and Sen. Denley are Pro-Gun New Hampshire Advisors.  Although the State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs Committee voted it Inexpedient to Legislate on a party-line vote -- with nobody testifying against it -- the full House of Representatives can overturn the committee vote.  The House vote is scheduled for Wednesday, March 4, and there will be a rally at the State House at 8:00 a.m.  Bring signs to show the arriving state representatives that you support this measure.  Also, PGNH Advisor Rep. Bob Mead posted the following message on 2/15/09:

 

Editor's introduction, February 16, 2009: Pro-Gun New Hampshire normally focuses on New Hampshire state legislation, but there has been a lot of "buzz" lately about Congress's HR45, the Blair Holt federal bill, which would require all guns and gun owners to be licensed, and a lot worse.  We believe that the panic over HR45 is premature, in that the bill has NO co-sponsors, and shouldn't go anywhere.  On the other hand, PGNH Director and Corporate Counsel Evan Nappen believes there may be a REAL threat at the federal level.

Some Issues Regarding HB 160

By Evan Nappen, Esq.

Pro-Gun New Hampshire, Inc.

Corporate Counsel and Director

January 29, 2009

 

HB 160 is well intentioned, but there are issues with the bill as written.

They are as follows:

1)      HB 160 States:

1 Physical Force in Defense of a Person. Amend RSA 627:4, II(d) to read as follows:

January 29, 2009

TESTIMONY before the New Hampshire House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee in support of HB160:

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Committee:

There is a common theme in the opposition to bills that support the individual right to self-defense:  that there will be “blood in the streets.”  Many of those not familiar with guns believe that when a person becomes armed, either the gun itself becomes unpredictably dangerous — like a deadly snake — or the person cannot be trusted to control the alluring power of lethal force.  The latter assumption is what psychologists call the “precipice syndrome,” named for the feeling that when you look over the edge of a precipice, there is an instinctual fear of an irrational desire to step off the cliff.

But, as with actual precipices, the reality is that when people acquire the means of deadly force, they become more responsible, not less, and this has been proven unequivocally by recent history.

January 15, 2009: The Board of Directors of Pro-Gun New Hampshire (PGNH) is forwarding the following notice from State Representative Bob Mead to all PGNH members.  Note: Representative Mead and Senator Letourneau are Advisors of Pro-Gun New Hampshire. 

When you attend the hearing, please remember to wear your PGNH lapel pin.  If you testify, keep it short -- even a minute is good -- but if you don't, just show up and sign the "blue sheet" to show that you support the bill.  [Addendum 1/27/09: It has been pointed out that legislative committees are much more impressed by a large number of "pink cards" -- which declare your intent to testify -- than by the number of signatures on the "blue sheets" -- which just tally non-testifying visitors' support or opposition to a bill.]

August 20, 2008: Jennifer Coffey, one of the 21 Advisors of Pro-Gun New Hampshire, and the New Hampshire State Coordinator for Second Amendment Sisters (SAS), has been appointed National Coordinator, and a Director, of SAS. She is one of the now seven officers and directors of that organization.

Pro-Gun New Hampshire has a special relationship with Second Amendment Sisters, and strongly encourages people (men and women) to join SAS. As PGNH Executive Vice President Sam Cohen writes in his personal website:

I've always maintained that the highest priority of the freedom movement is to reach out to women.

As a practical matter, women are over half the voters in this country. As a moral matter, women need Samuel Colt's "equalizers" more than anyone else. As an intellectual matter, it drives me nuts that so many women buy into anti-self-defense propaganda that essentially has them saying "rob me beat me rape me kill me, and then do the same to my children, because I could NEVER touch one of those horrible guns."

The collectivist, anti-freedom people have been shamelessly deceptive, preying on women's protective instincts to steer them into this kind of thinking. We HAVE TO reverse this process.