NRA and its NH State Affiliate (GO-NH) kill Constitutional Carry

by Pro-Gun New Hampshire President Bob Clegg

[Posted Wednesday, June 15, 2011, at 11:30 p.m.] The Constitutional Carry movement is spreading across the country. It’s the right to carry a concealed handgun without a government-issued license or permit – as in Wyoming (2011), Arizona (2010), Alaska (2003), and Vermont (1903)(!).

After months of work on the part of many people to bring Constitutional Carry to New Hampshire, the NRA, with the help of its state affiliate Gun Owners of New Hampshire (GO-NH), today killed Constitutional Carry by bullying NH state senators to remove portions of SB88 in a committee of conference.

We at Pro-Gun New Hampshire (PGNH) worked into the wee hours of the morning of June 15 in order to be sure our members would be proud to put their names on compromise legislation. Although various versions of Constitutional Carry bills had been debated for some time by the legislature and by the several active gun groups in the state, PGNH understood that good policy is far more important than egos and personalities – so when NRA representative John Hohenwarter presented a compromise amendment, we agreed to look at it. Emails to the PGNH president from the senate president encouraging full participation by all groups did not go unheeded. The Senate President even made phone calls to let everyone know he was serious about working together.

PGNH sent word it would lay down its grievances with NRA's Hohenwarter and accept his amendment. PGNH sent a note to both the Senate President and the Speaker of the House, noting that we would accept the amendment – and with PGNH, NRA, and NRA affiliate GO-NH, there were three of the four gun groups on board. The fourth group, the New Hampshire Firearms Coalition (NHFC), told a NH state rep they were not interested in sitting at the table with the others.

The surprise came today when GO-NH, the NRA state affiliate, said they had no knowledge of an amendment presented by NRA, and thus had never agreed to one.

If this has some of you wondering what in the world is going on with NRA, hold on. It gets even better.

Then GO-NH reported back via the office of the Speaker of the House that it would accept the NRA amendment with a couple of changes. They even sent the changes.

PGNH received the changes and a reminder from the speaker’s office to remember the goal was to provide constitutional carry for the people of New Hampshire. (Note that the Speaker is an Advisor of Pro-Gun New Hampshire.) PGNH agreed to the changes requested by the NRA affiliate.

The best is yet to come. Don't go away.

The second meeting of the committee of conference was to be held at 1:00 p.m. today, June 15th. At five minutes prior, a senator called the president of Pro-Gun New Hampshire into his office. A call from a GO-NH officer stated that they hadn't even read the original NRA amendment, and the amendment offered by NRA affiliate GO-NH had not, in fact, been offered.

So we are all on the same page, let me recap:

Hohenwarter of the NRA offered a constitutional carry amendment to SB88 that they would endorse.

PGNH accepts the NRA amendment to secure constitutional carry.

The NRA affiliate GO-NH claims they never saw the NRA amendment so they cannot, as the New Hampshire NRA affiliate, endorse the NRA work.

NRA's affiliate GO-NH offers an amendment to the NRA amendment.

Both the NRA amendment and the GO-NH amendment are accepted by PGNH.

The New Hampshire NRA affiliate, GO-NH, refuses to accept the NRA amendment or its own amendment.

Not wanting to alienate the NRA, the New Hampshire Senate refuses Constitutional Carry based on the objections of NRA’s affiliate, GO-NH.

Here's the punch line, folks :

NRA and its New Hampshire state affiliate refuse to accept their own versions of constitutional carry, pushing instead for the removal of constitutional carry from the bill, sending it to its death.

Not a real funny punch line, is it? The next time you get a prepaid envelope along with a request to help fund NRA-ILA, write on the card “No money until Hohenwarter is gone,” and send it back. Don't feel bad about using NRA-ILA postage. Consider it a service to gun owners everywhere. Every stamp of theirs we use is 44 cents less they can use to fund salaries of those who fight against our rights.

Editor’s note: The NRA amendment repeals RSA 159:4 (the law that requires a license to have a loaded handgun in a vehicle or concealed upon the person), and adds this language to the licensing statute, RSA 159:6: “III. The availability of a license to carry a loaded pistol or revolver under this section or under any other provision of law shall not be construed to impose a prohibition on the unlicensed transport of a firearm, including a loaded pistol or revolver, in a vehicle or the unlicensed carrying on or about one’s person, whether openly or concealed, of a firearm, including a loaded pistol or revolver.” (The purpose of this language is to prevent an anti-gun judge from saying that since licenses are offered, it must be illegal to carry without one.) The GO-NH version (which they denied offering) is similar, just adding these words after the word “revolver”: “by either a resident, non resident, or alien if that individual may lawfully possess firearms in New Hampshire.”