Please call your state representative(s) before Wednesday
March 24. That's the day the NH House of Representatives will vote on HB1693, a
bill that will restore Second Amendment rights in the State House and
Legislative Office Building (LOB) in Concord. Ask them to overturn the "ITL"
committee recommendation and pass the bill. You can find your state
representative(s) through the House web page http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/housemembers.html .
Just a few days before Christmas the Joint Legislative
Facilities Committee established a rule to ban guns "and other dangerous
weapons" (including pocketknives!) in the State House and Legislative Office
Building. Eight representatives did what the entire House had voted not to do
in 2008 and again last month. So, Gene Chandler, former Speaker of the House
and an Advisor of Pro-Gun New Hampshire, along with four other state reps and
three state senators, filed HB1693 to undo that rule, prohibit the facilities
committee from controlling guns, and return to the previous rule (in place since
1971) which prohibited guns only on the floor of the House (i.e.,
Representative's Hall) but not in the rest of the State House and in the LOB.
As a smart political strategy, the effect of the bill would last only until
after the next election, when the House could look at all of this
again.
Last Wednesday, the Legislative Administration Committee voted
10 to 7 to recommend that the bill was "Inexpedient to Legislate" (ITL), but
committee votes are only recommendations, and they can be overturned when the
full House votes on a bill. That will happen next Wednesday, the 24th, and we
hope you will ask your representatives to overturn the committee recommendation
and pass House Bill 1693.