On Thursday, Phil Scott, Vermont’s moderate Republican governor, announced a sea change in his outlook on guns, embracing an increase in the minimum purchasing age from 18 to 21, increased background checks, and a ban on “bump stocks.” The governor’s about-face came after an 18-year-old was charged, just days after the Parkland, Fla. massacre, with attempted murder for allegedly plotting to shoot up his former high school in Fair Haven, a small town in west-central Vermont.
Over in the Granite State, the political back-and-forth between the Republican-led legislature and Gov. Chris Sununu, has a different dynamic.
“I’ve always said and I firmly believe, New Hampshire has some pretty good firearms regulations on the books, I just think we have a tradition of doing it pretty well,” he said Wednesday, touting the state’s focus on school safety measures.
Any attempts to restrict firearms or accessories themselves, Sununu continued, should be left to Washington. “I think that’s exactly where if a bill is going to be debated – at the federal level is the appropriate place.”
The New Hampshire Legislature appears to agree. Since the beginning of the legislative session, lawmakers have introduced plenty of gun reform proposals, from expansion of open carry rights to the advancement of public bans. But already, almost all bills this year – whether from the gun rights or gun reform camp – have been swiftly shot down. The message seems to be clear: New Hampshire’s gun laws are right where they need to be.
Seven weeks in, here’s a review of the bills put forward.
Bill: SB 492 – Prohibiting the sale of “bump stocks” in New Hampshire.
Status: Moved to interim study by the Senate.
Background: The push started in October, soon after Las Vegas experienced the deadliest mass shooting in modern United States history: the bump stock ban. Stephen Paddock opened fire on a concert and killed 58 people in ten minutes, using an accessory that modifies a semi-automatic weapon to fire at a speed close to automatic. Calls to ban the sale of that accessory, the bump stock, quickly followed in Washington and Concord. After a Democratic attempt to submit last-minute House legislation failed in the Rules Committee, Senate Minority Leader Jeff Woodburn, D-Whitefield, submitted his own Senate bill.
Democrats argued the device allowed shooters to effectively skirt a longstanding ban on the civilian purchase of automatic weapons. Republicans said banning the devices would harm recreational marksmen and would not prevent mass shootings. On Feb. 1, the Senate pushed Woodburn’s bill to interim study along party lines. In the second year of a biennium, interim study has a colloquial definition around the State House: “death with dignity.”
Bill: HB 1542 – Allowing students to carry firearms on state universities.
Status: Killed by the House.
Background: Following the lead of ten other states – including Colorado and Texas – Rep. Brian Stone, R-Northwood, proposed a bill allowing anyone to carry firearms onto campuses of the University System of New Hampshire, provided they are not otherwise prohibited. Presently, New Hampshire state colleges ban all guns not carried by law enforcement.
Supporters said that it would allow students the right to self-defense and provide a deterrent for would-be shooters. But opponents of both parties argued that more guns would only exacerbate an active shooter situation and complicate the response to law enforcement. “It would be a disaster,” said House Criminal Justice Chairman David Welch, R-Kingston.
The House moved to kill the motion last Thursday, 231-110.
Bill: HB 1749 – Creating a $5,000 fine for local school officials who impose their own firearms restrictions.
Status: Moved to interim study by the House.
Background: Back in October, the Lebanon School District voted to clarify its weapons policy to include school grounds among the areas in which firearms are banned, a move supported and upheld by the city’s police department, according to a report in the Valley News. That rankled some lawmakers, who pointed to existing law providing that only the state can determine firearms restrictions, arguing that Lebanon was in contravention of that law. House Bill 1749 would rewrite and reinforce the state’s prohibition on the creation of local gun policy, and would impose fines of up to $5,000 per elected official for knowing violations of that law.
But the bill fared poorly, receiving an 18-2 recommendation to refer to interim study in the Municipal and County Government Committee. On Feb. 8, the House voted to uphold that recommendation, 239-71.
Bill: SB 357 (Proposed amendment) – Allowing local school officials to impose their own firearms restrictions.
Status: Pending; in committee and up for a future hearing.
Background: In a last minute move that took many Republicans by surprise, Democratic senators have submitted an amendment to an existing bill allowing school districts to impose gun restrictions. The amendment, a direct response to HB 1749, was proposed on the Senate floor Thursday as an addition to SB 357, originally written to allow for syringe service programs in school zones. By piggy-backing onto the existing bill, Democrats carved out a new, post-Parkland opportunity to open a gun control debate in the State House.
On Thursday, the Senate moved to re-refer the existing version of SB 357 back to the Senate Education committee, where the amendment will be discussed. A hearing is expected at a later date.
Bill: HB 1566 – Prohibiting open carry in public spaces,
Status: Killed by the House.
Background: House Bill 1566, one of the few bills this session explicitly seeking gun restrictions, was always a long shot. Submitted by Rep. Delmar Burridge, D-Keene, the bill would significantly curtail open carry in the state, barring firearms from a wide list of public spaces. Among the areas: bars, restaurants, churches, stadiums, public buildings and medical spaces.
A motion to kill the bill passed the House on Feb. 15, 194-126. Twenty-eight Democrats joined Republicans to vote it down; just two Republicans defected to support.
Bill(s): SB 500 and HB 1313
Status: SB 500 awaiting vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee; HB 1313 awaiting a vote by the full House.
Background: Efforts have advanced in both the House and the Senate to tackle an overlooked – but very New England – strain of gun reform: off-road vehicles. At present, New Hampshire law prohibits the use of loaded weapons – including cocked crossbows – in cars, off-road vehicles and snowmobiles. Senate Bill 500 would change the law to allow the weapons to be stowed and carried on the vehicle for as long as it remains stationary, which could benefit hunters. House Bill 1313 would go a step further, repealing the ban on loaded weapons on vehicles entirely – moving or otherwise.
The fates of both are difficult to determine; the House has not yet scheduled a vote on HB 1313 and SB 500 is still in committee. But amid the sea of gun reform bills already nixed by the Legislature this year, the passage of one law affecting guns on snowmobiles would be a modest change indeed.
Perhaps, as the governor suggested, it’s up to Washington to decide.
(Ethan DeWitt can be reached at edewitt@cmonitor.com, or on Twitter at @edewittNH.)