Governor, on Aug. 9 you vetoed House Bill 109, requiring background checks for commercial firearms sales; HB 514, imposing a three-day waiting period between the purchase and delivery of a firearm; and HB 564, relative to possession of firearms on school property.

You vetoed these gun violence prevention bills by saying that New Hampshire was one of the “safest states in the nation with a long and proud tradition of responsible firearm stewardship.”

Yet the headlines across New Hampshire the day after your vetoes read:

■“Man charged with killing wife in home”

■“Houses of worship to receive grants to bolster security after hate crimes”

■“Two men in custody after gun fired in Dollar General”

■“Police search Holiday Inn in Concord for attempted murder suspect”

■“Attorney General: Police force in fatal N.H. shooting justified”

■“Attempted murder charged for gunfire at Rochester officer”

Your one veto message addressing all three bills said we needed to focus as a nation on the root cause of hate and violence, and then spoke to what New Hampshire has done to address the mental health crisis. You spoke of the largest investment of resources in decades in the mental health system, and yet you have also vetoed the budget, where most of those investments were made.

You then closed your veto message saying that these three bills would not solve our national issues nor prevent evil individuals from doing harm, but would restrict the constitutional rights of New Hampshire citizens.

Governor, you really should have taken the time to at least read the bills before you vetoed them. No one’s rights were restricted. No less a conservative than Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in the Heller case, said, “Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited.”

We have never promised any one law would solve the issue of gun violence in our state or in the nation. Many of us just want to move toward slowing down the violence. To that end, each of these bills will be re-filed and if, as your staff has said to me, you want to continue to have a conversation about the topic, let’s have one.

We can have a conversation about the numbers, Governor. In states with background checks, 46% fewer women are fatally shot by their partners, 48% fewer police are killed with handguns and 64% fewer crime guns are trafficked out of state. And, Governor, while New Hampshire may have the seventh lowest number of gun deaths per capita, we also have the 24th highest rate of crime gun exports, exporting three times as many guns as we import.

The use of a firearms was responsible for 48% of the state’s domestic violence homicides in New Hampshire, and the New Hampshire Department of Safety estimates 33,000 of the estimated 82,500 sales that will occur next year will not be required to have a background check.

Governor, you want to talk about suicide prevention, a topic you profess to have a great concern about. Research has shown that states with waiting period laws had 51% fewer firearm suicides and a 27% lower overall suicide rate than states without such laws.

So, Governor, let’s have a conversation about gun violence prevention.

And Governor, if you are not taking steps toward slowing it down then you are just being complicit in the violence.

(Katherine Rogers of Concord represents Merrimack District 28 in the N.H. House of Representatives.)