A day before the one-year anniversary of the Parkland, Fla. deadly school shooting, New Hampshire lawmakers are hoping to take advantage of a Democratic-controlled legislature to move ahead with gun control legislation that would allow school districts to create gun-free zones.
But some opponents say creating such zones make schools a target for shooters.
The gun control bills were up for a hearing Wednesday. In addition to the gun-free zones bill, another bill would require background checks for commercial gun sales while one would create a waiting period of seven business days between the purchase and delivery of a firearm.
The zones would include the schools and school buses and the bill would bar anyone not authorized by the school district from possessing a firearm on school grounds. Anyone dropping off a child could have a gun in their car as long as it was locked away and not loaded.
Supporters — some holding signs with messages like “Save Our Schools From Gun Violence” — said the zones ensure a safe learning environment and is the first step in dealing with gun violence.
“Public safety is a legal, legitimate state interest and what could be more obvious state interest than safeguarding the lives of our children,” said Tracy Hahn-Burkett, a parent who heads a grassroots group in New Hampshire against gun violence.
Several of the state’s schools chimed in to advocate for the bill.
Rep. Sharon Nordgren, a Hanover Democrat, read a letter from Lebanon High School students, who she said had collected 110 signatures from peers and teachers in support of the legislation.
That school had recent experience with a gun scare, the letter said. In 2017, a gunman charged with killing his mother at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center was later arrested near the Lebanon high school, prompting a lockdown.
“It was no longer a drill we had practiced for years,” Nordgren read. “(It was) something real.”
Students come to school every day with the possibility of facing armed attackers, the letter said. Allowing for gun-free school zones, they added, would “protect us” and allow “the people who know us and care about us in this community to be able to make decisions about our safety,” the letter said.
Separately, the Nashua School Board submitted in its own letter pressing for the new law.
Opponents, who packed the hearing room and far outnumbered supporters, argued the zones wouldn’t work and would make those schools a target for criminals and potential shooters. They also argued it would make vulnerable those who use guns for protection.
“This once again is a feel good bill,” said Rep. Al Baldasaro, a Londonderry Republican. “We’re trying to fix something here in New Hampshire that’s not broken.”
Gun rights advocates attributed New Hampshire’s lack of recent mass school shootings to the absence of gun bans in schools, arguing that the threat of teachers and staff wielding concealed firearms would deter would-be gunmen from showing up.
“When someone doesn’t know if someone is armed, it provides an extra layer of protection that you just can’t buy,” said Jim McConnell, a former Republican state representative from Swanzey.
Others warned that lawmakers would be held accountable if students were harmed.
“If this is passed and we have a school shooting, the blood of those children will be right here,” said Rep. John Burt, a Republican from Goffstown.
Mitchell Kopacz, president of the Gun Owners of New Hampshire, said all this legislation would do is to make people feel safer, not actually keep them safe.
“Everyone in that safe school zone is now a target. Nobody is armed,” Kopacz said. “Safe schools don’t stop bad people from doing bad things.”
The New Hampshire School Board Association also came out against the bills, saying similar proposals put forth at a January assembly of the state’s school boards were defeated by a slim margin.
While the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act bans weapons within 1,000 feet of a school, New Hampshire law gives the state legislature the sole authority to regulate guns. That has caused confusion and several efforts to remedy the problem. Last year, a similar bill allowing for the gun-free zones was rejected by the Republican-controlled Senate.
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu has argued that gun-free zones are ineffective deterrents and said the focus should be on combining the “tactical realities” of defending schools with mental health components.