CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Dozens of supporters of gun-control measures in New Hampshire rallied Monday to call on Republican Gov. Chris Sununu to sign them in the wake of two mass shootings over the weekend.

About 75 people - some holding signs that read “Protect Kids Not Guns,” ”It’s The Guns Stupid” and “Sign the Bills” - urged Sununu on Monday to sign a bill that would ban most guns from school grounds. Legislators also passed bills imposing a three-day waiting period between the purchase and delivery of a gun and requiring background checks for all firearms sales or transfers.

About a half-dozen gun rights supporters also came to the gathering, including one brandishing a loaded 12-gauge shotgun.

“Gov. Sununu, be the leader we know you can be. Allow these bills to become law and make New Hampshire safer for all our families,” said Democratic Rep. Katherine Rogers, who was a prime sponsor for the bills on background checks and waiting periods. “The time for prayers after the fact is over. The time for violence prevention is here.”

Katie Henry, a Concord High School graduate who has lobbied for the bill banning guns at schools and whose mom still works in the school district, said Sununu must know that “the children of this state are in fear and in danger. … The teachers of this state are put in the line of fire.”

Sununu has said he wouldn’t make any changes to existing gun laws.

In a statement Monday, he didn’t say what action he would take on the three bills. None passed in either chamber with enough votes to override a veto. Instead, he focused on what the state was already doing including a school safety task force, the state’s first civil rights unit and a more aggressive approach to prosecuting hate crimes.

He also said that “hate, white supremacy, and acts of domestic terror” have no place in New Hampshire or anywhere in the country.

“While we will never know all the things that lead a person to commit acts of evil, we must be mindful that the mental health crisis gripping our state and nation is a significant factor,” he said.

The rally in Concord became tense toward the end, when gun-right supporters arrived. One had a placard arguing that the bills were unnecessary because the state has such a lower murder rate. Others argued the bills would infringe on their Second Amendment rights.

“This is a constitutional right that shall not be infringed and that it would be nothing short of tyrannical to engage in behavior that limits the ability of law-abiding citizens to have access to firearms and live in peace without the police coming door to door and knocking them down in order to take their weapons,” said Brennan Robinson, a 21-year-old from Webster.

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