State Senate passes bill to remove concealed carry license

By NICK REID

Monitor staff

Last modified: 2/14/2015 11:41:46 PM

The state Senate passed a bill yesterday that would allow people who can legally own a gun in New Hampshire to carry it concealed without any further requirements.



Passed by Republicans along party lines, 14-9, Senate Bill 116 would eliminate the need for a license issued by local law enforcement officials.



Sen. Sharon Carson, a Londonderry Republican, said under the current law a person can openly carry a loaded firearm without a license, but the act of obscuring the gun can make the carrier a criminal.



“This bill recognizes that the simple act of putting on a coat should not require a permit from the state,” she said.



Sen. David Pierce, a Lebanon Democrat, said the bill proposes an unnecessary and dangerous idea because almost anyone who applies for a license gets one, except for people with a serious criminal history or mental illness.



He said the rare denial could “save my life, your life or the lives of my children. Understandably, that’s why law enforcement officials from around New Hampshire oppose this bill.”



He said the law dates to 1923, and law enforcement officials who testified on the bill called it “a much more radical bill than they’ve ever seen before.”



Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Wyoming and Vermont all have so-called constitutional carry laws. Sen. Bette Lasky, a Nashua Democrat, said all but Vermont have stricter requirements than what is proposed in SB 116, including setting a minimum age of 21, requiring fingerprints and photographs, requiring proof of proficiency and restricting carrying in places that allow alcoholic beverages to be consumed.



“This bill is not just a modest change to the existing law. It is a solution in search of a problem,” she said.



Sen. Martha Fuller Clark, a Portsmouth Democrat, said she sought advice from seven chiefs of police in her constituent towns.



“Every one of them are against repeal of the concealed weapon permit, in fact a comment I heard over and over again was that’s crazy,” she said.



Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley of Wolfeboro noted that the bill wouldn’t change who is legally entitled to own a firearm or what legal weapons are.



He said the license requirement doesn’t deter criminals from criminal behavior. “In my view, it deters the law-abiding citizen who may need” a firearm, he said.



Bradley cited statistics from the FBI that he said placed New Hampshire as the sixth-safest state in the nation in terms of violent crime. He said residents are “very blessed” to be so high on the list, “but our radical and our dangerous neighbor to the west – Vermont, which has allowed concealed carry without a license for 200 years without a problem – is the safest state in the nation.”



He said the statistics show that violent crime rates have dropped in every state that expanded concealed carry laws.



Pierce challenged those numbers with a different set of data, specifically reporting on gun violence per capita. He said New Hampshire is among the lowest 10 states in terms of per capita gun death, while Vermont is the 19th highest.



Federal law prohibits felons, fugitives, those with mental illnesses, those who have been convicted of domestic violence or drug addicts from purchasing guns. The permitting process gives police officers an added layer of discretion over who should be able to carry their guns out of sight.







(Nick Reid can be reached at 369-3325 or nreid@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @NickBReid.)





