New Hampshire Senate Passes Gun Control Measures Along Party Lines

AP Photo/John Locher, File

New Hampshire’s state motto is “Live Free or Die.” It’s a sentiment many in the gun rights community can relate to. We understand the importance of liberty and are willing to defend it with our lives. We fight gun control so that we have the means to do so.

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However, New Hampshire legislators have forgotten their own state motto.

The State Senate approved along strict, party-line votes three gun control measures Thursday closing a background check loophole, imposing a three-day waiting period to buy a gun and permitting local school boards to ban guns on their property.

But the identical 13-10 votes with all Democrats for and all Republican senators against send each one of them back the House of Representatives for its review because senators made substantial changes to them.

Supporters maintained all three were “common sense” reforms to make it harder for violent or mentally unstable people to buy firearms.

“This (gun background check) bill will not stop every tragedy regarding a gun but it will help stop needless suffering by our citizens,” said Sen. Martha Hennessey, D-Hanover, a retired school psychologist who led the effort to pass all three.

Well, she’s right that it won’t stop every tragedy, but I’m going to point out that it’ll stop almost none of them.

First, most of those killed with firearms fall into one of two camps. The first are those killed by violent criminals who didn’t get their guns legally in the first place. The second are those who are killed in crimes of opportunity or passion by those who have no previous history of violent crime.

With regard to both groups, additional background checks are less than useless.

The first group doesn’t go to gun stores for the most part and the few that do have straw buyers to pass the background check. The rest hit up the black market.

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Now, lawmakers like Hennessey know this, in which case they didn’t care or don’t. If they don’t, then they’re too uneducated on the topic to be allowed to pass legislation on it.

It’s funny. Anti-gun politicians act like we shouldn’t be allowed access to guns–at least, not specific types, though we all know where that will end–and often argue against concealed carry without specific training. Yet they often lack any education on the topic they’re debating, relying on partisan talking points rather than trying to get an in-depth understanding of the subject.

New Hampshire did nothing to protect its citizens, nothing at all.

Instead, legislators have interfered with the rights of law-abiding citizens. They’ve created barriers to them exercising their right to keep and bear arms. None of this will do the least bit of good.

But some of this may well cost people their lives. Three-day waiting periods don’t stop the determined, but it can prevent an innocent person in fear of their lives from having the best self-defense tool available when their attacker decides to kick the door in.

Good job, New Hampshire Senate.

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