Guns banned at the NH State House

The Joint Facilities committee just passed by an 8-3 vote (party line) the following regulation on the State House:

"No person, except for law enforcement personnel in active duty, shall
carry a firearm or other dangerous or deadly weapon or an explosive,
openly or concealed, while inside the State House, the Legislative
Office Building, the Upham Walker House, or any of the underground
tunnels connected to these buildings. Law enforcement personnel, when
requested by State House security staff, must produce sufficient
identification establishing their status as law enforcement personnel."

Preliminary reports indicate that this vote was taken at the very end of the meeting after some members had already left.   The early report is that only democrats voted for the change, but that is not confirmed yet.

This story will develop as more information becomes available, but looking back just what has prompted this move?  What evidence is there that we need this change?

Comments

[Steve Mac Donald]

I just received a probable list of the committee members.

Larsen (D)
Norelli (D)
Hassen (D)
Wallner (D)
Bragdon (R)
Packard (R)
Dallesandro (D)
Smith (D)
Eaton (D)
Chandler (R)
Clark (D)
Roberge (R)

[Rick Barnes]

Steve, you beat me to the punch on this one. I just found out about it was about to write something up as well.

Clearly they have not read the State Constitution:
[Art.] 2-a. [The Bearing of Arms.] All persons have the right to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves, their families, their property and the state.

When you have the right to keep and bear arms in defense of the state, how exactly is that possible when you are banned from using this right in the state house? I would think that to be unconstitutional.

This same thing was suggested in HB 1654 sponsors: Rep. Hardy, Hills 27; Rep. J. Day, Rock 13; Rep. Kepner, Rock 15; Rep. Moody, Rock 12

It was also put up in 2008 as HB 1354.

Guess they found a way to backdoor this in.

Let's hope it's quickly challenged in court and shot down as unconstitutional.

[Rick Barnes]

Found out, Gene Chandler was the missed vote. Chandler wasn't even aware of the vote since this wasn't on the agenda.

How can anyone look at the Democratic party and how they ignore the constitution and continually backdoor their rules onto everyone around them in any way possible and support that?

[Ed Naile]

We start on November 2, 2010 then get around to these guys.

[Steve Mac Donald]

There's a write up about it in the UL this morning. I guess the dems are claiming they want to return to the way it was during a decade of republican rule when 'weapons' were not allowed.

Of course that's a load of crap. They tried to legislate it and failed. They apparenlty snuck it in at the last minute in a meeting.

It's vague and incomplete--full of holes.

And whatever happened to the progressive spirit? No looking back. Forge ahead.

As to what will happen in 2010, read K. Sullivan's editorial today. It's full of amusing assumptions.

[Rick Barnes]

One other thing I find very telling about this is that if you look at Blue Hampshire there's no mention of it. Clearly they know it turns people off so they want to keep it on the hush, meanwhile Red Hampshire has it as one of their leading articles today.

Within minutes of this vote a petition began circulating on the web. I added my name around 5:30 and there were already well over 100 people ahead of me.

[Rick Barnes]

One more fact that Democrats should consider here, HB 1354 failed in 2008 with a vote of 279-19 and the prime sponsor of the bill, Kjellman lost in her primary.

The eight democrats who did this are going to have a LOT of people working to get them out of office.

[Howard Jones]

Where is the petition posted on the web? I want to sign on!!!

[Rick Barnes]

Looks like there are a couple petitions that have started circulating. I got this one in an email just recently:

http://www.petition.fm/petitions/nhgunban/

As of my writing this it's up to 191 names

[Ed Naile]

Steve:

The libs had a game plan of leaving sleeping dogs lie with regards to the Second Amendment. But all bets are off now that they have lost their ability to control themselves.
Imagine the internal arguments at moonbat central and how pissy they will be after the next election when it is pay-up time.