House panel OKs unlicensed carry bill
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By GARRY RAYNO
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
Thursday, Mar. 10, 2011
CONCORD – New Hampshire may soon be rolling back gun control laws to allow anyone to carry a firearm without a concealed weapons permit.
The House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee voted 11-6 Wednesday to recommend HB 330 (click to view status and text) pass the House. In addition to eliminating concealed weapons permits, the bill removes restrictions related to transporting firearms in vehicles.
While the bill expands the right to carry a firearm, those changes will not trump other laws that ban weapons from public schools, restrict who may possess a weapon, or govern hunting, according to lawmakers.
Rep. Kenneth Kreis, R-Canterbury, who chaired the sub-committee that worked on the bill, said the law would allow someone to carry a weapon on a snowmobile for example, but that person could still be prosecuted for hunting out of season if he shot a deer.
“I don’t believe any of us want a 16-year-old carrying a concealed weapon,” he said.
Several Democrats on the committee were concerned eliminating the concealed weapon permit requirement could allow a person with mental illness to carry a concealed weapon.
"We're saying anybody over the age of 18 can carry a concealed weapon and go any place they want to go," said Rep. Laura Pantelakos, D-Portsmouth. "We're opening up the flood gates with this bill and heading into very, very dangerous waters."
The committee also voted 14-3 to hold HB 536 until next year. The bill would make it a natural right to carry a firearm without a permit, openly or concealed.
The committee did recommend HB 378 be approved by the House. The bill removes the mandatory jail sentence for committing a felony while armed. The mandatory sentence provision is what sent Ward Bird to jail.
Bird had his sentence commuted in February by the Executive Council. He was convicted of criminal threatening for brandishing a handgun in front of a woman when she came onto his Moultonborough property in 2006.
Advocates of Bird said he was wrongly convicted, which touched off a statewide debate over gun rights and protecting one's property.
The committee recommended the House kill HB 576, which several members called the "shoot to kill" bill. The bill was also intended to address Ward Bird's situation, but long-time committee member Rep. David Welch, R-Kingston, said it did more much than that.
"You could shoot someone for stealing your hubcaps," he said.
The Castle Doctrine
The committee also voted to recommend the House approve one of three bills that would expand the "Castle Doctrine," which allows people to defend themselves in their homes, to any public place."
Under current law, a person should first try to retreat from a threat before using deadly force. All three bills, HB 207, HB 210 and HB 567, would eliminate that requirement.
The committee recommended HB 210 be approved, while the other two should be killed.
HB 207 and HB 567 would have given criminal and civil immunity to any person who legally uses deadly force. And HB 567 would created the presumption that when a person uses deadly force to protect themselves, an attacker intended to cause harm.
Law enforcement opposed all three bills.
A similar bill passed the legislature in 2006, but was vetoed by Gov. John Lynch.
Good deal, it's a start. POWDERMAN.
