Bipartisan support seen for one NH gun safety measure

Bill would close a loophole in background checks for gun purchase

Republican and Democratic lawmakers may be able to work together to close a loophole in background checks for gun purchases, N.H. Senate President Jeb Bradley said at a news conference Wednesday.

House Bill 1711 would authorize the state to report to the federal background check system if a person has been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility, found not guilty by reason of insanity or found incompetent to stand trial and determined to be a danger to themselves or others.

“What I’ve read about that bill makes sense,” Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, said in response to a question in the news conference in the Legislative Office Building about the Senate Republican legislative agenda.

“It has bipartisan support. There should be reporting of mental health issues. I don’t think there’s too much disagreement about that.”

Federal law prohibits such people from having firearms, but it’s up to the states to report this information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which is used to perform background checks prior to the sale of guns.

But there is no law in New Hampshire requiring the reporting of mental health information to the system.

HB 1711 seeks to close this loophole. The bill is named after Bradley Haas, the unarmed security guard and former Franklin police chief who was killed on Nov. 17 at New Hampshire Hospital in Concord.

A state police trooper then killed the shooter, John Madore, who had previously been a patient at the mental health facility. It’s still not clear how Madore obtained the gun used in the shooting.

The prime sponsor of the bill is Rep. Terry Roy, R-Deerfield. Co-sponsors are Rep. David Meuse, D-Portsmouth; Rep. Jonathan Stone, R-Claremont; and Rep. Renee Monteil, D-Keene.

New Hampshire is one of only three states that doesn’t report people with severe mental illness to the federal firearms background check database, Meuse said.

Republicans in the state Legislature traditionally have worked to expand gun rights.

Bradley said he does not support red-flag laws.

Democrats are urging that New Hampshire join 22 other states that have adopted such laws, which allow loved ones or law enforcement to ask a court to temporarily remove firearms from people who are a danger to themselves or others.

State Sen. Donovan Fenton, D-Keene, is one of the sponsors of a bill to create such a law in New Hampshire.

Bradley said such laws are problematic.

“The problem with red flag laws is that if you lose your constitutional rights for whatever reason, it’s very hard to get them back,” he said. “It’s also too easy to file complaints that may or may not be justified. And the third thing is we’ve seen red flags laws in other states not work, so, yeah, that’s a non-starter at this point.”

Democratic lawmakers held a news conference of their own Wednesday, outside the Statehouse, at which they stressed the need to tighten gun regulations in New Hampshire.

These legislators are backing a bill that would impose a three-day waiting period between the purchase and delivery of a firearm, and another that would require a background check prior to any commercial firearm sale.

Fenton, 35, said he was a 4th-grade student in 1999 when 12 students and one teacher were killed in a mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado. He recalled subsequent active shooter drills, and remembered how useless it felt to practice hiding from a potential gunman.

“Now my wife and I are looking to send our children to New Hampshire schools and nothing has changed. My sons will do the same drills. They will be forced to experience the same trauma, the same uncertainty, the same feeling of uselessness, and this is unacceptable.”

He said he will sponsor a bill this year to prohibit people from bringing their firearms to school campuses.

Meuse said state lawmakers need to reduce the risk of gun violence and suicide.

“As of the last week in December there have been 26 homicides here in New Hampshire, more than half involved gun violence. Also in our state, close to 90 percent of our gun deaths each year are suicides. That’s double the national average.”

Sen. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, said New Hampshire is overdue for passing gun safety laws.

“The time to start addressing these issues was yesterday, it was last year, it was the day after the murders in Columbine, Aurora, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, Uvalde.”

People stood outside the Statehouse on Wednesday holding signs such as “Love Kids Not Guns,” and “Actually, guns do kill people.”

Sarah Gentile of Rochester was one of those who came to the Statehouse to urge action.

“As a parent, I worry about my kids’ safety, even just going to the grocery store or sending them to school every day,” she said. “Look at the world around us. We’re having mass shootings happening on a regular basis and nobody is doing enough.”

Wednesday was the first day of the 2024 session of the N.H. Legislature.

Rick Green can be reached at rgreen@keenesentinel.com or 603-355-8567.

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.