NH State House gun ban - UPDATE

[Stiggy]

I love my state.

Yup.

 

[Kicker96FS]

It's amazing what PART TIME law makers can do. Too bad in THIS state we have full time HACKS.

I wish there was a binding referendum vote to make the law makers position on the hill PART TIME!

 

[edhead35]

I am so happy we made Valerie Hardy a FORMER rep here in Litchfield.

 

[Bruce for NH State Rep]

UPDATE: New House Rules were officially adopted this morning, permitting house members to carry their firearms on the floor of the house.

And, I know you're going to have a hard time believing this, but the members of the opposition who spoke against this rule change invoked the safety of "THE CHILDREN "(TM).

 

[M1911]

UPDATE: New House Rules were officially adopted this morning, permitting house members to carry their firearms on the floor of the house.

And, I know you're going to have a hard time believing this, but the members of the opposition who spoke against this rule change invoked the safety of "THE CHILDREN "(TM).

The only children on the House floor are the Democratic representatives, and the only danger they are in is having their precious egos crushed once again.

 

[timbo]

Former state Rep. Valerie Hardy, you useless twit. http://www.wmur.com/politics/26369716/detail.html

Me thinks you have the wrong vowel in "twit"

 

[JimB]

That's NH State Representative Jenn Coffey. She's been one of the most pro-gun rights voices in the state. She was one of the folks responsible for getting the State House gun ban killed today. She also led the fight to legalize switchblades and other previously banned bladed implements.

thank you.

 

[Bruce for NH State Rep]

OK...one more pic

This is what it looks like when you take the "free" out of "gun-free zone" and put it back in "Live free or die!" where it belongs.

I love that it wasn't cut on a neat, straight line, so you can really tell there used to be more to that sticker.

 

[Lamina]

Kudos amigo. keep up the heat. My faith may just be restored for at least our state.

 

[soloman02]

And, tomorrow we vote on the new House Rules, at which time we'll make it lawful once again for lawmakers to carry firearms on the floor of the House.

While I applaud you for removing the ban, it was never actually illegal to carry a gun in the statehouse. It was against policy. There was no RSA that stated that guns were illegal in the statehouse.

It's amazing what PART TIME law makers can do. Too bad in THIS state we have full time HACKS.

I wish there was a binding referendum vote to make the law makers position on the hill PART TIME!

Not to mention NH legislators are only paid $100 PER YEAR + the current IRS rate of $0.50 per mile for the distance you travel to the statehouse every time you are attending either a session or committee.

 

[Bruce for NH State Rep]

While I applaud you for removing the ban, it was never actually illegal to carry a gun in the statehouse. It was against policy. There was no RSA that stated that guns were illegal in the statehouse.

Um...yeah.

I kinda thought the phrase "vote on new House Rules" covered that.

But feel free to replace "lawful" with "okey-dokey", "kosher", "fine n' dandy", or "just ducky". If it makes it better for you.

As for the demise of the State House ban, we've more than covered the fact that it was a committee rule being reversed, not a law being repealed. Carrying firearms on the floor of the House chamber by lawmakers is what we took care of today with the new House Rules. Two separate issues.

 

[Kevlar]

Headline: GOP shoots down 40-year gun ban...

The House of Representatives spent the first business day in 2011 ending a 40-year ban on carrying concealed weapons inside the chamber and giving a new committee chairman unprecedented powers.

The Republican-dominated House voted to amend their rules to let legislators and those in the public gallery possess but not openly display firearms.

Since 1971, weapons had been banned in Representatives Hall and its adjacent rooms for anyone but law enforcement officers.

>snip<

On Tuesday, a House-Senate buildings committee restored the public’s right to carry and display weapons in the other parts of the Statehouse complex and adjacent buildings.

Two years ago, the same committee controlled by Democrats banned weapon possession throughout the complex months after a group of angry, gun-holding protesters shouted from the gallery after the House killed a resolution promoting states’ rights.

Currently, seven other states let the public carry concealed weapons into their capital buildings without a special permit, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsstatenewengland/904461-227/gop-shoots-down-40-year-gun-ban.html

 

[Bruce for NH State Rep]

Two years ago, the same committee controlled by Democrats banned weapon possession throughout the complex months after a group of angry, gun-holding protesters shouted from the gallery after the House killed a resolution promoting states’ rights.

Journalism fail.

It was December of 2009, which by my calculations was just about one year ago.

And, "gun holding"??? All the guns I saw were holstered, and stayed that way.

From my campaign website (like I'm gonna retype all that):

Their rationale for this firearms ban goes back to March of 2009, when the House of Representatives voted down a non-binding resolution (HCR-6) that sought to put our runaway federal government on notice for future violations of New Hampshire’s state sovereignty.

It was standing room only in the visitors’ gallery that day, with a handful of people openly exercising their First and Second Amendment rights – assembling peaceably while lawfully bearing arms. After the vote was taken, some in the gallery became disruptive, frustrated over what they perceived as the legislators’ blatant disregard for the will of the people and the constitutionally protected rights thereof.

Some shouted down to the legislators in the hall below, telling them in no uncertain terms that they would “See [them] in November!”, while others called them out for failing to represent them. There were no threats of violence made at any time. No weapons were drawn. No one’s life was endangered in any way, shape, or form. In fact, from what I observed, those individuals who were openly wearing their holstered handguns were the ones keeping their emotions in check and calling for a more calm and measured response.

The individuals responsible for the disruption were politely asked by State House security personnel to leave the gallery, a request to which they acquiesced without incident.

What the members of the Joint Committee on Legislative Facilities failed to recognize - the lesson that escaped them that day - was that the incident in question proved just the opposite of what they took away from it. It demonstrated quite clearly that you could take a number of armed citizens and put them in a politically and emotionally charged atmosphere without having it result in the fantasy-based scenarios of chaos, mayhem, and bloodshed that seem to be continuously playing out in the minds of those who would seek to disarm them.

 

[strangenh]

Bruce, you highlight what we all (should?) know: Any straw available will be used as an excuse to call for a ban. We all know it's driven from emotion rather than logic. It doesn't matter if a little thing like a verb needs to be changed to justify it.

Like a lot of Granite Staters, what especially galled me about the last couple years was the way the Gov's vetoes resulted in lopsided lawmaking: Dem-favored items could pass by a bare margin (sometimes intentionally on a tight quorum) and became law, but items favored by over 2/3 the full house and majority of the senate would get vetoed. I sincerely hope you and your cohort fix that annoying tilt.

That said, I also hope you in particular help make sure this session isn't just the mirror image of the last one. There's a lot of real things need to get done, not just undoing the moonbattery and running key, vetoed legislation back through. On the "social issues," rather than just reversing the legislation (leaving us wondering if our "social" laws are going to flip back and forth every 4-6 years), it would be great if the core issues were tackled from a principled, limited government point of view. I know that's hard to do, especially when there are serious statists in both parties, but I think a lot of us grow tired of the social tug-o-war, especially those of us who believe in limited government, since any tug-o-war on social issues in the State House necessitates the ongoing involvement of the state in the resulting laws.

Me, I think you're one of the ones who'll make that smaller-government drive real.

 

[MikeRizz]

This is what it looks like when you take the "free" out of "gun-free zone" and put it back in "Live free or die!" where it belongs.

I love that it wasn't cut on a neat, straight line, so you can really tell there used to be more to that sticker.

Nice work! Thank you.

 

[Bruce for NH State Rep]

Just noticed something.

Have the people running the cafeteria in the State House been made aware of the food and drink ban?

Anyone else think the Democrats, when shopping for "no guns allowed" stickers saw these stickers and thought "Wow! Four times the banning power for the same price!!!"?

 

[timbo]

OH...I thought the sign meant no hamburgers and soda

 

[GraftonNH]

Thank you sir, for your service in moving this state in the right direction. I especially appreciate your dedication to keeping us in the loop as things progress. Keep up the great work!

 

[Gibbs]

What knife does Coffey carry?

Oh.

I thought this