Gunleaders Blog

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Read.aspx?ID=6793

“As passed in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, H.B. 330 would create legitimate concerns about the carrying of concealed loaded handguns in public by minors.  While the bill would not protect the carrying of firearms by minors, it would not actually prohibit it either.  This is a key distinction, as under current law, minors are essentially prohibited from carrying concealed loaded handguns in public by the licensing requirement, which would be repealed if H.B. 330 were enacted.”

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To us, this seems to say that nobody under the age of 18 is worthy of self defense.  This is an unfortunate assertion that raises still more questions.  What about those 17 year olds who enlist in our Armed Forces?  So, a principal objection is that the bill does not prohibit minors from exercising their right to keep and bear arms, which they don’t have anyway, do we have that right?

“Finally, the alert accuses NRA’s representative, John Hohenwarter, of saying that “New Hampshire is too stupid to know what it needs.”  This is a completely false and libelous allegation.  The NRA and our representatives — including John Hohenwarter — believe that the gun-owning public is intelligent enough to separate fact from fiction.”

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Now, we all know that what politicians say bear watching very carefully.  The above statement can easily be reconciled having said what is alleged.  Perhaps they do believe the gun owning public is intelligent enough, and perhaps maybe what was alleged to have been said was said despite this belief… or not, who knows?

What remains lost in this is that  there was a bill in NH that advanced the right to keep and bear arms.  An unfriendly amendment attempt was made and that has had results detrimental to the right to keep and bear arms.  Why?  The reasons offered show support for prohibitions on the right to keep and bear arms.  In the amount of time it took to research and author ILA’s article they probably could’ve better spent that time and effort working with the group(s) that they won’t acknowledge publicly, rather than setting gun owners in New Hampshire back.  Gun owners would have preferred results, rather than position papers.

Of course, we know this isn’t the only time so called philosophical differences have stood in the way of good, common sense gun legislation.