These bills will be heard before the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee whom you should contact to support.
10:00 AM – HB 330 is Rep. Jenn Coffey’s Constitutional Carry bill, described in an earlier article on our website (see, in particular, http://pgnh.org/constitutional_carry_bills_in_the_new_hampshire_legislature ). This is the big one, allowing concealed carry without a license. Bill text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0330.html
1:00 PM – HB 378 provides that a person who is on his or her own property and who responds to a trespasser who refuses to leave and displays a firearm or other means of self-defense with the intent to warn away the person making the threat shall not have committed criminal threatening. (The “Ward Bird” bill.) Bill text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0378.html
1:45 PM – HB 235 is the “parking lot” gun bill. It permits the carrying of a firearm in one’s personal motor vehicle and prohibits a business entity from banning or taking action against an employee, customer, or invitee from possessing a firearm locked in such person’s motor vehicle while on the business entity’s premises. Bill text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0235.html
2:30 PM – HB 544 includes knives as well as firearms and ammunition to the materials over which the state has exclusive authority, preempting towns and cities. Bill text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0544.html
3:15 PM – HB 334 clarifies and extends RSA 159:26 (preemption) to include all government agencies. It provides that all delegations of the state’s authority to prohibit or regulate the purchase, ownership, use, possession, transportation, licensing or permitting, taxation, or other matters pertaining to firearms, firearms components, ammunition, or firearms supplies shall be by statute only. Bill text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0334.html