Pro-Gun New Hampshire

July 27, 2008:  Although the focus of Pro-Gun New Hampshire is on state legislation, we recently received the following email message from a gentleman in England:

Hi,

I am hoping you can help me with an online petition that I have set up. I'm a 32 year old man from Birmingham, England. Various websites have mentioned that Britain now has a very high crime rate, that has increased massively since the handgun ban of 1997.

I have set up a petition in an attempt to have the UK handgun ban repealed, and to allow the law abiding public to carry concealed handguns for self defence purposes, with a view to reducing our appalling crime rates.

I realise that I have a long uphill struggle ahead, but I have received over 175 signatures in just under 3 weeks, with support from all over the world. Is there any way that you can help me bring more publicity to my petition? Any signatures will help, no matter what country they are from. The petition can be found here :

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/gshandguns/index.html

I would be grateful If you provide a link to my petition on your website, and if you could get any of your readers to sign, that too would be great.

Thank you very much for your help in this matter.

Kind Regards

Graham Showell

by Evan F. Nappen Esq.

Those pesky Granite State gun owners have damaged the anti-gun spin machine of the Violence Policy Center. <snip>

[VIEW FULL ARTICLE, published in the Union Leader newspaper May 5, 2008, by clicking here:

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Evan+F.+Nappen%3A+Pro-gun+NH+
exposes+faulty+thinking+of+anti-gun+activists&articleId=ea87483c-c115-464f-b0b2-689f97d0f8d9

April 26, 2008: The Pro-Gun New Hampshire Board of Directors and Council of Advisors have approved the posting of the following open letter from Jason Bedrick, which in turn contains open letters from Paul Mirski and from a group of 18 pro-gun state legislators. All are in response to a derogatory newsletter article from another Second Amendment group.

State Representative Jason Bedrick is a member of the Pro-Gun New Hampshire Council of Advisors. Former State Representative Paul Mirski is the chairman of the House Republican Alliance.

April 26, 2008: Per the organization's bylaws, the Council of Advisors elects the president of Pro-Gun New Hampshire every two years. The first president, former State Representative Elbert "Bick" Bicknell, began serving on April 15, 2006. Bick ran unopposed for a second term, and the Council of Advisors approved his reelection to a new term as President beginning April 15, 2008.

Also, the Board of Directors unanimously approved the following changes in the Board's makeup: effective today, Evan Nappen leaves the office of Executive Vice President to assume the new position of Corporate Counsel, and Sam Cohen takes over as the new Executive Vice President. Bick, Sam, and Evan, as well as Ed Naile and Richard Aldrich, remain as Directors.

December 17, 2007: In a repeat of events from four years ago, the NH State Police have just reversed their policy of turning away applicants for a non-resident carry license because their home-state license is restricted -- for example, to "target and hunting only," common in Massachusetts. Earl Sweeney, Assistant Commissioner of the NH Department of Safety, and a member of the Pro-Gun New Hampshire Council of Advisors, notified us of this change today, and gave us permission to publish his email message, which appears below.

Some background: Prior to the summer of 2003, the New Hampshire State Police would not issue a NH non-resident License to Carry (a concealed pistol or revolver) to applicants whose home-state carry licenses were restricted. Sam Cohen, then a director of Gun Owners of New Hampshire (and now a director of Pro-Gun New Hampshire), worked with John Stephen, then the Assistant Commissioner of the NH Department of Safety, to change this practice, and as of August of 2003, those applicants were issued their NH non-resident licenses (which, by NH law, are valid for "all allowable purposes").

Pennsylvania and New Hampshire have reciprocal recognition of each other's Licenses to Carry (LTCs). While earlier reports noted that Pennsylvania might honor only NH resident LTCs but not NH NON-resident LTCs, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office has explained that that is not the policy of the state. While they did not intend to write a letter denouncing the practices of any specific police agency, they were clear that the letter to Mr. Slider (see the article posted here on June 7) was warning him that some police officers may interpret the law incorrectly at the time of encounter. They updated their web page, at www.attorneygeneral.gov/crime.aspx?id=184 , to say the following: "Note: It has come to the attention of the Office of Attorney General that there has been confusion over the applicability of Pennsylvania's reciprocal privileges with regard to the residency status of an individual who has been issued a valid license/permit. It is the position of the Office of Attorney General that recognition within Pennsylvania is based on the issuance to an individual of a valid license/permit by the reciprocal contracting state, and not on the license/permit holder's place of residence." In other words, they will honor NH NON-resident LTCs as well as NH LTCs issued to NH residents.

For immediate release: July 12, 2007

PRO-GUN NEW HAMPSHIRE DEMANDS INVESTIGATION OF
ADMITTED ILLEGAL GUN PURCHASES

Anti-gun activist John Rosenthal of Stop Handgun Violence admitted on the radio show "Finneran's Forum" on WRKO 680 AM that he intentionally made an illegal, "straw" purchase of a firearm at a New Hampshire gun show with the help of Boston Globe reporter Steve Bailey.

Alert from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, NSSF -- July 2, 2007:

Proposed OSHA Regulation Threatens
Firearm and Ammunition Industry

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the government agency charged with assuring the safety and health of America's workers, is proposing a regulatory rule affecting the manufacturing, transportation and storage of small arms ammunition, primers and smokeless propellants.

June 7, 2007: It has just come to our attention that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is restricting recognition of New Hampshire concealed carry licenses to residents of New Hampshire. Whereas certain states (call them state "X") will recognize carry licenses of people with non-resident licenses from state "Y" (assuming that X and and Y have reciprocity agreements), others will do so only if the licensee is a resident of state "Y"; Pennsylvania, the state closest to New Hampshire with a NH reciprocity agreement, has apparently joined the list of the more restrictive states. Again, this affects only those people with New Hampshire NON-resident carry licenses. To see a scan of the relevant letter from the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office, go to http://handgunlaw.us/documents/PA_AG_Letter-50.jpg