Pro-Gun New Hampshire

By Sam Cohen, Executive Vice President

[Posted October 26, 2009, at 8:00 p.m.]  Until recently, the Londonderry, NH police department website instructed applicants for a License to Carry (concealed) that a picture ID was required (the law says no photographs or fingerprints may be demanded), that the license would be issued within 14 business days (the law specifies a maximum of 14 days, not business days), and that there was a ten dollar fee to apply (the law says the ten dollar fee is for the license, not for the application process).  Representative Jenn Coffey, an Advisor of Pro-Gun New Hampshire, also reported that they required applications to be filed in person and disallowed filing by mail.

[Posted October 23, 2009, at 7:45 p.m.] 

Introduction by Sam Cohen, Executive Vice President, Pro-Gun New Hampshire, Inc.:

Jennifer Coffey is a New Hampshire state representative; the National Coordinator, and a Director, of Second Amendment Sisters; a hospital staffer and EMT; and a member of the Pro-Gun New Hampshire Council of Advisors.  She has submitted a bill in the New Hampshire legislature (LSR 2010-2015 - no bill number assigned as of yet) to both legalize the carrying of automatic and other knives and enhance the criminal penalty for their use in a crime.  Attorney Evan Nappen, PGNH General Counsel, is a knife collector and author of many articles in various knife magazines; he helped develop the bill.

[Posted October 18, 2009, at 5:30 a.m.]  The first Pro-Gun New Hampshire members-only raffle concluded on October 17, 2009, at the Manchester gun show.  We found a young boy to do the drawing, and several people in the audience signed a statement that they had witnessed a fair drawing.  The winner of the Taurus Judge .45 Colt/.410 gauge revolver, who gave us permission to post his name and town, was Scott Christie of Pembroke.

 

[Posted October 14, 2009, at 8:30 p.m.] To provide further benefits to members of Pro-Gun New Hampshire, we have begun a program of raffling at least one -- and often more -- guns to members only.  At the Manchester gun show this weekend -- October 17 and 18, 2009 -- we will be displaying the above three guns as raffle prizes.  All are new and unfired, and come with manufacturers' boxes and papers.  The Taurus Judge raffle has already begun, but the other two raffles will begin on Saturday.  Drawings for each raffle will be held when all 100 tickets for that raffle have been sold.  The guns are as follows:

[Posted October 14, 2009, at 7:25 p.m.]  [Editor's note: Attorney Evan Nappen is the Corporate Counsel of Pro-Gun New Hampshire, Inc.  Earl Sweeney, Assistant Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Safety, is a member of the Pro-Gun New Hampshire Council of Advisors.]

Due to a complaint filed by the Law Firm of E.F. Nappen, Attorney at Law, P.C. the New Hampshire Department of Safety has ordered an end to NICS checks prior to the return of confiscated firearms.  According to the memo from Earl Sweeney, Assistant Commissioner, dated September 28th, 2009 (CLICK HERE to view memo), "Conducting NICS checks prior to returning confiscated firearms technically constitutes misuse of NICS and exceeds the authority granted to the Department of Safety by the NH Legislature.  NICS checks can only be conducted for federally licensed importers, manufacturers, or dealers."

[Posted October 12, 2009, at 11:40 p.m.]  Although Pro-Gun New Hampshire is focused on NH state legislation, we take note of a landmark Second Amendment case coming before the US Supreme Court.  While most of the Bill of Rights is legally considered to apply everywhere in the country -- "incorporated" to the states -- the Second Amendment legally applies only within Federal territory, and in some of the 50 states.  A favorable Supreme Court ruling in the current case, concerning the Chicago handgun ban, should lock the Second Amendment's legal protections into all the states.  The PGNH Board of Directors has sent the following letter to help, asking the NH Attorney General to join other Attorneys General in a legal brief to the US Supreme Court in support of the Second Amendment. 

by Sam Cohen, Executive Vice President and CEO, Pro-Gun New Hampshire, Inc.

Sept. 18, 2009:  Four years ago, Paul Donovan, Chief of Police of Salem, New Hampshire -- and now an Advisor of Pro-Gun New Hampshire -- asked his staff to contact the state Attorney General's office about open carry.  The AG's office replied that in New Hampshire, the constitutional right to keep and bear arms was not superseded by someone's "annoyance and alarm" at the sight of a gun.  ("Annoyance and alarm" is the phrase taken from the state law about disorderly conduct, RSA 644:2.)

August 21, 2009:  Pro-Gun New Hampshire helped organize the largest Friends of the NRA dinner ever held in New Hampshire.  Attorney Evan Nappen, PGNH Corporate Counsel (shown here  with members of Boy Scout Troop 75 who assisted at the Concord dinner), chaired the Capital Area Friends of the NRA Committee.

July 7, 2009:  Although Pro-Gun New Hampshire focuses on NH state legislation, we sometimes get involved in national gun-rights activities.  In this case, both Evan Nappen (PGNH Corporate Counsel and Director) and Jenn Coffey (PGNH Advisor and NH State Representative) listed their PGNH affiliation in an open letter to the US Senate, signed by 26 gun rights leaders around the country, calling for Judge Sonia Sotomayor NOT to be confirmed for a seat on the US Supreme Court.

To quote the Committee for Justice article linked below, the letter cites the signers' "grave concern" over her Second Amendment record.  See the letter at http://www.committeeforjustice.org/blog/2009/07/26-gun-rights-leaders-call-for.html