Pro-Gun New Hampshire

You may have recently received the Spring 2008 edition of the NH Firearm Coalition's "On-Target" newsletter which continues to perpetuate falsehoods against me (and includes the obligatory unflattering picture). [Editor's note: the newsletter is available on line at the NHFC website, http://www.nhfc-ontarget.org .] Under the headline "Lies, Lies, All Lies!" the newsletter actually only accuses me of one lie: attributing the flawed bills HB 1474 and HB 1476 to "Pink Pistols." In fact, I've always stated that a broad coalition of pro-second amendment organizations worked on the legislation, including Pro-Gun New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Wildlife Federation, the House Republican Alliance and members of Gun Owners of New Hampshire. The board of GONH later approached us with concerns and we immediately pulled our support from the bills.

As I've stated before, I believe that the bills, while well-intentioned, were flawed. After the efforts to shut down Lone Pine gun range, gun rights activists and gun range owners approached us to craft legislation to protect these gun ranges from further efforts to close them down. In our haste to meet filing deadlines, we failed to adequately define terms like "safety hazard" and "national standards" -- in fact, I don't believe that national standards would be appropriate for NH-specific legislation.

That said, the NHFC intentionally mischaracterizes the intent and the nature of the bills in question. They have proven time and again that they are willing to distort the facts and attack pro-second amendment legislators in order to promote their own organization. Moreover, they continue to claim credit for defeating these bills when, in fact, we had pulled our support of the bills before they had sent out their libelous mailing.

I am baffled as to why NHFC gave me a "C" rating, but they are correct that I proudly serve on the Board of Advisors for Pro-Gun NH. You can find more information about this stalwart organization here: http://www.pgnh.org/

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at 759-2035 or simply reply to this email. Below I've attached a letter from veteran gun rights activist Paul Mirski explaining how the bills came to be filed and a petition from numerous pro-second amendment legislators calling on the NHFC to apologize. I urge all sincere supporters of the second amendment to distance themselves from such a reckless and malicious organization and to urge their friends to do so as well.

Best,
Rep. Jason Bedrick

[Rep. Bedrick continues as follows:]

Here's an open letter from former legislator Paul Mirski. He was a leader of the House Republican Alliance and one of the best friends of the Second Amendment in the legislature. He currently serves on the board of the NH Wildlife Federation and he was one of the architects of the bills in question. Feel free to pass this information around to others who might have the same concern.

To Whom It May Concern,

Whoever wrote the "URGENT ALERT - 2008 RANGE CLOSURE ACT" which I've just received, somehow missed the purpose of both bills. The author may have jumped to the conclusion that these two bills were bad for Second Amendment interests because often, legislation filed concerning gun issues is indeed in opposition to Second Amendment rights. In this case however, these two bills were proposed by the most fervent champions of the Second Amendment in the NH House. The were also endorsed by the Board of the New Hampshire Wildlife Federation, on which I serve as a Director and which, as you well know, is a fervent defender of the interests of sportsmen and sportswomen and of devotees of shooting sports.

Since you will be meeting with some of the folks who have expressed opposition to HB1474 and HB1476 you need to know that HB1474 and HB1476 were filed to preempt closure if existing ranges and to preempt towns and cities from preventing the construction of new shooting ranges. Both bills were filed to remedy the harassment of shooting ranges as happened at Lone Pine, in Hollis. If the authors of the "URGENT ALERT," had carefully read the language of the two bills they would have seen that they are intended to accomplish exactly these goals. Certainly some language could be tinkered with but in no way could anyone make the claim that either of these bills were designed to shut down the operation of existing ranges or to prevent the construction of shooting ranges. Furthermore, how could one look at the list of sponsors and arrive at such a conclusion?

Specifically, HB1474 was first designed to inoculate existing ranges from being forced to close. The noise business having to do with ranges is covered in current statute so these bills were intended to prevent other sorts of assaults on the operation of existing ranges. If passed, the best opponents of a shooting ranges could hope for would be only a temporary closing and then, only if whatever was going on at the range could be interpreted as hazardous to public health and safety which is for any range operation a necessary concern. To reopen, all an affected existing range, closed temporarily , would have to do is to modify its operational procedures to end the hazardous practice. If HB1474 were to pass, no existing range could be permanently closed. Because no existing range could be permanently closed, passage of HB1474 would diminish if not end altogether, the sort of harassment which Lone Pine suffered.

Secondly, passage of HB1474 would guarantee that new shooting ranges would be able to be constructed in any town in NH - preempting towns from enacting ordinances which would prohibit the construction of shooting ranges. Because of liability and insurance issues, no new range planned in the USA could get away with a construction program which did not reflect best practices in shooting range construction. Safety concerns would be paramount. HB1474 leaves the choice of which shooting range standards would be used up to the prospective range developer - and not the Sheriff or Town where the range would be planned to be constructed.. There are a number of nationally recognized organizations which provide guidelines for laying out shooting ranges. Because chief's of police are usually subject to political pressure, the County Sheriff, an elected official, is given the review and authorization authority and paid the fee for the inspection of a new range for conformance with the national design standards which the range developer selected. This provision removes approval authority from towns and cities and provides uniformity in the application of the law wherever a range might be constructed in any given county. Note especially, that review authority concerning standards was NOT given to any agency of the state.

In some parts of the state, local, club owned shooting ranges are more intensively used by local firearms instructors for programs meant to benefit law enforcement, than by local sportsmen. The cost to construct ranges these days is expensive. There is a huge public safety benefit to insuring that existing ranges remain open and to insuring that communities cannot prohibit the construction of new facilities for training law enforcement in the use of arms.

RE: HB1476

Because no law can be applied retroactively, no existing shooting range can be forced to upgrade its facilities to comply with whatever range standard anyone in government would like to see in place. So much for closure of ranges in existence at the time of passage of HB1476. Since all future ranges, if for no other reason than for insurance purposes, will be constructed according to one set of safety standards or another, what HB1476 essentially accomplishes is further prohibition of closure of any future range which employs appropriate standards.

Paul Mirski

TO: The New Hampshire Firearms Coalition

WHEREAS those who support the right to keep and bear arms do so in the best interests of freedom and self-government, and;

WHEREAS it requires eternal vigilance and a coordinated group effort to keep government intrusion at bay, and;

WHEREAS Representatives Alfred Baldasaro and Jason Bedrick are Second Amendment stalwarts who have demonstrated their commitment to preserving the right to keep and bear arms, and;

WHEREAS Representatives Alfred Baldasaro and Jason Bedrick filed HB 1474 and HB 1476 along with long-standing Second Amendment advocates Sen. Robert Clegg, Sen. Joseph Kenney, Sen. Robert Letourneau, Rep. Karen Hutchinson, Rep. Moe Villeneuve, and Rep. David Welch at the behest of several pro-Second Amendment organizations in order to prevent the continued encroachment of both government and anti-gun groups and their overzealous attempts to close NH gun ranges, and;

WHEREAS the NHFC proclaims its interest and commitment to the same principles and goals as the sponsors of HB 1474 and HB 1476, and;

WHEREAS the NHFC was notified prior to issuing its "Alert" that Representatives Baldasaro and Bedrick were removing their support for the bills because of flaws in their drafting, and;

WHEREAS the NHFC "Alert" contains numerous falsehoods which have been repeatedly brought to the attention of the NHFC, and;

WHEREAS the persistent refusal of the NHFC to take corrective action is bringing discredit upon itself and harming the pro-Second Amendment community;

Be it RESOLVED we the undersigned, who have all received an "A" rating or higher from the NHFC for our pro-Second Amendment legislative records, insist that the NHFC take the following corrective actions:

1) Immediately remove the libelous "Alert" from the NHFC website, and;

2) Immediately issue an apology to Representatives Baldasaro and Bedrick, highlighting their pro-Second Amendment record and accurately identifying the pro-gun intention behind HB 1474 and HB 1476, on the NHFC website and through the NHFC mailing lists, both electronic and physical.

Signed, (Name – 2006 NHFC Grade)

Sen. Robert Clegg – A!

Sen. Joseph Kenney – A!

Hon. Laurie Boyce – A

Hon. Casey Crane – A!

Hon. Dan Dumaine – A!

Hon. Nancy Elliott – A!

Hon. Marilinda Garcia – A

Hon. Paul Hopfgarten – A

Hon. Paul Ingbretson – A

Hon. Howie Lund – A-

Hon. Paul Mirski – A!

Hon. Marshall Lee Quandt – A

Hon. Matt Quandt – A

Hon. Andrew Renzullo – A

Hon. David Scott – A

Hon. Gregory Sorg – A

Hon. Jordan Ulery – A

Hon. Moe Villeneuve – A