In a major victory for Second Amendment defenders nationwide, the New Hampshire State Senate voted last Thursday to abolish concealed carry permits.
Instead, they have become one of five states in the nation to recognize a citizen’s constitutional right to carry a concealed firearm.
The measure passed by a vote of 14-9 in New Hampshire’s upper chamber, and would need to be passed by the House as well. However, it’s a major step towards abolishing the need for permits in the Granite State once and for all.
The bill was originally designed to seal a loophole by which someone who was engaging in open carry — which doesn’t require a permit in New Hampshire — could become a lawbreaker by the simple act of putting on a jacket or sweater, thus concealing the firearm.
Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley (R-3rd Dist.), the bill’s sponsor, claimed that the bill wouldn’t “change any other state … laws.”
“This bill recognizes that the simple act of putting on a coat should not require a permit,” said Sen. Sharon Carson (R-14th Dist.).
And Sen. Andy Sanborn (R-9th Dist.), said that the bill was needed to prevent a situation where a New Hampshire citizen “(goes) from being a law-abiding person to being a criminal” by the act of concealing a firearm. (H/T Breitbart.)
New Hampshire Senate Democrats, naturally, engaged in hyperbolic scare tactics to prevent the bill from passing.
Sen. David Pierce (D-5th Dist.) said that it would “increase chances of a basic argument turning deadly.” It’s as if somehow giving someone who is legally open-carrying a firearm the right to conceal it will turn them into the Woody Harrelson character from “Natural Born Killers.”
Sen. Martha Fuller Clark (D-21st Dist.) also called the move “crazy,” somehow forgetting she belongs to a party in which Alan Grayson and Nancy Pelosi are both members in good standing.
New Hampshire’s bold move should remind all Americans that they already have a concealed carry permit — the Second Amendment. It’s time that we reminded our legislators in Washington of that fact.
