{"id":11259,"date":"2024-02-16T10:04:41","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T10:04:41","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Granite-State-News-Collaborative-54075865\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=11259","title":{"rendered":"NH Senate Republicans block guns bills, including \u2018red flag\u2019 law and waiting period"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/a>
A display case at a New Hampshire gun shop.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

New Hampshire Senate Republicans blocked an effort to enact an extreme risk protection order system, sometimes referred to as a \u201cred flag\u201d law.<\/p>\n

The proposal up for debate Thursday would have allowed someone\u2019s relatives or law enforcement to petition a court to temporarily remove firearms out of concern that they are a danger to themselves or others.<\/p>\n

If passed, New Hampshire would have joined approximately 20 other states that have enacted red flag laws. A red flag proposal cleared the New Hampshire Legislature in 2020 but was vetoed by Gov. Chris Sununu, while another effort failed last legislative session.<\/p>\n

The Republican Senate majority also voted down a bill to expand background checks to all commercial sales and one to impose a three-day mandatory waiting period on gun purchases.<\/p>\n

The red flag law bill was backed by Democrats who argued it could help prevent suicides, the leading cause<\/a> of gun deaths in New Hampshire, and other acts of gun violence. During more than an hour of debate on the floor Thursday, Senate Democrats pointed to the near daily mass shootings happening across the country, and in particular, the violence in Lewiston, Maine, last October that killed 18 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many more survivor families need to come here and testify and expose their pain?\u201d Sen. Debra Altschiller, a Democrat from Stratham, asked her colleagues. \u201cHow many more bodies need to pile up before you start to feel again?\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans argued the bill would violate a person\u2019s constitutionally protected gun rights and would do little to address to root cause of suicide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not doing anything to address the fact that this person is having suicidal thoughts,\u201d said Sen. Daryl Abbas, a Republican from Salem. \u201cIt focuses solely on disarming a person, without actually offering them any other help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbas said the state should instead continue investing in mental health services.<\/p>\n

Republicans also argued the red flag law and other gun restrictions up for debate Thursday violated Second Amendment rights and would have done little to prevent crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cCriminals do not get guns through legal means,\u201d said Sen. Sharon Carson, a Republican from Londonderry, speaking out against the proposal to mandate background checks on all commercial gun transactions.<\/p>\n

Democrats said the expanded background check measure would have closed a \u201cloophole\u201d that permits private sales with no background checks among a buyer and seller who may not know each other.<\/p>\n

\n These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit<\/em>\n collaborativenh.org.<\/a>\n \n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Hampshire Senate Republicans blocked an effort to enact an extreme risk protection order system, sometimes referred to as a \u201cred flag\u201d law.The proposal up for debate Thursday would have allowed someone\u2019s relatives or law enforcement to petition a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":594,"featured_media":11260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=594]Todd Bookman[\/Author] New Hampshire Public Radio","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,508],"tags":[505],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[688],"class_list":["post-11259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-headlines-cm","tag-paywall","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/42942779-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/594"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11261,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11259\/revisions\/11261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11259"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=11259"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=11259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}