By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – Gov. Chris Sununu is traveling to Indianapolis, Indiana, Friday to deliver remarks at the National Rifle Association’s Annual Meeting prompting criticism from Democrats.
His press office said the governor will deliver remarks at 3:30 p.m. Friday afternoon, which is open press, and on Saturday, deliver remarks in Nashville, Tenn. for a Republican National Committee donor retreat, which is closed to the press.
Democrats held a Zoom news conference Friday morning criticizing Sununu, saying he valued his NRA rating more than the safety of New Hampshire citizens.
Sununu is expected to return to New Hampshire Saturday evening and at “no point during this trip will Governor Sununu be unavailable to act in his official capacity as Governor. No taxpayer funds are being used for the Governor’s travel.”
New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley said he called on the governor to cancel the trip, particularly in the wake of recent mass gun violence at schools and a bank.
All Buckley said he heard was “crickets,” meaning he did not respond.
Senate Democratic Leader Donna Soucy, D-Manchester, was also on the Zoom press conference Friday morning ahead of Governor Sununu’s speech.
The party said Sununu was going to tout his record of blocking common-sense gun violence prevention legislation and Soucy noted three recent pieces of legislation which he vetoed.
Buckley noted that Portsmouth High School was forced to close Thursday following a threat of gun violence, one of several recent threats across New Hampshire schools and this came after national tragedies. On Friday Rochester Middle School closed due to a bomb threat.
Sununu has called these threats “the new normal” for the state and Dartmouth College while student Jayanth Uppaluri lives in “fear.” As a leader, Sununu should not be accepting this as the “new normal,” Uppaluri told reporters.
Sununu enjoys an “A” rating from the NRA.
The event will include just about all the potential Republican candidates, either in person or virtually with several of them being asked to keynote the meeting.
Buckley said: “Only days after this announcement, yet another devastating and preventable tragedy where innocent lives were stolen by senseless violence occurred in Nashville, Tennessee. Six people, including three nine-year-old children, were murdered. Since then, there was yet another tragic shooting in Louisville, Kentucky where six people lost their lives. Just yesterday, all schools in Portsmouth were closed due to a credible threat of gun violence. Despite all this, Chris Sununu has been silent and is going to this event as planned.
“Sununu has shown time and time again, that he values his NRA rating more than the safety of granite staters. His record on gun safety is abhorrent. It is incomprehensible that Sununu would even consider speaking at this NRA event after the multiple horrific instances of gun violence across the country and the threats against schools right here in New Hampshire. Instead, grotesquely using this forum as an opportunity to build his national profile and brag about how he gutted gun safety in New Hampshire,” Buckley said.
Sununu’s spokesman Ben Vihstadt, emailed the following response to the Democrats’ news conference:
“The Democrats have spent the last six years attacking the Governor for supporting the Second Amendment, and if the voters agreed with their fear-mongering, Chris Sununu would not be ranked the most popular politician in New Hampshire, he would not have received more votes than any candidate in the history of the state in 2020, and he would not have won in a landslide in 2022. They can keep trying, but the voters aren’t buying.”
Soucy said Sununu has repeatedly blocked three separate pieces of gun safety legislation and signed legislation that repealed licensing requirements on carrying a concealed firearm.
“But this is not new for him. The governor has a long record of refusing to take action to protect Granite Staters. The very first bill Sununu signed into law as governor was anti-gun safety legislation that the NH Association of Chiefs of Police called ‘dangerous.'”
She said after the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting where 19 children and two teachers were murdered by a gunman, Sununu said he was not looking to make any changes in firearms policy.
“On the anniversary of that horrific day, exactly one year later, he signed a bill blocking any federal law or executive order regarding gun safety in New Hampshire.
“Just this year, tragic mass shootings happened in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, California, Utah, and more. It could even happen in New Hampshire tomorrow. Granite Staters need a governor who will take action to keep them safe before it is too late and one that will put their lives above (an) NRA rating,” Soucy said.
Uppaluri, who is executive director of Dartmouth College Democrats, said from elementary schools to colleges the issue of gun violence is “terrifying.”
“He’s taking yet another out-of-state trip to pander to extremists and to bolster his celebrity status. Meanwhile, students like me live in fear every day that New Hampshire will be the next state. Just yesterday, Gov. Sununu referred to mass shootings as the ‘new normal.’ What kind of governor would accept such preventable violence? We deserve a governor who will put our lives above his NRA rating. Sununu has made clear that he will never be that governor,” Uppaluri said.