By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD — The House initially approved a bill prohibiting public colleges and universities from banning guns from their campuses.

House Bill 1793 would prohibit colleges, universities and other institutes of higher learning from imposing restrictions on firearms and other weapons if they accept state funding.

The bill would also allow any person who believes they have been aggrieved by an institution’s policy to sue it and the individuals responsible and may be awarded injunctive relief, monetary damages, reasonable attorneys’ fees, and court costs that total at least $10,000.

Opponents of the bill said just three months ago a shooter killed two students at Brown University and wounded nine others, noting the shooter was not a student on the campus, but a visitor.

Rep. David Meuse, D-Portsmouth, said half of the mass school shootings are done by students, but the other half are done by visitors to the campuses.

He said this bill would invite a visitor to come to campus much like the Brown shooter.

“This bill has nothing to do with who you are,” Meuse said, “but it has everything to do with where you are.”

But bill supporters said colleges and universities are denying adults their fundamental right to bear arms.

The bill’s prime sponsor, Rep. Samuel Farrington, R-Rochester, said everyone has a right to carry a firearm without “a silly permission slip” and colleges and universities are denying students who just want to protect themselves that right.

“Gun free zones only create soft targets,” Farrington said. “You cannot put up fights against a bad guy.”

But Rep. Wayne Burton, D-Durham, noted that while the second amendment guarantees a right to bear arms, the third amendment guarantees the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

“The right to be free from violence,” he said, “is an equal power or more.”
Meuse argued courts have ruled that restrictions on guns are permissible such as banning weapons from courts and from schools.

“Schools are one of those places and there has not been a single court ruling otherwise,” he said.

The bill will increase costs for colleges having to hire more people, for more training and the cost of liability insurance will also increase, Meuse said.

Burton told his colleagues the bill would turn college campuses into free fire zones, which will impact day care facilities and kindergarten through 12th grade schools nearby like in Durham.

“Free fire zones have negative consequences even if shots are never fired,” Burton said.

One of his duties in Vietnam was writing letters home to the parents of a soldier killed, he said, which often resulted from mishandling a weapon or from friendly fire.

He imagined the president of the University of New Hampshire writing a letter home to a student killed in a dormitory because a weapon was mishandled. 

As a parent receiving that letter, he said, he would wonder, “How the hell could a pistol get into a dorm room.”

But Farrington said colleges and universities are denying not only students and faculty from protecting themselves but also visitors to campuses.

At the public hearing on the bill the committee heard dozens of students who want to carry a firearm because the schools are doing nothing to protect their safety, noting a petition signed by 400 students supporting the bill.

“College students are adults deserving of equal protection,” Farrington said. “I hope you pass campus carry because gun rights are human rights.”

The bill passed the House on a 188-165 vote and will go to the House Finance Committee for review before a final vote in the House.

Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.