A heavily criticized proposal passed by the N.H. House that would allow guns on public college campuses in New Hampshire hit a roadblock Thursday in the Senate.
The Senate Judiciary Committee gutted House Bill 1793 with an amendment that would sideline the issue for further study over the summer.
The amended bill specifies that non-lethal weapons would be allowed on campus such as “pepper spray, mace, stun guns, tasers, and other similar devices designed to incapacitate without causing fatal injury.”
Colleges and universities throughout New Hampshire generally prohibit guns and other weapons. Keene State College specifically bans possession of “Tasers or other electric shock weapons,” but allows pepper spray, according to its campus handbook.
The panel voted, 3-2, to recommend the full Senate pass the amended bill. Three Republicans were in favor, and two Democrats were in opposition.
Nobody on the panel spoke in support of the measure Thursday, but Sen. Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, the Senate president, told reporters after the session that further study is appropriate because there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered.
Supporters argue that gun-bearing people on campus could thwart potential mass violence incidents.
But college presidents, police agencies and students turned out in force to oppose the bill during legislative hearings.
They say armed students would only complicate any police response and that firearms don’t mix well with sometimes-turbulent college life and could have deadly consequences for students with mental health issues or problems involving substance misuse.
Testimony before the N.H. Legislature has been overwhelmingly against the bill, which is sponsored by Rep. Sam Farrington, R-Rochester, a senior at the University of New Hampshire.
A Senate Judiciary Committee report shows that 1,872 people registered with the panel as being in opposition to the bill, with 92 in support.
The House passed HB 1793, 188-165, on Feb. 5, with all Republicans in favor, except three, and all Democrats in opposition, except one.
Sen. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, told fellow committee members Thursday that there is no reason to study a bill that has already been the subject of voluminous testimony.
She took seven pages of notes on people who testified on the bill before the committee on April 14. The public hearing began at 2:49 p.m. and closed at 7:55 p.m.
“And not one, nobody, asked for us to do a study committee because they thought that looking into the possibility of putting firearms on college campuses outside the scope of law enforcement was an idea worth looking into,” she said.
“In fact we heard over and over and over again that, hands down, this was just a bad idea and that we shouldn’t be entertaining it.”
Farrington said in a post on X on Thursday that he is disappointed by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s change to his bill.
“The amendment offered by Senator [Sharon] Carson (R) would kill the bill if passed by the full Senate,” he said in the post, adding “the right to self-defense shouldn’t disappear on a college campus.”
He also said in the post, “The bill is not dead yet. It ain’t over till it’s over.”
The bill could be further amended when the full Senate takes it up in the coming days, or it could be killed. Also, if each chamber passes a different version of the bill, a committee of conference with lawmakers from both chambers could try to work out the differences.
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