CONCORD — A key House panel endorsed separate proposals sought by both gun owner rights and gun control groups Monday.
Creating a voluntary program (HB 1050) for residents to make themselves ineligible to own guns won bipartisan support from the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.
The group endorsed it on a vote of 11-8 with state Rep. John Sytek, R-Salem, breaking GOP ranks and supporting the bill that Rep. David Meuse, D-Portsmouth, had authored.
The same committee embraced legislation to prevent credit card processing network companies from attaching a special code that would identify when consumers used their credit card to purchase a weapon (HB 1186).
On that bill, three House Democrats supported an amended form of the bill that Rep. Jason Janvrin, R-Seabrook, had written.
The committee on a 19-0 vote approved a third bill (HB 1339) which sets a time frame for a judge to grant a hearing to any adult who applies to get back firearms taken during an earlier arrest.
Under the voluntary program, the Department of Safety would maintain a list of anyone 18 years or older who wanted to be considered ineligible to buy a firearm.
After a minimum of 60 days, the person could apply to have their name removed from the list.
“This is the most libertarian thing ever. It gives people control over their own destiny and lets them make their own choice,” Meuse said.
Washington became the first state to create such a list in 2019.
Committee Chairman Terry Roy, R-Deerfield, said he didn’t object to this idea until an official from the New Hampshire Medical Society testified that it furthered support for an eventual firearms registry.
“I found that rather disturbing,” Roy said.
Rep. Jonah Wheeler, D-Peterborough, said the bill created guardrails that would ensure the list would not be freely available.
For example, the identity of all those on the list would be exempt from the state’s Right-to-Know Law.
The firearm merchants code emerged as an issue when the International Organization for Standardization approved the idea in September 2022 and published the proposal last February.
In response, lawmakers in seven states, mostly in the south and west, passed laws in 2023 blocking the code from being used there.
Gov. Gavin Newsom made California the first to require firearms dealers to attach the codes to all gun purchases in that state.
Last March, the four major credit card companies announced they were suspending the program likely until either the federal government or enough state legislatures took a firm position on it.
“I don’t think this is an actual problem,” Meuse said.
Roy said the state should go on record opposing an invasion of financial privacy for any purpose, whether it’s buying guns, getting an abortion or having sex reassignment surgery.
“I support mandating the federal government not share my personal financial information with anyone,” said Roy, noting New Hampshire voters in 2018 approved a privacy amendment to the state constitution.
The third bill would require a judge within 10 business days of a request to hold a hearing on whether to return confiscated guns to a gun owner.
As amended, the hearing would only take place after expiration of any restraining or domestic violence protection order.
In addition, guns could only be returned after completion of a criminal background check through the state Department of Safety-administered gun line.
