New Hampshire Protects Second Amendment Rights of Employees

On January 1, 2025, New Hampshire employers will be required to respect employees’ Second Amendment rights in locked vehicles in parking lots.

On May 22, 2024, the New Hampshire legislature passed House Bill 1336. The bill was signed into law on July 7, 2024, by Governor Sununu. The bill will go into effect on January 1, 2025. The bill passed with reasonable margins. 201 – 172 in the House, 14 – 10 in the Senate.  From the text of the bill:

159:27 Stored Firearms in Vehicles.

I. Any public or private employer that receives public funds from the federal or state government or any subdivision thereof, whether such funds are in the form of payment for contractual services, grants, or in any other form however denominated, and irrespective of the amount or level of such funding, or any agent of such an employer, shall not:

(a) Prohibit an employee who may legally possess a firearm from storing a firearm or ammunition in the employee’s vehicle while entering or exiting the employer’s property or while the vehicle is parked on the employer’s property as long as the vehicle is locked, and the firearm or ammunition is not visible.

(b) Take any adverse action against any employee who stores a firearm or ammunition in accordance with this section.

The bill prohibits employers from requiring an employee to answer questions as to whether the employee has weapons in the employee’s vehicle.  Employers are given immunity from lawsuit for any damages which result from an employee’s actions involving a firearm or ammunition stored in their vehicle.

A number of states have enacted such laws in order to ensure employees are able to exercise their right to be armed en route to and from work. As Second Amendment supporters work to restore Second Amendment rights, impediments to the exercise of Second Amendment rights are being challenged across the United States.

Analysis:

The strategy to make the carry and use of firearms difficult and legally dangerous is clear. The theory is simple: if people who wish to be armed for defense of self and others are placed in legal jeopardy in enough places, they will cease to carry arms with them. People will become used to being unarmed and will become less dangerous to each other and, especially, to government agents.

The theory does not hold up in practice. When firearms are hard to acquire and/or access, homicide and suicide are not reduced. Homicide and suicide committed with firearms may be reduced, but overall homicide and suicide remain the same, within measurable limits.  This is partly because of substitution of methods, and partly because firearms are useful for both defense and offense. When firearms are not available, mere physical size, strength, skill  and agility become far more important. The counter to the case made to disarm the public was made by Cesare Beccaria in Crimes and Punishments, first published in 1764. The book had significant impact with the founders of the American state.

False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.

Cesare Beccaria

Disarming the public is a strategy long employed by tyrants and autocracies as a means to enhance their safety and their control over the public. One of the benefits of an armed public is an increase in individual responsibility and civic virtue. Legally armed citizens, which in the United States excludes non-criminals, children, and those mentally incompetent, have an exemplary record of following the law.

©2024 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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