NH: Campus Carry Bill has Good Chance of Passage

The New Hampshire legislature is considering a Campus Carry bill, HB1793, to restore rights protected by the Second Amendment to public colleges and universities in New Hampshire. The bill has been introduced by Rep. Sam Farrington, R-Strafford. Here is the heart of the bill.  From legiscan.com:

I.  Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, no public institution of higher education shall enact rules, policies, or similar prohibitions restricting the possession, carry, storage, or lawful use of firearms or non-lethal weapons on campus.

II.  No state or institutional permit or license shall be required for such carry on campus.

159:30  Remedies.  Any individual aggrieved by a violation of this subdivision may bring an action against the public institution of higher education and its employees responsible for the violation and seek appropriate relief, including injunctive relief, monetary damages, reasonable attorneys’ fees, and court costs.  Total damages awarded in an action brought under this subdivision shall be at least $10,000.  

159:31  Severability.  If any provision of this subdivision or the application thereof to any person or circumstances is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of the subdivision which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this subdivision are declared to be severable.  

4  Effective Date.  This act shall take effect January 1, 2027.

There are ten sponsors of the bill in the New Hampshire House, and four sponsors in the Senate.  Republicans have a supermajority in the Senate, with 16 Republicans and 8 Democrats. In the House the numbers are closer, with 221 Republicans and 177 Democrats. In the Dartmouth, David Meuse, D-Rockingham, stated he believed the bill has a good chance of passage.

 Meuse said that he believes that the Protecting College Students Act has a “pretty good chance” of passing due to the Republican control of the legislature and the governorship in New Hampshire. He noted that gun rights was a “Republican pet cause” and that pro-gun groups in the state usually send a “raft of emails” to legislators whenever gun legislation is coming up.

The sponsor of HB1793, Representative Farrington, is a senior at the University of New Hampshire. He has skin in the game. New Hampshire has been a Constitutional Carry (permitless carry) state since 2017. Most college students in New Hampshire can legally carry openly or concealed in most places in New Hampshire. There are very few problems, if any. It is difficult to see how the rights of the students, and anyone else who travels onto public colleges or universities, may be legally restricted on campus facilities. The power of universities to act as parents ended with the passage of the 26th Amendment in 1971, when 18-year-old citizens were given the power to vote by the amendment.

As recent scholarship has found, 18 year old people had the right to keep and bear arms in the early republic and at the time of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Some early private colleges banned the possession of arms as a regulation of their students, not as a governmental entity.  Their regulations did not apply to educators, administration, or people who were not students of the colleges and universities. United States Courts have long recognized deprivation of rights is a a serious harm.

New Hampshire, as with most states, has kept the regulation of weapons and weapon carry strictly to its own power. This has been done to prevent local political entities, such as public colleges, from depriving people of rights protected by the Second Amendment and the State Constitution. This bill makes clear: public colleges and universities which receive state money are not allowed to deprive people of their right to arms.

New Hampshire has one of the lowest murder rates of the states in the United States.

©2026 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch