GOP lawmakers vote to reverse State House gun ban
The House Rules Committee today approved a proposal to allow lawmakers and members of the public to carry firearms on the House floor and in the visitors’ gallery.
The rule change was proposed by Rep. John Burt (R-Goffstown), who attempted to enact a similar proposal in 2013. “If we become a gun-free zone,” he said then, “we are telling every nut in this state that we are sitting ducks and when seconds count the police are only minutes away.”
In 2011, the Bill O'Brien-led House overturned a State House gun prohibition that had been in place since 1971. Then-deputy majority leader Shawn Jasper told the Boston Globe that lifting the ban “merely codified” the practice of many lawmakers who ignored the prohibition.
When Democrats returned to power in 2013, they reinstated a rule prohibiting guns in the House chamber, anterooms, cloakrooms and visitors’ gallery. In a 2013 interview with Derry Reps. Jim Webb and Brian Chirichiello, Rep. Al Baldasaro (R-Londonderry) acknowledged violating the ban.
“The Democrats took power for the first time in the House and the Senate, and they felt, well, we’re going to go back to being a nanny state,” he explained. “So they put in these rules that said no guns in the State House at all. That riled up the many gun groups here. OK?” he continued. “Of course, that never stopped me. I still, uh, maintained it to protect myself.”
Burt also vowed to ignore any State House gun prohibition. “I have been quoted, ‘I Representative Burt will not be a victim in my House,’ ” he wrote on Facebook. “Wish me luck on Thursday to convince the Rules Committee to put these changes in,” he continued. “If they say no and keep this 'sense of false security’ rule, I will repeat again, 'I Representative Burt will not be a victim in my House.’ ”
The House Rules committee voted along party lines, 6-4, in favor of overturning the ban on carrying concealed firearms. Burt’s proposal to allow open carry in House chambers was defeated 10-0. The full House will vote on the rule change when it reconvenes January 7.