State Senate slows its roll on campus carry, opting to ‘study’ the proposal instead

A key Senate panel opted to gut legislation that would’ve prohibited publicly funded colleges in New Hampshire from regulating firearms on campus.

The amendment, brought forward by Senate President Sharon Carson, a Londonderry Republican, would allow students, employees and other campus visitors to carry non-lethal weapons like tasers and mace without restriction but stops short of establishing the same policy for guns.

If the full Senate votes to pass the amended version of the bill, it would establish a group of five state lawmakers to “study the feasibility of allowing guns on college campuses.”

The 3-2 party-line vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday followed months of vocal opposition from college leaders, students and law enforcement officials.

One UNH freshman, Eli Orne, said at a press conference outside the State House last month that he worries about giving young adults unrestricted access to firearms during a period of major life transitions when many people struggle with mental health.

“I don’t think that this is something that we should be introducing into our campuses,” Orne said. “I think that if we have better gun control on campus, then we give people a better chance of living the rest of their lives.”

The version of the so-called “campus carry” bill passed by the House earlier this year would have prevented publicly funded colleges in the state from restricting the lawful possession or use of weapons on campus, including guns. New Hampshire is a constitutional carry state, meaning residents may possess and use a firearm without a permit. Like many states, however, it has historically left safety protocols up to individual colleges. About a dozen states currently allow campus carry.

Proponents like Rep. Sam Farrington, a UNH student and Republican from Rochester, say the bill boils down to a matter of constitutional rights. If the government deems college students old enough to vote and serve in the military, they argue, why should their right to carry a gun go out the window when they step on campus?

Others say the normalized presence of firearms at colleges would make them feel unsafe or disrupt swift action from police in the event of a mass shooting.

Senate Republicans expressed hesitation during the public hearing earlier in April.

Sen. Bill Gannon of Sandown recalled the “fairly wild” environment of his own college dorm decades ago and said he was concerned about adding guns to the mix. Even military institutions, he said, have strict gun policies.

“With guns come responsibilities,” Gannon said. “My fear is that we’re putting a gun in a very dangerous, volatile situation.”

The study committee, which is set to include three members of the House of Representatives and two state senators, is instructed to report its findings and recommendations by November of this year. Their considerations, as outlined in Carson’s amendment, would include potential costs to colleges, campus safety ramifications and a review of the policies and impacts in other states.

Though the change would delay the implementation of campus carry, one of the House Republicans’ more prominent efforts this session, Democrats on the committee still opposed it. Sen. Debra Altschiller of Stratham said studying the issue is unnecessary because “we already got everything we need.”

Of the online testimony submissions received by the Senate, just 44 people supported campus carry and 1,732 objected to it, according to a legislative aide.

“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,” Altschiller said.

The changes approved in committee still have to pass muster in a vote by the full Senate. The deadline for a vote is May 14.

Farrington, who sponsored the bill, said in a statement on X that he was “disappointed” in the outcome but that his effort is “not dead yet.”

“It ain’t over till it’s over,” he said.