HB1589, which has a scheduled committee hearing tomorrow (January 21, 2014 @1:15pm in Representatives Hall), is an attack on essential liberties, not just a gun-grabber bill.
Here’s the letter I sent to the committee. Will you attend the hearing or write a similar letter to the committee and leadership, helping to protect the liberties that you and your family still enjoy?
HouseCommerceAndConsumerAffairs@leg.state.nh.us
They are chipping away, one bit at a time…
House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee
January 20, 2014
HB1589 is not just a restriction on gun sales and purchasing, it is a restriction on the transfer and use of Private Property.
Private Property and Privacy are footings in the strong foundation that our great nation rests upon. The pursuit, capture, and retention of Private Property are fundamental rights of people in a free society, and government was instituted to protect this property, not to erode its value with countless restrictions on it.
Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government which impartially secures to every man whatever is his own. – James Madison, Essay on Property, 1792
Calling private firearms owners “unlicensed” is counter to these notions. Free citizens of the United States have been transferring property, including firearms, within their families or with close friends or neighbors, without the intent of profit, for hundreds of years.
Such transfers are not the source of heinous crimes committed by sick murderers in our society and, as we all know, these sick individuals will find a way to acquire weapons whether the Government partially or completely restricts them.
I understand that some of you may be genuinely attempting to address what is perceived as a societal problem; but the problem is not the tool or the weapon – it is the individual, his morals, his mental state, and his motives which decide to kill people.
Will you not attempt to prevent or restrict the transfer of knives, hammers, automobiles, or screwdrivers, which are also used to kill people in our country – most more than firearms? Will you insist that people who transfer such items be listed in a National Registry?
In fact, statistics from our own government show that firearms are used in a very small number (0.51%) of homicide deaths in the US and that number is shrinking every year, where drugs/poisons, poor diet, other health-related issues, and motor vehicles are responsible for more American deaths each year than firearms.
HB1589 aims to punish the law abiding citizen, restricting use of his Private Property, and aims to resolve a problem in our society that is significantly exaggerated and over-dramatized (read the data); and it will do absolutely nothing to curb deaths in America, whether by firearms or not.
