by NH State Rep Dave Testerman (R-Franklin)
It was a long last week and somewhat frustrating. The House, overwhelmed by the Democrats passed a lot of silly and several dangerous laws. Here are just some of the sillyness:
HB-558 and -560 ban plastic straws and bags. While I seldom use either of these, it is just plain silly to waste our time on this. To begin with, New Hampshire has a larger issue with discarded hypodermic needles thrown carelessly in public places by addicts, and banning these won’t stop a druggie from tossing them for your child or pet to find. I voted against this.
Then, we had two proposed constitutional amendments, CACR-10 and -12 that would ban an income and sales tax. You would think this would be a no brainer since almost every politician says they are against any broad-based tax. But both CACRs failed to get enough votes. I voted for them. Seems the majority party doesn’t want to limit themselves to taking your money in the future.
Then we had the worst bills of the day. HB-109 and -514. HB-109 would require background checks for firearms transfers, and purportedly close the gun show loophole… something that does not exist. This is so restrictive that to loan a gun to a friend would not be possible and a firearms registry would be established that authorities could examine. HB-514 would establish a 7-10 day waiting period for sale of a firearm. Tell this to a person who is fearful of a stalker or jilted lover and needs a firearm now! Or tell this to the vendor at a gun show who has no customers. Both passed without my vote.
Oh… we also passed a bill, HCR-7 that asks the president not to use nuclear weapons first. I guess we have to wait until they land in Omaha before we launch. What a stupid issue for a state to get involved in. Leave it up to the Bernie voters.
With HB-397 and -471 we let people without Social Security numbers or citizenship documentation (i.e illegal aliens) get New Hampshire driver licenses or to mark if the person was not a citizen. Wonder how many will use these to vote, which is the real reason the it passed without my vote.
Notice a pattern here? We have a House majority that has decided to remake New Hampshire to become the next silly socialist state. I took the time to check the votes of the three other representatives in my area. Representatives Hill and Horne voted with me every time and Representative Joyce Fulweiler voted opposite on every vote. Care to guess what party she votes lockstep with?