Senator Carson exemplifies the arrogance of power. She is seeking re-election as well as the powerful position of Senate President. But she needs to be retired by the voters.
As Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she virtually singlehandedly hijacked and managed to kill a bill passed by a voice vote the House in 2017 that would have strengthened the rights of gun owners in our state. The story is a bit complex, but here goes:
New Hampshire is not a “home rule” state. This means that local governments cannot lawfully purport to legislate on any subject unless they have been explicitly authorized to do so by laws passed by our General Court and enacted into law. If a local government does something in contravention of this principle (sometimes called the “Dillon Rule”), there are at present only very limited avenues available for citizens to put the local governments back in their places, usually involving the hiring of lawyers and the spending of lots of money.
In 2003 and in 2011, New Hampshire enacted what is known as a state pre-emption law, RSA 159:26, that made it abundantly clear that “Except as otherwise specifically provided by statute, no ordinance or regulation of a political subdivision may regulate the sale, purchase, ownership, use, possession, transportation, licensing, permitting, taxation, or other matter pertaining to firearms, firearms components, ammunition, or firearms supplies in the state.”[emphasis added] Although probably not strictly necessary under the Dillon Rule, RSA 159:26 made it, once again, very clear what local government could not do regarding firearms.
However, RSA 159:26, which consists of about 11 lines of unambiguous text, fails to contain any enforcement mechanism that ordinary citizens could use against local governments that ignore the prohibitions of the state pre-emption law.
So, this writer was the prime sponsor of HB307, which materially strengthened RSA 159:26 by providing for a detailed enforcement mechanism that ordinary citizens could use without incurring large legal expenses. The text was modeled on a very successful law from another state.
The text of HB307 was drafted, ultimately modified, and adopted by the House on a voice vote after review and input from representatives of the National Rifle Association, Gun Owners of America, and the NH Firearms Coalition.
But when HB307 was passed to the Senate and Carson’s Judiciary Committee, she engineered a vote of “non-concurrence” by the Senate, meaning that the Senate would not go along with the House bill. A Committee of Conference was held to try to iron out any issues.
In the Committee of Conference, Carson sought to condition approval of HB307 on a revision that would have removed a very critical word (“use”) in the prohibitory language of RSA 159:26, the effect of which would, in the view of this writer and many others, have effectively gutted RSA 159:26 as it exists.
Because what Carson wanted was so egregious and unacceptable, HB307 died and was never adopted, and we are stuck with RSA 159:26 without any meaningful enforcement tools.
As a side note, when this writer personally called Carson to try to discuss the issue, she said she was too busy to discuss it and brushed it off.
Carson is the Senator from District 14, consisting of Auburn, Hudson, and Londonderry, which reportedly has a small majority of registered Republican voters.
Because Carson has been a fixture in Concord for so long, it is assumed that she has substantial financial backing for her re-election campaign. So, anyone opposing her needs to be able to muster sufficient resources to make a run meaningful. IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO FILE TO RUN.
Carson has been in the Senate for far too long, and as previously noted, she exemplifies the arrogance of power. She needs to be primaried and ultimately retired.
Full Disclosure: This writer is a Life Member of the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America, as well as a member of the NH Firearms Coalition.