After hospital shooting, New Hampshire lawmakers consider bills to restrict, expand access to guns

Source: Associated Press

After hospital shooting, New Hampshire lawmakers consider bills to restrict, expand access to guns

BY HOLLY RAMER
Updated 5:16 PM EST, February 2, 2024

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The associate medical director of New Hampshire Hospital urged lawmakers to pass gun control legislation Friday, describing the anguish that followed the fatal shooting of a security officer in the facility’s lobby last year.

“A coworker was murdered 100 feet from my office,” Dr. Samanta Swetter told the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. “Then I had to sit there while other people I loved were in danger, and I could do very little to help them.”

The committee was holding public hearings on half a dozen bills seeking to either restrict or expand access to firearms, including one drafted in response to the death of Bradley Haas, who was killed in November by a former patient at the psychiatric hospital in Concord.

While federal law prohibits those who have been involuntarily committed to psychiatric institutions from purchasing guns, New Hampshire currently does not submit mental health records to the database that gun dealers use for background checks. “Bradley’s Law,” which has bipartisan support, would require those records to be submitted. It also creates a process by which someone could have their gun ownership rights restored when they are no longer a danger to themselves or others.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/new-hampshire-hospital-shooting-legislation-gun-control-b6b18a75010a9a158b922288e07f7ea1