Dear Honorable Committee Members:
My name is Carla Gericke, former Republican state Senate candidate in District 20. I live in Manchester, NH, am an attorney by training, and serve on several local educational nonprofit boards. I ask you to please SUPPORT CACR-8, and ask my testimony be presented to all committee members and form part of the permanent record for this bill.
Is your time not valuable? How many gun bills do you have to sit through annually? Hearing the same arguments for and against over and over again. For an issue all of us know, despite whatever your personal views about gun ownership may be, is an unequivocal, inalienable US and NH Constitutional right. I’ll go even further, and say it is a natural right to be able to defend yourself, and no one, no man, and not you, has the authority to restrict natural rights.
Article 2 of the NH Constitution says: “All persons have the right to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves, their families, their property and the state.” The US Constitution says: “…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed”.
It’s a “Right.”
That “SHALL NOT be infringed.”
What part of this is confusing? Can we please stop wasting each other’s time and move on?
Know this: We gun rights folks are. never. ever. going. to. give. up. our. rights. So you have to ask yourself, do you want to continue to behave like crazy people, doing the same thing over and over again ad nauseum, or do you want to pass this proposed Constitutional Amendment and put the matter to rest so that we can focus on issues where bipartisan solutions can be accomplished?
It’s your call, but my recommendation is, support CACR 8, which states: “The Legislature shall enact no law that limits the right of a person to own, carry, or use firearms or firearm accessories in any manner that would create a greater burden than that in federal law. Any federal law that infringes upon rights guaranteed in this New Hampshire constitution shall be unenforceable by New Hampshire law enforcement.”
Let’s do this, and free up all of our time for more productive matters. I have no doubt this proposed Constitutional Amendment will pass with flying colors if brought before Granite Staters–give us all the opportunity to weigh in directly!
Please SUPPORT CACR-8. Thanks for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Carla Gericke
West Manchester