The right to bear arms - August 26, 2022 Windham Independent
The right to bear arms
The right to bear arms is very clearly defined in the New Hampshire constitution, article 2A: “All persons have the right to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves, their families, their property and the state.”.
To anyone who reads and respects our state constitution, this should make clear that gun control is not constitutional in New Hampshire… and yet, many gun control legislative proposals are offered during every session of the state legislature. Fortunately, we are a constitutional carry state - anyone can carry concealed without a permit unless they are a federally prohibited person. We also are also one of the safest states in the USA - knowing that plenty of people carry is a strong deterrent against violent crimes.
Firearms are just tools, and like any other tools, they can be used for legal or illegal purposes. They are needed to protect ourselves and our families - making it harder or impossible for a NH citizen to carry a firearm makes us all less safe. One should be prosecuted for using a firearm to commit a crime, not merely for possessing one without any ill intent.
Every gun control measure proposed is designed to make owning and carrying a firearm more expensive and legally risky - that’s true for storage laws, waiting periods, training requirements, red flag laws, bans on arbitrary types of firearms or magazines, microstamping, gun free zones, etc. The long term goal of gun control is the ban of firearm ownership for regular people, which would ensure only government agents and criminals will have firearms, leaving the rest of us unable to protect ourselves and our families. The people pushing gun control know that those laws make us less safe - they simply consider the increased risks to us all an acceptable price to pay to achieve their political goals.
Our violent crime rate is second lowest in the nation (as measured by the FBI in 2019), making it clear that gun control is a poorly thought out solution in search of a hypothetical problem in New Hampshire. Instead of wasting time on gun control, we need to focus on keeping our economy going by increasing our economic freedom and lowering taxes (including the accelerated elimination of our one form of income tax, the interest and dividends tax).
I trust you, my friends and neighbors, to decide if you want to own or carry firearms, and if elected, I will protect your freedom to make those choices for yourselves instead of having to get permission from the state or local government to exercise your constitutional right to bear arms.
You can always reach me at (603) 267 4142 or at dpmwindham@gmail.com. I am grateful to all who put their faith in me in the past and hope to earn your support on September 13th.
Daniel Popovici-Muller
Republican Candidate for State Representative