SB141 authorizes the FBI to conduct all National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) searches concerning the purchase, sale, and transfer of firearms through Federal Firearm Licensees operating in New Hampshire. This legislation also eliminates the states “gun line”.
The New Hampshire State House of Representatives passed SB141 on June 3, 2021 by a vote of 197 to 180. We have assigned pluses to the nays because background checks, as a general requirement for firearm purchases, are a significant infringement on our Constitutional rights, particularly the Second Amendment. Moreover, the state should not be relinquishing these decisions and surrendering its sovereignty to the Federal Government and FBI. This is a total embrace of the federal Safer Communities Act, which has further extended federal background checks conducted by the FBI. While the state’s background check, aka “gun line”, should be abolished, handing over control to the FBI is a bad alternative.