In New Hampshire where there are no school gun safety laws, the community steps up to protect kids

Earlier this month the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia, which left two teachers and two students dead, sent shockwaves throughout the country—and they were felt here in New Hampshire, too. 

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who was in New Hampshire on Sept. 5 to unveilher plan to support small businesses, opened her speech by addressing the shooting and calling it a “senseless tragedy.”

“Of course, we are grateful to the first responders and the law enforcement that were on the scene,” she said to the crowd of multiple thousands in North Hampton. “But this is just a senseless tragedy, on top of so many senseless tragedies, and it’s just outrageous that every day in our country, in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive.” 

That’s particularly true in New Hampshire, where students may possess concealed firearms on school property with written authorization from their district’s superintendent. What’s more, New Hampshire residents are permitted to carry loaded, concealed handguns in public without a background check or permit.  

A bill that would have kept guns out of schools failed in the Senate this legislative session,14-9 along party lines. In fact, New Hampshire’s elected leadership adjourned its 2024 legislative session without making any progress on enhancing gun safety in the state. 

“And the arguments were just, well, we don’t have a gun violence problem here,” said state Sen. Donovan Fenton, D-Keene, the primary sponsor of the bill. “But we’re trying to be preemptive instead of reactive to this problem.”

While there is a federal law prohibiting guns in school zones, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu passed a statute in 2022 that bans state and local governments from enforcing those federal firearm regulations. That means anyone who possesses a firearm can bring it inside school campuses in New Hampshire

“My son is in public school here in New Hampshire, and every time there’s a school shooting your heart aches for the families involved in something like that,” said Fenton, who is running for reelection to the state Senate this November. “And we don’t want to see something like that happen here in New Hampshire.”

Although cases of weapon possession on school campuses and threats of school violence remain low in New Hampshire, experts say that’s largely due to robust gun laws in neighboring states. Since Gov. Sununu took office in 2017, he and state Republicans have actively worked to weaken gun laws in the Granite State. 

Just this week, schools in Newport went under lockdown after a threat surfaced on social media. Last April, schools in Portsmouth were shut down and guarded by police officers after a 26-year-old man threatened to “shoot up” the school. 

Liz Boucher, a Concord School Board member and a mother of two, believes that in the absence of any strict gun safety laws, it falls upon the community to step up to protect kids. 

“What terrifies me is that states, including New Hampshire, do not have either secure gun storage laws or that they are not enforcing stronger gun secure gun storage laws, which makes access to firearms concerning,” she said. “And so it’s not just what could happen in terms of death, but it’s also what could happen in terms of trauma.”

A former volunteer with Moms Demand Action-New Hampshire—a grassroots organization that advocates for stronger gun laws and encourages responsible gun ownership—Boucher has spoken up in favor of safe gun storage laws, shared information about how to store firearms separate from ammunition, and worked across party lines to try to build momentum for gun-free school laws. 

But it was the 2023 Nashville school shooting that made her decide to run for the Concord School Board as a gun sense candidate. 

“As a 4th grader, I remember footage of Columbine. Now more, more and more school kids are experiencing 1st hand the trauma of a school tragedy,” Boucher said in a text message. “It was the 2023 Nashville shooting now that my own kids are in elementary school, that tipped me into action. That’s the year I decided to run for school board, and ran as a gun sense candidate.”

In April this year, she brought a resolution to support gun free school zones in the Concord School District, which passed. 

The resolution opposes current NH state law that does not require state and local police to enforce federal gun free school zones. It also commits to establishing policies that prohibit anyone from bringing firearms on school campuses. 

Similarly in April, the Dresden School District became first in New Hampshire to adopt a secure firearm storage resolution. 

As guns continue to be the leading cause of death for children and teens in America, the reality should be much different, said Zandra Rice Hawkins, director of GunSense NH. The grassroots program is dedicated to advancing common sense gun laws in New Hampshire. 

Hawkins said that as an advocate and a mother of two, her prime focus is to keep unwanted guns out of communities. Guns to Gardens, a GunSense NH initiative, aims to do just that. 

Started in 2023, Guns to Gardens brings together community members who no longer want their firearms or wish to sell them. The gun scraps have been used to make jewelry, flutes and even garden tools, Hawkins shared. 

“We have hosted two here in New Hampshire so far, and they can return those firearms and our volunteers chop them up [with] the chop saw right in front of them,” she said. “And then we work with artisans and others to turn those into things that are more useful and beautiful for our community.”

GunSense NH also has a Youth Advisory Board, which is open to youth ages 13-23. The program allows young individuals to get together to engage in legislative advocacy, organize a community or statewide action, and learn more about gun violence prevention. 

“They are such incredible student leaders that we’ve had an opportunity to work with over the years who can share firsthand what that experience is like in the schools during those lockdown drills, or in some cases in times where there have been actual threats,” said Hawkins

Hawkins said the endless slew of school shootings in the country is a constant reminder for people to ask tough questions from those running for office this November. 

“Coming out of the Sandy Hook shooting, there was a really large national effort to pass comprehensive background checks, and our own then-US Sen.Kelly Ayotte was one of the deciding votes against it,” Hawkins said.

Today, Ayotte is the Republican nominee for governor in New Hampshire, campaigning against Democrat Joyce Craig. They’ll be on NH ballots in the Nov. 5 general election.

To find gun sense candidates for that election, click here. You can check your voter registration status on the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s website.