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A 37-year-old Concord realtor who espoused anti-Trump sentiments online is being held for allegedly keying dozens of cars during the recent state GOP convention as police found a disturbing cache of guns, zip ties, and suicide notes in his apartment.

Lawrence Anthony Dunlap of South Spring Street was arrested and charged Friday with 11 felonies for the incident that took place earlier this month.

The investigation into Dunlap’s connection to the vandalism became intense Friday when Concord Police issued a “be on the lookout” alert for Dunlap over concerns for his safety and the safety of police who might encounter him, according to reporting by Tony Schinella at the Concord Patch.

Dunlap was reportedly seen leaving his home on foot Friday morning. Police report finding guns, a manifesto, suicide notes, and a bag containing zip ties, masks, and gloves.

Dunlap’s social media profiles were largely scrubbed Friday. But some remaining posts indicate an antipathy for former President Donald Trump and Trump’s supporters. In a rambling Facebook post accusing Trump voters of racism and law enforcement of denying the events of Jan. 6, 2021, Dunlap called Trump a dictator before oddly calling for unity.

“Y’all (Trump supporters) lost your s–t when [Obama] tried to fix healthcare. Never mind the sheer f—ery Trump has pulled for the last for [sic] years,” Dunlap posted.

“Then to tell me a dictatorship by Trump is better than the democracy we know. Kinda say [sic] it all now doesn’t it,” Dunlap added. “As long as we elect people who chose to divide [sic] over unify we will never get anything done.”

Dunlap is registered as an unaffiliated voter. He is accused of riding a skateboard around the cars parked for the state GOP convention and keying them as the car owners were inside.

Di Lothrop, a Nashua Republican whose car was damaged during the GOP convention held at Concord High School, is heartened by news of an arrest, but unnerved by Dunlap’s alleged motives.

“Now that is sick,” Lothrop said.

As a Trump campaign volunteer during the primary, Lothrop met a lot of Nashua residents who were not fans of the former president when she knocked on doors. Most were polite, but Lothrop did have an unsettling encounter with one anti-Trump Nashua resident making threats.

“He told me I had three seconds to get off his property or he would drop me,” said Lothrop, who is in her 70s.

The man followed up that threat by getting close to Lothrop and counting, she said.

“It is what it is. People like that are sick. There’s nothing you can really do or say to them to change their minds,” Lothrop said.

“I’m appreciative of the professionalism displayed by the Concord Police,” said state GOP Chairman Chris Ager.

Dunlap is being held on preventative detention and is due in Merrimack Superior Court on Monday. He’s charged with 11 felony counts of criminal mischief.

It’s a tale of two major New Hampshire employers in the same industry.

While firearms manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc., reports a sharp drop in revenue and earnings, fellow gunmaker Sig Sauer is working on major expansions of its facilities on the Seacoast.

Based in Connecticut, Ruger has a manufacturing facility in Newport that is a key employer in the state’s Upper Valley region. Sig Sauer Inc., the American spin-off of the German company, is an economic powerhouse in the Seacoast region, with manufacturing as well as training facilities here. The company is based in Newington.

This month, Ruger reported another quarter of low sales and earnings, part of a slide that started in 2021. Ruger’s first quarter of 2023 saw net sales of $149.5 million and diluted earnings of 81 cents per share. That was a large drop from 2022’s first quarter, when Ruger had net sales of $166.6 million and diluted earnings of $1.70 per share.

Ruger CEO Christopher Killoy said in a statement to investors that the earnings drop is simply because fewer people are buying guns. Ruger has responded to the sales slide by making fewer guns.

“Decreased consumer demand led to a 10 percent reduction in first quarter sales compared to the prior year. We took a disciplined approach, targeted a production mix that better aligned with consumer demand, and continued to responsibly manage our overall production levels to reflect market conditions as we did throughout 2022,” Killoy said.

Gun sales across the industry have slipped since the record highs in 2020 associated with concerns about safety during the COVID pandemic. Firearms industry journalist Stephen Gutowski with The Reload reports that while 21 million guns were sold in 2020, there were 18 million sold in 2021 and 16 million in 2022. 

Sig Sauer is not a public company, but the recent initiative to expand its facilities, which includes close to $40 million in loans from the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority, indicates financial strength.

On the other hand, Killoy told investors the company is facing worries over its ability to get financing and credit. Large banks are choosing political optics over business and so refuse to do business with firearms firms, even small businesses like gun shops.

“(W)e have been notified twice in the past five years by two of the nation’s largest banks, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, that they would not provide us with any credit because of the lawful products that we design, manufacture, and sell,” Killoy said.

According to Killoy, Ruger is operating with no debt and plenty of cash. He told investors that the company is well-positioned to break out of the slump.

“Our long-term focus will continue to yield strong cash flow, prioritize the development of innovative new products, and safeguard our robust, debt-free balance sheet, which in turn will allow us to withstand the volatility of the ever-changing firearms market,” Killoy said.

It’s not just the financial sector and a volatile market that gunmakers must worry about. It’s an industry hostage to irrational forces beyond its control: The government.

A firearms industry insider who spoke to N.H. Journal said that even as the threat of some government regulation can drive sales of guns, like a proposed assault weapons ban, other regulations can have a crippling effect on business. 

In New Hampshire, state Sen. Deb Altschiller (D-Stratham) pushed a bill this year that would have opened the floodgates for lawsuits against gunmakers and gun sellers. Altschiler’s SB 247 would have removed limited liability for gunmakers, distributors, and dealers. 

The industry insider said Altschiller’s bill would have let crime victims sue companies like Ruger if, say, a Ruger gun was used in a crime. The gun store that sold that Ruger could also get sued. The bill was spiked in the Senate along party lines 14-10.

Sig Sauer is currently facing lawsuits from 70 people claiming they were injured when their Sig Sauer P320 pistols fired without pulling the triggers. The P320 9 mm pistol, a civilian version of a weapon sold to law enforcement, is one of Sig Sauer’s bestselling guns.

According to the industry insider, a key difference between Ruger and Sig Sauer comes down to who is buying which particular brand.

Ruger’s lineup is seen as more budget-friendly and geared to average gun owners with a range of hunting rifles, sporting rifles, pistols, and a well-known line of Cowboy-style single-action revolvers.

Ruger’s most recent high-profile business venture was buying Marlin, the defunct maker of level-action rifles, and bringing buyers a new line of old-fashioned weapons.

Sig Sauer makes high-end guns for the retail market, and its firearms are nearly three times as expensive as comparable Rugers. The company also produces high-end pistols, rifles, and machine guns for the military and police markets. Sig Sauer signed a 10-year contract with the U.S. Army last year, reportedly worth $580 million.

Sig Sauer is supplying the Army with new assault rifles and machine guns using specially developed Sig Sauer ammunition as part of the military’s Next Generation Squad Weapon program.

Representatives for Ruger and Sig Sauer declined to respond to requests for comment.

One of the founders of Rainbow Reload, a New Hampshire-based group of LGBTQ people who teach others how to defend themselves with firearms, scoffs at the idea the organization is dangerous.

“All Rainbow Reload does is train, explain how guns work, and we make sure there is no political activity,” said Finn Sicaria, who uses the pronouns they/their. “We make sure it stays a comfortable space that everyone can access.”

It is part of the national movement “pink pistol” movement that can be traced back to an article at Salon.com by Jonathan Rauch.

Angered by violence against the LGBT community, Rauch wrote, “The gay movement often portrays homosexuals as helpless victims. Here’s an alternative: Arm them… If it became widely known that homosexuals carry guns and know how to use them, not many bullets would need to be fired.”

Sicaria is a pseudonym used while they sort out their gender identity transition. The 33-year-old says they moved to southern New Hampshire several years ago to get away from violence directed at queer people and to get away from local governments that restrict the right to bear arms.

“I’m never leaving,” Sicaria said.

After being a victim of an assault while in college in New Jersey, Sicaria went through the extensive process of getting a license to carry a pistol in that state. Later, Sicaria moved to Boston, hoping to find a home in the city’s gay community. Because of the Bay State’s own restrictive gun laws, Sicaria had to get rid of their guns.

“I had disarmed to move to Massachusetts, thinking I was making myself safer,” Sicaria said.

That was not the case. Sicaria said they were unsafe in Boston. Sicaria was subject to harassment and abuse, like being targeted with milkshakes or being spat on.

“I had this fantasy in my head that the communities could be isolated,” Sicaria said. “I learned to move fast and get out of the way.”

Sicaria soon found themselves again the victim of violence and left the city to stay with friends in New Hampshire to recover. Here in the Granite State, Sicaria was once again able to legally carry a gun.

“New Hampshire allows me to be who I am and to defend myself,” Sicaria said.

In New Hampshire, Sicrari became part of a like-minded community of people who wanted to be able to defend themselves. However, many in the group were unhappy with their options. Too many pro-Second Amendment groups were actively political and leaned too far to the right for Sicaria’s circle.

Rainbow Reload started as a way to teach other LGBTQ people how to use guns safely while steering clear of politics.

“We train queer people; that’s all we do,” Sicaria said.

Many of the people who come to Rainbow Reload meetings and training have themselves been victims of hate-oriented violence, Sicaria said. There is a desire among New Hampshire LGBTQ people to be able to defend themselves and their community, as well as an appreciation for New Hampshire’s respect for personal liberty and gun ownership.

The training usually occurs at a friendly gun range or a site in the woods.

Sicaria is not apolitical. They are trained as an EMT and serves as a  volunteer street medic for protests. Sicaria is also part of a community defense group that provides security at protests. Those actions are separate from Rainbow Reload, Sicaria insisted.

The community defense team typically operates at protests in a way not to be noticed, or in ninja mode, Sicaria said.

“If we did our job right, you have no idea we were there at all,” Sicaria said.

New Hampshire has seen an uptick in hate crimes over the past several years. The white supremacist group NSC-131 has taken root in the Granite State among others known hate groups. Two members of NSC-131 were recently charged with civil violations by New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella. Christopher Hood and Leo Anthony Cullinan were allegedly part of the NSC 131 demonstration on a Route 1 overpass in Portsmouth last July, during which they displayed a sign that read “Keep New England White.”

Sicaria said it is time for LGBTQ people to realize they need to defend themselves against the active hate groups that are operating in New England and beyond.

“There are angry Nazis with plate carriers and AR-15s, the people who hate us, and they have been training for years,” Sicaria said.

Sicaria is concerned about what they see as the rising angry rhetoric directed at queer people, which they fear could lead to violence.

“It’s hard to describe how it felt watching it slowly creep on,” Sicaria said.

Sicaria has no patience for those in the LGBTQ community who engage in violence, like the killer in the recent school shooting in Nashville. In the incident, a transgender person killed three children and three adults. Sicaria is angry with those on the left who argued that the shooter was justified because of anti-transgender rhetoric and violence.

“The shooter is a literal piece of f***ing sh**. A broken monster,” Sicaria said. “We need to eliminate the idea that this is something we can blame on any sort of discrimination. This is somebody who was a monster.”

Stefany Shaheen, the daughter of the state’s senior U.S. senator and widely viewed as a likely future Democratic candidate, is using her position on the Portsmouth Police Commission to call for gun confiscation as a “reasonable measure” to address gun violence.

In the wake of last week’s mass shooting at a Christian school in Nashville, Tenn., Shaheen penned an op-ed for the Portsmouth Herald bemoaning the fact that “we have not found a way to implement reasonable safety measures to keep first-graders from being shot in their classroom with automatic assault weapons that can unload 90 bullets in 10 seconds. 90 bullets in 10 seconds!”

However, she added, “There are reasonable measures we can take to stem the tide of these horrendous deaths.” Among them:

• Banning the sale of semi-automatic weapons.

• A mandatory assault weapon buyback program.

Shaheen, a children’s book author who chairs the city commission that oversees the police department, is staking out political ground by advocating a ban on the sale of most guns found in New Hampshire sporting goods stores. And gun confiscation — the “mandatory buyback” of privately owned weapons by the government — is such a political hot button that even aggressive anti-gun groups like Giffords and Everytown have declined to embrace it.

“The beauty of a democratic form of government is that WE [sic] the people have power,” she wrote. “Together, we can insist that those who earn our votes support safety in our schools and on our streets. We can end this vicious cycle of inaction driven by those who want us to disengage and give up.”

Shaheen declined to respond to questions from NH Journal regarding her specific policy proposals. She also declined to answer a question about whether politicians should accept campaign donations from gun manufacturers.

Shaheen’s mother, Sen. Jeane Shaheen, has taken at least $13,000 in direct campaign donations from New Hampshire-based gun maker Sig Sauer.

Sen. Shaheen’s press team also declined to respond to requests for comment. However, the senator has supported legislation banning the sale of some popular firearms, like the AR-15, as part of a ban on so-called “assault weapons.”

Kim Morin with the Women’s Defense League of New Hampshire said the younger Shaheen is simply out of touch. The Granite State has never had a school shooting. The only mass shooting incident in New Hampshire occurred 26 years ago when her mother was governor. Then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen did not enact new gun laws after Carl Drega shot and killed four people in Colebrook, including two New Hampshire state troopers.  

“Stefany Shaheen lives in one of the safest states in the country. She is blaming thousands of Granite Staters who lawfully own AR-15 style rifles for the actions of a psychopath,” Morin said. “Her suggestion of a ‘mandatory buyback program’ is nothing less than gun confiscation.”

Stefany Shaheen’s op-ed also called for a ban on high-capacity magazines, enacting “red flag” laws, and requiring a license for any gun purchase. Critics note, however, that part of her argument is based on counterfactual gun specs, such as her reference to “automatic assault weapons.”

In fact, the Nashville shooter did not have automatic weapons. Fully automatic weapons, also known as machine guns, are not typically available to Americans. They can be purchased, but only with a special permit and tax stamp. The weapons are also prohibitively expensive in most cases.

The semi-automatic type of firearms the Nashville shooter carried can only fire one bullet per trigger pull. It is highly unlikely the Nashville shooter, or any other shooter, can pull a trigger 90 times in 10 seconds. 

“They can only fire as fast as a person can pull the trigger,” Morin said. “People like (Stefany) Shaheen, who clearly knows nothing about firearms, shouldn’t be commenting on how firearms work and certainly shouldn’t be trying to create laws about them.”

Stefany Shaheen’s proposal also does nothing about handguns being the most commonly used weapons by mass shooters. Morin said Shaheen’s poor grasp of the facts and her extreme ideas like gun confiscation show how far out of mainstream she is from average Granite Staters.

“We don’t live in a third-world country ruled by authoritarian dictators. We live in one of the freest states in America. Shaheen, like her mother Jeanne, is completely out of touch with the people of New Hampshire, especially women,” Morin said.

A jury needs to decide if the New Hampshire Department of Safety and the owners of the Derry gun store ignored red flags when Ian MacPherson bought the gun he would use to shoot two Manchester police officers in 2016, according to attorney Mark Morrissette.

“My clients need due process. They were shot by someone who shouldn’t have had a weapon,” Morrissette said Tuesday as he presented his arguments before the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

Morrissette wants the High Court to overturn last year’s Superior Court ruling that threw out the lawsuit brought by Ryan Hardy and Matthew O’Connor, the two Manchester police officers MacPherson shot with the .40 caliber Smith and Wesson handgun he bought at Chester Arms.

According to Morrissette, both the store and the New Hampshire Department of Safety are at fault in the shooting for ignoring obvious signs that MacPherson should not be sold a gun.

MacPherson was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting and is currently being held by the state for psychiatric care, according to Morrissette. When he went into Chester Arms to buy the gun, he exhibited such strange and alarming behavior that customers left the store to get their own weapons, and other customers called police because they were scared of him, Morrissette said.

“This was not a usual situation,” Morrissette said.

Sean List, the attorney for Chester Arms, said the store cannot be held liable for the sale. Store employees followed the law and relied on the Department of Safety’s Gun Line to clear the sale. MacPherson’s behavior on the day he first tried to buy the gun in March of 2016 may have been odd, but not a legal disqualification from owning a handgun, List said.

“There was no indication the guy was dangerous. Quirky, maybe, but not dangerous,” List said. “Let me tell you, if you go to a gun show … you’ll see some quirky people who are not dangerous.”

Even though MacPherson had a criminal history that included domestic violence conviction and an involuntary hospital stay for a mental competency evaluation, Jessica King, the attorney for the Department of Safety, said there was no information that the state’s Gun Line staff could have found that would disqualify MacPherson’s purchase at the time.

“At the end of the day we couldn’t find anything that wasn’t there,” King said.

According to Morrissette, that is simply not true. MacPherson’s record was riddled with enough red flags to prompt the Gun Line staff to delay his approval for a handgun purchase.

MacPherson was initially unable to purchase the gun when he went to Chester Arms in March of 2016. The store employee contacted the state’s Gun Line, run by the Department of Safety, for a background check on MacPherson. According to court records, the Gun Line told the store that MacPherson’s status was “delayed” for further investigation.

The Gun Line investigation found MacPherson had a history of domestic violence charges out of Merrimack, as well as court-ordered mental health evaluations. A relative told Merrimack police that MacPherson suffered from severe mental illness, and this was conveyed to the Gun Line.

While this information was given to the Department of Safety and the Gun Line, the state never told Chester Arms not to sell MacPherson the gun, according to court records.

The Gun Line investigation found that because of MacPherson’s relationships with the victims in the domestic violence cases, those convictions met the legal definition of a violation that would prevent him from owning a firearm. The Gun Line employees were also unable to verify his mental health condition, according to the order.

Morrissette told the justices on Tuesday the Gun Line staff had the information needed to put a halt to MacPherson’s purchase but failed to do their jobs. Gun Line investigators had access to enough information to learn he was not eligible to own a gun, including a Merrimack Police report that indicated MacPherson was psychotic, refused treatment, and presented a danger to himself and others.

The store waited more than three business days to hear back from the Gun Line for a final determination. After not being contacted by the state, the store allowed MacPherson to buy the gun with the “delayed” background findings as is allowed under state law.

MacPherson’s Gun Line status continued to be listed as “delayed” for the weeks he owned the gun and did not change until after he shot the officers in May of 2016.

The shooting happened when the officers tried to question MacPherson about a gas station armed robbery. Hardy was shot in the face and torso; O’Connor was treated for a gunshot wound to the leg. Both officers have since returned to active duty.

Morrissette said the case and all its facts need to be decided by a jury. He’s not trying to put the Second Amendment right to own a gun on trial, he said. He wants to hold people and institutions accountable when they allow the wrong people to access guns.

“The Second Amendment should be honored, but it shouldn’t put a weapon in the hands of someone who is incompetent,” Morrissette said.

The justices took the case under advisement and will issue a ruling in the coming months.

Two Manchester police officers injured in a 2016 shooting are headed to the New Hampshire Supreme Court after a Superior Court Judge ruled against them in their lawsuit against a gun store and the state. 

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal from Manchester officers Ryan Hardy and Matthew O’Connor. They were shot by Ian Macpherson in May 2016. The officers are suing Chester Arms, where Macpherson bought the .40 caliber Smith and Wesson used in the shooting, and the New Hampshire Department of Safety, which provided the store the background check for the purchase.

Rockingham Superior Court Judge David Ruoff ruled in February that O’Conner and Hardy could not have prevailed if the case had gone to trial, because both the store and the Department of Safety followed current law. He dismissed the case on summary judgment.

The shooting happened when the officers tried to question Macpherson about a gas station armed robbery. Hardy was shot in the face and torso; O’Connor was treated for a gunshot wound to the leg, according to the Associated Press. Both officers have since returned to active duty.

The officers brought the lawsuit against the store and the New Hampshire Department of Safety, claiming the mentally ill MacPherson, who has a history of domestic violence, should never have been sold the gun in the first place.

MacPherson ended up pleading not guilty by reason of insanity in 2018 and was ordered to serve five years at the New Hampshire State Psychiatric Hospital.

MacPherson was initially unable to purchase the gun when he went to Chester Arms in March 2016. The store employee contacted the state’s Gun Line, run by the Department of Safety, for a background check on MacPherson. The Gun Line told the store that MacPherson’s status was “delayed” for further investigation, according to Ruoff’s order.

The Gun Line investigation found MacPherson has a history of domestic violence charges out of Merrimack, as well as court-ordered mental health evaluations. A relative told Merrimack police that MacPherson suffered from serious mental illness, and this was conveyed to the Gun Line.

While this information was given to the Department of Safety and the Gun Line, the state never told Chester Arms not to sell MacPherson the gun, according to court records.

The Gun Line investigation found MacPherson’s relationships to the victims in the domestic violence cases did meet the legal definition of a violation that would prevent him from owning a firearm. The Gun Line employees were also unable to verify his mental health condition, according to the order.

The store followed the law by waiting three business days to hear back from the Gun Line, according to Ruoff’s order. After not being contacted by the state, the store allowed MacPherson to buy the gun, according to Ruoff’s order. MacPherson’s Gun Line status continued to stay “delayed” for the weeks he owned the gun and did not change until after he shot the officers.

“The Gun Line continued the delay status on Mr. MacPherson’s transaction until the day he was indicted for the shooting, at which point the Gun Line changed the status to denied,” Ruoff wrote.

In the wake of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen took to Twitter to accurse Gov. Chris Sununu of cowardice. But her own record as governor is problematic.

In response to a tweet from Sununu regarding the Robb Elementary School shooting, Shaheen wrote, “How can anyone be complacent with this status quo? Refusing to enact common-sense gun reforms is cowardly, irresponsible, and deadly.

“Buffalo. Uvalde. Tulsa. Las Vegas. Orlando. Newtown. Parkland. Aurora. Columbine,” Shaheen added. “The list goes on.”

But there is another town she could have added to the list: Colebrook, N.H.

In August 1997, Carl Drega shot and killed four people in Colebrook, including two New Hampshire State troopers in the state’s only mass shooting. 

Carl Drega

Described as a disgruntled loner who blamed local officials for his wife’s death from cancer, the 62-year-old Drega had repeatedly been involved in disputes over zoning regulations and property taxes with the town of Columbia, N.H. Years of frustration boiled over into deadly rage on August 19 when state troopers Les Lord and Scott Phillips pulled him over for excessive rust on his truck.

Drega stole the dead officers’ police car and drove to Colebrook District Court to hunt down Judge Vicki Bunnell, who was also a Columbia selectwoman and had a restraining order against him. Drega shot her eight times in the back. When Dennis Joos, editor of the Colebrook News and Sentinel, tried to wrestle the AR-15 away from him, Drega killed him, too.

Drega went to his house in Columbia and set it on fire. He was confronted by N.H. Fish and Game warden Wayne Saunders, who Drega shot and wounded. He then fled across the river to Vermont for a last stand, during which three more law enforcement officers were wounded before Drega was finally shot to death.

It was a shocking crime in a small community. A library in Stewartstown was later named for Joos in honor of his courage. Books have been written about the horrific events of that August day.

And who was governor in 1997? Democrat Jeanne Shaheen.

In the aftermath of New Hampshire’s only mass shooting, then-Gov. Shaheen didn’t sign any laws restricting gun ownership or making it more difficult to buy AR-15s. Indeed, Democrats have held the corner office for 19 of the 25 years since Drega’s rampage and New Hampshire still has some of the least restrictive gun laws in the nation. 

NHJournal repeatedly contacted Shaheen’s office for a comment about her gun control record, her accusation of cowardice against Gov. Sununu, and what she would do in response to the mass shooting in Texas. She declined to respond.

Associate Attorney General Jeff Strelzin, Director of the Public Protection Division, said the FBI defines mass shooting incidents as those with four victims, not including the shooter or shooters.

“The Congressional Research Service defines mass shootings as multiple, firearm, homicide incidents, involving four or more victims at one or more locations close to one another,” Strelzin said.

While Drega’s shooting is the only one to meet the FBI’s definition of a mass shooting, Strelzin said there are two other incidents in which three people were shot.

In July 2007, Michael Woodbury shot and killed three men in a store in Conway. In 2010, Ken Arsenault shot three people in Pittsburg. One victim later died.

Both of those shootings also occurred on the watch of Democratic Gov. John Lynch. During his record four terms, no significant gun restrictions were put into place.

Hassan’s contribution to gun control as governor was vetoing the constitutional carry bill that Sununu would go on to sign into law.

The Gifford Law Center, a non-profit dedicated to preventing gun violence, gives New Hampshire an F in gun control laws.

“New Hampshire lacks many basic gun safety protections and, in fact, has weakened its gun laws in recent years—state lawmakers must reverse this deadly trend,” the Giffords ranking states. “New Hampshire has not passed any meaningful gun safety laws in years, and recently enacted a law that allows people to carry loaded, hidden handguns in public without a background check or permit.”

But according to Jim Goulden, a Nashua defense attorney who specializes in gun crime cases, New Hampshire politicians who support gun control usually end up out of office.

“I don’t know of any New Hampshire politician who has pushed for greater gun control,” he said.

New Hampshire’s gun laws tend to focus on punishing people who use firearms in the commission of a crime, or who possess firearms while being legally prohibited from doing so, he said. Goulden said the results of New Hampshire’s laws are evident.

“If we’re going by crimes involving firearms, New Hampshire has very good gun control, we have very few gun crimes,” he said.

Last year, the FBI released crime statistics for 2020, finding a 30 percent surge in murders nationwide, but not in New Hampshire. According to the FBI’s data, there were 6.5 murders per 100,000 people nationally. In New Hampshire, it was 0.9 per 100,000 or 12 murders for all of 2020.

The 2020 statistic may be an anomaly. Michael Garrity, director of communication for the New Hampshire Department of Justice, said the state typically averages about 19 murders per year, and 2022 is following the trend.

“There have been 11 so far this year, so there has been no spike in homicides,” he said.

Goulden said no matter the gun laws anyone wants to propose, the only real change will happen when people start getting serious about addressing mental illness.

“Until people start taking personal responsibility for themselves and their own families, mental illness, always going to be an outlier,” he said.

Superior Court Judge David Ruoff ruled against two Manchester police officers injured in a 2016 shooting in a lawsuit the officers brought against a Derry gun store.

“This is absolutely a great day for gun rights in New Hampshire,” said Sean List, the attorney for Chester Arms in Derry.

Manchester officers Ryan Hardy and Matthew O’Connor were reportedly shot by Ian Macpherson in May 2016 when they tried to question him about a gas station armed robbery. Hardy was shot in the face and torso; O’Connor was treated for a gunshot wound to the leg, according to the Associated Press. Both officers have since returned to active duty.

The officers brought a lawsuit against Chester Arms, the store where MacPherson bought his .40 caliber Smith and Wesson. They also sued the New Hampshire Department of Safety, claiming that the mentally ill MacPherson, who has a history of domestic violence, should never have been sold the gun in the first place.

Ruoff ruled in a summary judgment order that O’Connor and Hardy would not have prevailed if the case had gone to trial because both the store and the Department of Safety followed current law. List said it is possible the pair will appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, but he’s unconcerned about the prospect.

“We feel very confident that if it is appealed, the Supreme Court will find judge Ruoff’s order is correct,” List said.

Stephen Gutowski, editor of The Reload, the nation’s leading journal on gun issues, tells NHJournal he sees the Chester Arms case in a larger, national context.

“This case is part of a broader decades-long strategy by gun-control advocates to hold gun makers and retailers liable for gun crimes they aren’t directly implicated in. It’s not surprising they fell short here. However, the loss is unlikely to deter advocates from pursuing more cases like this moving forward,” Gutowski said.

Representatives for the Manchester Police Department declined to comment, and Mayor Joyce Craig’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Mark Morrissette, the attorney representing O’Conner and Hardy, told NHPR he wanted the case to force New Hampshire to start following federal law on background checks.

MacPherson ended up pleading not guilty by reason of insanity in 2018. He was ordered to serve five years in the New Hampshire State Psychiatric Hospital.

MacPherson was initially unable to purchase the gun when he went to Chester Arms in March 2016. The store employee contacted the state’s “gun check line,” run by the Department of Safety, for a background check on him. The gun line told the store that MacPherson’s status was “delayed” for further investigation, according to Ruoff’s order.

The gun line investigation found MacPherson’s domestic violence cases did not trigger any legal prohibition that would prevent him from owning a firearm. The gun line employees were also unable to verify his mental health condition, according to the order.

While that information was given to the Department of Safety and the Gun Line, the state never told Chester Arms not to sell MacPherson the gun.

The gun line investigation found the relationships to the victims in MacPherson’s domestic violence cases, those convictions did meet the legal definition of a violation that would prevent him from owning a firearm. The gun line employees were also unable to verify his mental health condition, according to the order.

The store followed the law by waiting three business days to hear back from the gun line. After not being contacted by the state, the store allowed MacPherson to buy the gun, according to Ruoff’s order. MacPherson’s gun line status continued to stay “delayed” for the weeks he owned the gun and did not change until after he shot the officers.

“The gun line continued the delay status on Mr. MacPherson’s transaction until the day he was indicted for the shooting, at which point the gun line changed the status to denied,” Ruoff wrote. 

List said gun dealers have immunity when they sell guns so long as they do not commit felonies during the course of an individual gun sale. 

Morrissette told NHPR that even though the store and the Department of Safety followed the rules, the laws should not allow someone like MacPherson to purchase a gun. The lawsuit wanted to have the laws protecting dealers ruled unconstitutional.

“It is not an effort to undermine the Second Amendment. There are laws in place that limit the purchase or possession of weapons, or at least to have someone look at this in a deliberate fashion to make sure that people are not unreasonably harmed,” Morrissette said. “The laws were there. The guidelines were there and they should be looked at. I think at the end of the day, in this case, Mr. MacPherson was a tormented person without overstating it in any way. And to believe that he was rightly given a weapon just runs counter to common sense and it runs counter to the law.”

Ruoff found that the laws protecting Chester Arms serve to protect the right to bear arms. 

It’s no secret that U. S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) isn’t a fan of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. She opposed DeVos’s nomination and has repeatedly criticized her since.

But this week the criticism veered into a new area: Guns.

During Secretary DeVos’s appearance before an Appropriations Subcommittee, Sen. Shaheen asked her about school safety and guns.  After reading a letter from a high school student in Dover, Shaheen went on to claim that “since 2009, the US has had 57 times more school shootings than the rest of the G7 countries combined. That’s 288 school shootings in the U.S.”

“The question I have for you, Secretary DeVos, is–what are these countries doing that we’re not doing? Do they have fewer mentally ill people? Do they arm their teachers? Or do they have more sensible gun laws?

Secretary DeVos suggested to the committee that the new Federal Commission of School Safety established at the behest of President Trump will not look at the issue of guns and gun violence–which, if true, would appear to be a glaring omission. However, Sen. Shaheen’s claim of 288 school shootings in the U. S. since 2009 also bears scrutiny.

According to researchers at Northeastern University, schools are actually safer than they were in the 90s, and school shootings are not more common.

“Since 1996, there have been 16 multiple victim shootings in schools, or incidents involving 4 or more victims and at least 2 deaths by firearms, excluding the assailant,” the report shows.  Now, Sen. Shaheen did not use the phrase “mass shootings,” which is what most people think of when they hear “school shootings,” so perhaps she simply meant all shootings at K-12 schools.

Ooops. Here’s their data on all school shootings where there was even a single fatality:

Notice that, since 2009, the number of fatal shootings rarely exceeds single digits. That would put the number since 2009 closer to 80, not 288.

Sen. Shaheen appears to be relying on a report from CNN which the network admits is based on their own count of media reports of shootings and not on actual police data. CNN also acknowledges their numbers  include, not just K-12 schools, but  colleges and vocational schools. Many of the incidents are  gang violence, domestic violence, robberies in school parking lots and accidents.

CNN didn’t reveal their raw data, but a previous CNN analysis of school shootings in 2018 included a student shot with a BB gun. Of the 23 school shootings on CNN’s list for 2018, only two meet the criteria of a mass shooting.

Every school shooting is an outrage, of course, and Sen. Shaheen’s questions about how the Department of Education intends to address the issue are certainly legitimate. But including bogus, poorly-sourced and debunked data in the conversation doesn’t advance legitimate debate.

Watch the exchange between Sen. Shaheen and Secretary DeVos here:

When Republican Governor Phil Scott–who ran as an opponent of expanded gun laws–recently signed a series of gun restrictions into law, he was greeted with cries of “Traitor” from Second Amendment supporters in Vermont. But on the other side of the border, he may hear a different cry:

“Cha-CHING!”

According to media reports, New Hampshire gun stores in communities along the Vermont border are already seeing an uptick in sales–and are anticipating even more.

“We always get a fair amount of business from Vermont, but there has been a little bit of an uptick the last few weeks,” Dick Basnar of Corey’s Sports Shop in Littleton told Caldonian Record.

Leila Welch, owner of Welch’s Gun and Gift in Lebanon, NH is having a similar experience. “I don’t have many AR’s,” she told the NHJournal, “but I’ve had some magazines [people from New Hampshire] are buying.”

Restrictions on magazines (no more than 10 rounds for rifles, 15 rounds for handguns) are a key part of the new laws that will be taking full effect in Vermont as of October 1st. The law also expands background checks and prohibits people under the age of 21 from buying guns unless they take a government-approved training course.

Gov. Scott’s flip-flop on gun rights has inspired both a surge of anger–and possibly a surge in New Hampshire gun sales.  Meanwhile, Vermont’s gun rights activists insist these new laws are solving a “problem” that doesn’t exist.

“Our average murder rate by firearms is four a year, out of a population of 625, 000,” notes Eddie Cutler of Gun Owners of Vermont, a pro-Second-Amendment organization that’s organized opposition to these laws. “Once Gov. Scott, in his infinite wisdom, decided to [find] an excuse to pass gun control, he opened the flood gates and next thing we knew we were up to our armpits in gun control laws.”

And possibly a flood of gun sales in the Granite State beginning this fall.