Smoking guns in city parks?

Although the City Council narrowly voted to forbid smoking in city parks, beaches, ball fields and playgrounds, the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee last week endorsed a bill that would allow gunplay in these very same places.

House Bill 398 would repeal the current statute (RSA 644:13) prohibiting the discharge of "any cannon, gun, pistol, or other firearm" within "the compact part" of municipality without written permission from the police chief or governing body. The "compact part" of cities and towns is defined as "park, playground, or other outdoor public gathering place,"any nonresidential, commercial building along with a 300- foot perimeter around it and "any contiguous area containing six or more buildings which are used as either part-time or permanent dwellings and the spaces between them where each such building is within 300 feet of at least one of the others, plus a perimeter 300 feet wide around all the buildings in such area."

In particular, sponsors of the bill, among them Representative Fran Wendelboe (R-New Hampton ), contended that gun owners should be entitled to use firearms on their own property without the permission of the police chief or governing body. Wendelboe said that she co-sponsored the bill to address the problem encountered by resident of Bridgewater, who shot on a range on his property under what she described as a "gentlemen's agreement, but nothing in writing with the police chief, when a neighbor complained.

Wendelboe said that the bill would have no significant impact since other statutes limited the discharge of firearms. Two other statutes — RSAs 207: 3-a and 207:37-a — bear on the discharge of firearms, The first prohibits the use of firearms, bows and arrows and cross bows "within 300 feet of a permanently occupied dwelling without permission of the owner or the occupant of the dwelling or from the owner of the land or from the owner of the land on which the person discharging the firearm or shooting the bow and arrow or crossbow and bolt is situated."

Opponents of the bill counter that someone could shoot on their own property, irrespective of their distance from an adjacent dwelling.

The second specifies that persons who negligently discharges any firearm, bow and arrow, or crossbow and bolt and endangers the life or threatens the property of another person while hunting game or target shooting are guilty of a misdemeanor and may have their hunting license revoked. The New Hampshire Municipal Association notes that demonstrating negligence after the fact is not equivalent to prohibiting the discharge of firearms in congested areas.

The association claims that repealing the current law would strip municipalities of any control over the discharge of firearms. In 2003, the Legislature responded to municipal ordinances that forbid the carrying of firearms in municipal buildings, by enacting a statute (RSA 159:26, I) that specifies "except as otherwise specifically provided by statute, no ordinance or regulation of a political subdivision may regulate the sale, purchase, ownership, use, possession, transportation, licensing, permitting, taxation, or other matter pertaining to firearms, firearms components, ammunition, or firearms supplies in the state."

The committee reported HB-398 "ought to pass" by a margin of eight-to-six. The bill will go to the floor of the House for a vote on Tuesday, March 24.