New Hampshire has a serious public safety issue on its hands, a troubling gap in our gun laws is putting our loved ones at risk every single day.
This session, lawmakers will have the chance to take real action to keep our families safe by passing HB 687, a strong extreme risk protection order law.
These laws empower families and law enforcement officers to seek a court order that temporarily removes guns from those who display warning signs that indicate they pose a serious risk of using guns to harm themselves or others.
Extreme risk protection order laws, or ERPO laws, are often referred to as “red flag” laws and they have been passed in 13 states, including Vermont and Massachusetts.
Last year alone, eight of those ERPO laws were passed after the tragic high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., where the shooter had exhibited some serious warning signs.
And what spurred Vermont to take action? An averted high school shooting. Republican Gov. Phil Scott urged Vermont lawmakers to send him gun violence prevention legislation as soon as possible. The result was a sweeping package of gun safety bills that included the establishment of an ERPO law.
We need to do something before a similar mass shooting tragedy occurs in the Granite State.
Furthermore, ERPO laws have been shown to prevent suicides by firearm. This is an epidemic within our state. On average, one New Hampshire resident dies by gun suicide every three days, and nearly half of all suicide deaths in the last five years were carried out with a firearm.
This silent crisis is unacceptable and we can do better.
We need an ERPO law in New Hampshire. Lives are on the line.
REP. POLLY CAMPION
Etna
REP. MARY JANE MULLIGAN
Hanover
REP. GARRETT MUSCATEL
Hanover
REP. SHARON NORDGREN
Hanover
SEN. MARTHA HENNESSEY
Hanover
It’s been more than six years since the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy in December 2012. As a retired teacher and grandmother, I felt the unimaginable had happened. But now the number of incidents of gun violence on school grounds has only grown.
How can we just accept this?
There are several approaches that have already proven useful, and here is one that empowers our youths to be part of the solution: The Sandy Hook Promise Foundation has developed free programs that anyone can use to create safer schools. It offers Say Something, a free, easy-to-implement prevention program to teach students in schools and youth organizations how to identify the signs and signals of potential violence, especially in social media, and how to alert a trusted adult.
As teen suicide rates rise and school shootings fill the evening news, programs like these give me hope. Say Something has already averted many violent incidents across the country. By training our children with simple steps to look out for their peers and speak up, we can prevent violence before it happens.
I’ve asked the school principals in the district where I live to consider these programs. You can do the same in your district. Visit www.sandyhookpromise.org for more information.
This can make a real difference. Together, we can take this simple step to help bring the change we so badly need.
KATHLEEN SHEPHERD
Norwich
Since 2013, Vermont’s Dual Enrollment Program has allowed qualified 11th- and 12th-graders to take some courses at any of Vermont’s colleges tuition free. This program has as one aim the state’s retaining its young — for students’ early familiarity with a Vermont college should increase the chances of their both going to college and remaining in Vermont.
Now a bill (H.118/S.63) has been introduced in the Vermont Legislature to extend the Dual Enrollment Program to students from neighboring states and the province of Quebec. Since the three lawmakers sponsoring this bill represent Bennington, we may guess that this bill is especially intended to help Bennington College draw students from adjacent New York towns.
But as of now, Vermont’s Dual Enrollment Program is not extended to all qualified Vermont high schoolers. Students at approved independent schools that are parochial schools are excluded from the program.
This exclusion is reprehensible.
The tuition assistance given by the program goes entirely to the colleges. Above all, it is the individual students who are the beneficiaries of this assistance. A bill to close this gap (H.125/S.45) has been introduced in the Legislature.
Extending the Dual Enrollment Program to out-of-state students may have its merits, but such an extension should not be made without first extending the program to everyone on the home team.
ROBERT WISE
North Pomfret
There is an opportunity to effectively address the issues we have both with illegal immigration and the large numbers of people living in our country without legal permission. It would require the following components, in addition to greater enforcement of our laws and enhanced border security:
■ Eliminate the ability of workers who are living in the country illegally to get jobs. The best way to do this is with fines and possible jail time for employers who are repeat offenders and do not use the existing e-verify system for their employees.
■ Greatly increase our existing migrant worker programs, which are used when employers cannot find the help they need within the existing labor pool. All existing migrants who lack the appropriate documentation should be given the opportunity, unless there are problems with criminal issues, to receive guest worker status that allows temporary work in this country.
■ Provide a green card and a path to citizenship for those who can prove they have been in our country for at least the last five years and have no criminal record.
■ Provide a green card and path to citizenship for the “Dreamers,” those who were brought to this country illegally as children.
The last three items should have a time limit for compliance and then be eliminated.
Unless we face the fact that the root of the problem starts with employers who encourage people to think they can come here illegally and find work, we will not solve the problem.
Also, we cannot realistically deport the millions already here and need to find a way to make these people truly part of our country.
JOHN FREITAG
Strafford