Several hundred gun rights supporters, some carrying rifles and pistols, rallied Thursday outside the State House.
Rally organizers were collecting signatures for a petition telling Governor Hassan and New Hampshire lawmakers to nullify federal gun control laws.
The petition is blunt: it says N.H. public officials are “duty bound” to declare void all federal gun limits that don’t comport with the constitution. Jerry Delemus organized the rally and leads theRocheter 9/12 group.
“We need to send a message as clear as a bell, so as my grandmother says, with horse sense, they will understand what is going on, what we will tolerate and what we won’t tolerate. And the only way we can do that is by gatherings like this, folks like you to get out and say no, we don’t want to have to wheel a cannon out in front of the Governor’s house they way that had to do a couple of hundred years ago and tell him no.
Speakers also took aim at a proposal pending in Concord to repeal the so-called stand your ground legislation enacted by Republicans in 2011. That law allows people to use deadly force in self-defense outside their homes without first having to attempt retreat.