- New Hampshire lawmakers heard arguments Friday in favor of various bills drafted in response to last year’s mass shooting at a psychiatric hospital.
- Mental health records, protective orders, and firearms carrying laws are among the main targets of various proposals.
- “Rather than pushing for yet another discriminatory gun confiscation bill, why aren’t we actually doing something to address the serious mental health issues we have?” Women’s Defense League Kimberly Morin said about the bill.
The assistant medical director at a New Hampshire hospital on Friday urged lawmakers to pass gun control legislation, describing his pain after a security guard was fatally shot in the facility’s lobby last year.
“A colleague was murdered 100 feet from my office,” Dr. Samanta Swetter told the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. “Then I had to sit there while my loved ones were in danger and I could do little to help them.”
The committee will hear six bills seeking to limit or expand access to firearms, including one drafted in response to the death of Bradley Haas, who was killed in November by a former patient at a Concord psychiatric hospital. A meeting was being held.
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Federal law prohibits people who have been involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital from purchasing guns, but New Hampshire does not currently submit mental health records to a database used by gun dealers for background checks. . The Bradley Act, which has bipartisan support, would require such records. It also creates a process by which someone can regain ownership of a gun if they are no longer a danger to themselves or others.
Swetter, speaking on behalf of the New Hampshire Psychiatric Association, said he was alerted to the shooting by an employee who ran into the office and hid behind the door after hearing screams. She then spent an hour calling various departments because the hospital’s paging system for her was not working.
New Hampshire State Capitol, New Hampshire State Capitol, in Concord, New Hampshire, February 16, 2023. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“These are people that I not only work with, they’re my family, and I couldn’t tell them they were in danger,” she said. “That was really one of the worst moments of my life. I couldn’t protect people. I’m a medical professional who helps people, and I couldn’t do that.”
The gunman who killed Haas was shot and killed by a state trooper assigned to the hospital. Mr. Haas was unarmed, and opponents of the bill argued that forcing such workers to carry guns would save more lives than restricting others’ access. One opponent suggested the bill could also apply to people hospitalized with bulimia or other mental health conditions, while others said it would prevent felons from owning guns. He claimed that it was of no use.
“If someone is violently mentally ill, why would they be released from a secure mental health facility?” said Kimberly Morin of the Women’s Defense League. “Rather than pushing for yet another discriminatory gun confiscation bill, why not actually do something to address the serious mental health issues we have?”
The committee also held hearings on a bill that would make it easier for gun owners to keep their guns in their cars at work and a bill that would make it easier for people subject to domestic violence protective orders to get their guns back. He also heard testimony on a bill that would create a process for gun owners to voluntarily enroll in a federal background check database. Supporters said it could help people who have considered suicide in the past and want to protect themselves in the future.
“By taking this simple step, we are taking the additional step of asking us to take suicide off the table. form can be taken off the table,” the bill said. Sponsored by Rep. David Mueuse, D-Portsmouth.
Donna Morin, who lost her 21-year-old son to suicide in 2022, told the committee that while the bill could not save her son’s life, it could save her own.
Maureen, who lives in Manchester, said: “The pain I feel every day has made me consider suicide.” “As scary as it is, I am speaking publicly about this because I truly feel this bill is so important. It’s about being able to make decisions, in emotional pain.”
Morin compared it to creating a living will to outline your wishes for treatment in end-of-life situations when you are unable to speak for yourself.
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“What kind of person are you asking who would do that? That would be me,” she said. “I don’t want to experience a moment of weakness where I realize that life isn’t worth living, because that’s the reality.
