Gunning for gun ownership
It’s not unusual for state reps to sponsor bills that would personally benefit them. But it seems like freshman Rep. Jason Gerhard, R-Northfield/NH Liberty Alliance, just might win this session’s prize for sponsoring the most self-serving measure of the session.
The bill, HB 144, would restore the right of ex-felons to own firearms.
Let’s get to the why-JG-is-a-felon part: He served 12.5 years of a 20-year sentence in fed prison for his involvement in one of the more notorious NH incidents that took place in the 21st century: tax evader Ed & Elaine Brown’s eight-month armed standoff with fed authorities at their home in Plainfield.
JG, a mere lad of 21 at the time of the incident, was found guilty of helping “to acquire firearms and explosives and turn the Browns’ property into a potential death trap. They also made statements to the media and through the internet to the effect that any law enforcement officers who attempted to arrest the Browns would do so at their peril,” as the fed appeals court so succinctly summarized the situation in their ruling.
Gerhard: ‘Hey, sweet cheeks’
FWIW, JG considers himself a non-violent ex-felon. And without a firearm to defend himself, he’s a sitting duck. Why, just imagine, he told members of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee earlier this month, “if I’m going out into the parking garage late at night and somebody yells, ‘Hey, sweet cheeks,’ I’m just joking. There’s no way for me to defend myself. I mean, I have a knife, but come on.”
You’re not alone if you have a look of incredulity on your face. But he has another reason to restore his right to own a firearm: “It’s hard for me to understand how we can have my situation, a state representative who cannot defend himself,” Gerhard said.
There’s a simple answer to that one: Just don’t hold elected office.
“If any one of the four members of our congressional delegation did something, it would be so out of character that I would probably be the most astonished persn on Earth.”
— NH Dem Chair For Life Ray Buckley, on a Politico podcast, after being asked if the state’s congressional delegation should take some “hardball” action to defend the NH prez primary.
Promises, promises
One thing’s for sure: Rep. Carol McGuire, a GOPer from Epsom, sure ain’t no promise keeper.
Cities and towns have spent over a decade trying to get the state to own up to a promise (there’s that word again) that it would fund 35% of the cost of adding municipal and school district employees to the state retirement system — a promise the Legis. fully broke in 2013, when it simply stopped paying anything toward those workers into the NH Retirement System.
In other words, cities and towns have been on their own. Despite that, er, promise, made in 1967. Until last year, when lawmakers made a one-time 7.5% payment to cities and towns. Not exactly 35%, but after years of dealing with a deadbeat, the cities and towns were happy to get something — and they’re hoping to make the 7.5% permanent, under HB 50.
Word of honor?
The bill, not surprisingly, has received bipartisan support so far — after all, the reps must be getting an earful from local elected officials.
But one not getting that earful, apparently, is nunuther than CM, who chairs the House Executive Departments and Administration Committee, which held a hearing on the bill earlier this month.
According to CM, the bill would “burden the state by subsidizing local payrolls.”
But what about the 1967 promise? Well — stuff it, basically. After hearing Dem. Rep. Michael O’Brien of Nashua reminding the committee of that 1967 NHRS come-on, CM replied:
“Rep O’Brien keeps talking about promises made 50 years ago which are not being met. Well, fine, that was 50 years ago.”
So there you have it, per CM at least, promises made by the state apparently have a “Renege By” date.
Funds and games
Well, that wasn’t so hard was it?
After weeks of silence from her office, Senator Maggie H. has finally announced what she intends to do with the over $30k in donations her campaign received from Sam Bankster-Fraud, er-Bankman-Fried for the ’22 election.
Her spokester, Laura Epstein, announced th’other day that the senator has plans to donate $20k to a fund for SBF’s victims. It won’t be the actual cash SBF donated — yes, it was cash not crypto — since that dough was already spent in the campaign, but, “As additional funds are raised, the campaign will set aside the amount of those contributions to be returned to victims,” per LE.
And BTW, also per LE: “Senator Hassan believes that Sam Bankman-Fried should be held accountable for his actions to the fullest extent of the law.”
SBF: Reduce, reuse, recycle
And Chris Pappas, who received $2,900 from SBF, has already donated that $$$ to charity.
Still waiting to hear from two other beneficiaries of SBF’s largesse: Annie Kuster, whose 2nd CD campaign received $2,900, and Ray Buckley, whose NH-Dems received $20k in the last election go-round.
AK has been radio silent on the matter, and RB, according to the NH Journal, “will monitor the prosecution” of SBF “before making any decision on returning their checks, a spokesperson said.”
MAKING THE ROUNDS
NHDems sure have been coming up with the excuses to explain how the revamp of the prez primary barreling like a freight train toward the state’s FITN status actually came about.
There are a lot of pressing issues facing NH — housing affordability, workforce shortage, education, homelessness, to name a few. Now add another pressing need: of Granite Staters to own brass knuckles and blackjacks — the kind of weapons widely used in detective novels and gangster movies. Not very surprisingly, the prime sponsor of the measure to allow ownership of the weapons is Deerfield GOPer Rep. Jim Spillane, whose stellar legislative career includes a social media call in 2020 that haters were “free to loot and burn” a house displaying a Black Lives Matter sign. Then there was the incident with killing a squirrel with a .50 caliber muzzleloader. And that’s just scratching the surface.
Does anyone actually understand why on Earth there’s a push among NHGOPers to push to hike filing fees for candidates to run for guv and US Senate from $100 to $10k and for Congress from $50 to $5,000?
