Your Survival Guy is a big fan of New Hampshire and the state’s constitutional carry laws. New Hampshire has been my top Super State for four of the five years the rankings have been run.
Unlike New Hampshire, its neighbor, Massachusetts, has very strict gun laws. This could be a problem for visitors to the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, NH, where part of the mall property sits in NH, and part in MA. If you’re legally carrying your gun in the NH, and you want to walk to your car in the parking lot, you could be committing a felony by crossing state lines with your gun in between. Ethan DeWitt explains an effort to undo this madness, writing in the New Hampshire Bulletin:
A New Hampshire resident who might be legally carrying a firearm on the New Hampshire side of the parking lot might find that same firearm illegal to carry to the Massachusetts side without a permit.
The 25 states say that arrangement is unconstitutional. This month, they’re taking that argument to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“If that person is carrying a firearm without a Massachusetts license — which would be constitutionally protected activity in most of the mall — that person risks being charged as a felon and facing mandatory incarceration in Massachusetts,” reads a brief from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office to the U.S. Supreme Court, speaking about a visitor to the Pheasant Lane Mall.
Led by New Hampshire, the states have come together to support the efforts of Philip Marquis, of Rochester, New Hampshire, to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to protect non-Massachusetts residents from the Bay State’s firearms regulations. In an amici — or “friend of the court” — brief, lawyers at the New Hampshire Department of Justice say Massachusetts’ firearms permitting law should not apply to travelers from other states passing through.
Also joining the amici brief are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
The case revolves around the ability of Massachusetts’ police colonels to deem out-of-state residents “unsuitable” for firearms licenses. The petitioner, Philip Marquis, of Rochester, New Hampshire, has asked the Supreme Court of the United States to take up the case on constitutional grounds.
If successful, Marquis’s case could upend the laws in many states that give law enforcement officials wide discretionary authority over who can obtain a carry permit via “may issue” language in the law. Ultimately, this could lead to greater concealed carry reciprocity.
Action Line: Whether your state has constitutional carry, shall issue, or may issue permitting, get your gun and your training now. When seconds count, police are minutes away. You are the first and last line of defense for your family. Be ready. Click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
