CACR19 Targeted by Gun Lobbyists

The NRA's New Hampshire chapter--the Gun Owners of NH--has attacked the NH Community Rights Amendment with an anti-CACR19 action alert on its website and a letter to the Municipal & County Government committee.

Home Rule No Go
GONH's Attack on CACR19

Gun Lobbyists Target Right to Protect
NHCRN's Response to NRA Fear Mongering

GONH's main claim is that CACR19 would authorize local laws that restrict individual constitutional rights, including the right to bear arms. This claim is erroneous for 3 reasons: 

1) IT IGNORES CACR19'S BASIS
The right of local community self-government includes the right to a system of government within local communities that, one, is controlled by community majority and that, two, secures and protects the civil and political rights of every person in the community. It also includes, three, the right to alter or abolish the system of local government if it infringes on the prior two components. TAKE AWAY: Any majority-voted community self-government law would be limited by people's civil and political rights, i.e. laws adopted under CACR19 could not infringe upon the right to bear arms and could only expand, not lessen, people's rights secured by local, state, and federal constitutions.

2) IT IGNORES CACR19'S LANGUAGE 
Republican NRA members and sponsors of CACR19 have consistently directed naysayers to study CACR19's language: "Local laws adopted pursuant to this article shall not weaken existing protections for, or constrict the fundamental rights of, natural persons, or their local communities, or nature, as those protections and rights are secured by local, state, federal, or international law." TAKE AWAY: CACR19 would PROTECT rights for natural persons--including Second Amendment rights--already recognized in state and federal constitutions.

3) IT IGNORES PRECEDENT
In 2008 and 2010 cases, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that Second Amendment rights are individual constitutional rights and consequentlyoverturned local firearm restrictions as violations of these rights. TAKE AWAY: U.S. Supreme Court precedent holds that CACR19 would not protect local laws attempting to restrict Second Amendment rights.