New Hampshire Senate Rejects Bill to End Campus Gun-Free Zones

The measure also would have permitted students to carry nonlethal weapons such as pepper spray and mace. State Rep. Sam Farrington, the bill's sponsor, said the effort will continue through litigation. Farrington stated the challenge will rely on New Hampshire's pre-emption statute, which bars political subdivisions other than the Legislature from regulating firearms.

Hampshire remains one of 37 states that maintain gun-free zones on college campuses. University officials have said their restrictions were adopted under authority granted by the Legislature to the Board of Trustees and campus presidents. Farrington argued that policies set by unelected administrators fall outside that authority. The bill's defeat leaves existing campus rules unchanged.

A RAND Corporation review found that campus carry laws were not significantly related to violent or property crime rates between 2005 and 2014. The same review noted lower property crime rates on campuses in states that allow unpermitted concealed carry.

Farrington cited the 2005 Supreme Court decision Castle Rock v. Gonzales, which held that law enforcement cannot be held liable for failing to protect citizens from threats they did not create. Farrington said students must therefore rely on their own means of self-defense.

"Gun-free zones leave victims defenseless and vulnerable," Farrington told Reason.