NH bill to bar guns at schools after Portsmouth High threat faces near certain defeat

CONCORD — When Kyle Hendrickson threatened to shoot up Portsmouth High School last year, he legally had possession of a firearm in his car on school grounds outside the building.

Hendrickson later pleaded guilty to the threat and is scheduled to be sentenced May 14.

Senate Bill 593, sponsored by Sen. Donavan Fenton, D-Keene, would change the New Hampshire state law by prohibiting carrying a firearm in a school zone. But it’s unlikely to pass when it comes before the Republican-majority Senate on Friday.

What is SB 593?

SB 593 would prohibit knowingly carrying a firearm in a safe school zone. If found guilty, the violator would be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor, which could result in jail time.

The bill stipulates it would not apply to anyone authorized by the School Board to possess a firearm or a law enforcement officer. It also allows parents or another person picking up or dropping off a student to have a firearm, as long as it remains in a locked container in the car and is not loaded.

“As a concerned citizen, legislator and most importantly, a parent with young children I believe that this legislation is crucial for the safety and well-being of our schools and communities,” Fenton said in testimony on the bill. He spoke about his own experience as a sixth-grader in New Hampshire, when the Columbine High School massacre took place in Colorado in 1999, and the subsequent lockdowns, drills, and evacuations schools undertook.

Fenton said he is a gun owner and supports constitutional gun rights, but believes certain environments “require special consideration.”

“I don’t want my kids to live in fear and this is the direction we are heading,” he said.

Portsmouth High School shooting threat leads parent to speak out

Kathleen Slover, a Portsmouth resident and a member of Moms Demand Action, a gun violence prevention advocacy group, testified people were “shocked” and “outraged” to learn New Hampshire didn’t already have a law prohibiting firearms on school grounds after the incident at Portsmouth High School.

In April 2023, then 25-year-old Hendrickson shared a video on Snapchat with the message, “imma gonna shoot up the school.” The video shows him holding up a handgun with the Portsmouth High School sign visible in the background.

Slover testified, “the superintendent needed to work with the federal attorney general’s office in order to find charges 'that would stick' because New Hampshire’s laws were so loose.”

The federal Gun-Free School Zones Act bans individuals from knowingly possessing a firearm in a school zone, but New Hampshire has no such law preventing non-students from possessing a firearm in a school zone.

David Trumble of Weare, who ran for state representative in 2022, also brought up the Portsmouth event in his testimony in favor of the bill, saying New Hampshire “does not live in a bubble.” He cited other incidents as well, including a recent event in March at Lebanon High School, where officers found a parent outside the school with several loaded firearms in his car.

Rep. David Meuse, D-Portsmouth, said in his testimony the bill is not just about punishment, but deterrence.

“I can’t think of a more important line to draw than a line that separates kids in our schools from people who think in this day in age — after Uvalde, after Parkland, and after Newtown — that it’s ever OK to bring a loaded firearm onto school grounds,” he said.

Opposition to gun control strong in Republican majority New Hampshire legislature

At the Judiciary Committee hearing in late March, when testimony on the bill was heard, Rep. Bob Lynn, R-Windham, said the bill was “the ultimate feel-good legislation.”

He said someone “intent on murdering children” would not be deterred by this bill. Instead, Lynn said, he feels safer around responsible gun owners, and relayed his own experience learning to shoot at a rifle range in the basement of his high school in Connecticut.

SB 593 is likely to meet a similar fate as other gun violence prevention bills in the Republican-majority state government as the committee report recommended it inexpedient to legislate, 3-2.

In 2019, lawmakers passed a similar bill to prohibit the possession of firearms on school property. However, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed the bill, HB 564.

“These bills would not solve our national issues nor would they prevent evil individuals from doing harm, but they would further restrict the constitutional rights of law abiding New Hampshire citizens,” he wrote in a post on X at the time.

In 2019, the New Hampshire legislature was controlled by Democrats, when HB 564 was passed. But in recent years, the legislature has had a Republican majority who, along with Sununu, have worked to expand gun rights.

So far in 2024, almost all of the proposed gun violence prevention bills that have been voted on so far have failed, including one to repeal limited liability and another establishing a red flag law. In contrast, bills to expand gun rights, like one to allow employees to keep their firearms in their locked vehicles when they go to work, have passed.

One exception is a bipartisan bill to require serious mental health information to reported to the federal background check system for firearm purchases, known as Bradley's Law, as it passed the House last week. The bill followed the shooting death of an unarmed security officer at New Hampshire Hospital in Concord.

Ian Lenahan contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: NH bill to bar guns at schools after Portsmouth threat opposed by GOP