Posted on 07/14/2011 5:19:44 AM PDT by marktwain
CONCORD – Gov. John Lynch vetoed four bills Wednesday including one to expand a resident’s right to defend himself in public using deadly force (SB 88).
“SB 88 would unleash the potential for increasing deadly violence in our communities,” Lynch wrote in his veto message. “It would allow the use of deadly force on street corners, in shopping malls, public parks and in retail stores. Drug dealers and other felons who brandish weapons will be further emboldened to use their weapons, while prosecution of those criminals will be made more difficult because of this bill’s expansion of the right to use deadly force.”
The Republican-dominated Legislature seems prepared to easily override Lynch’s veto on self-defense based upon its votes to approve the measure last month.
The bill would make New Hampshire the 32nd state to have a so-called Castle Doctrine that lets someone stand his or her ground with deadly force if threatened outside the home.
Under current law, people must try to safely retreat from such threat unless it takes place on their property.
This bill would allow someone to use deadly force wherever “he or she has the right to be.”
House Speaker William O’Brien, R-Mont Vernon, predicted lawmakers would overcome Lynch’s move.
House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt, R-Salem, ridiculed it.
“Today, Gov. Lynch continued to show opposition to the spirit of the Second Amendment,” Bettencourt said. “Having the right to carry a firearm, but then saying that you can’t use it to defend yourself when your life is in danger is absurd and shows a lack of respect for the safety of Granite Staters.”
The New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police last week urged Lynch to veto the bill and insisted this was not about the rights of gun owners.
“The issue is under what circumstances this Legislature is willing to allow people to engage in conduct whether it be shooting a gun, using a knife, driving a car, or swinging a baseball bat that poses a risk of death or serious bodily injury to another,’’ the police chiefs wrote.
‘’We are not aware of any problems with the current law that warrants such a significant expansion of the law. The use of deadly force in self-defense should be justified under the law only in those situations where there is no reasonable alternative.’’
Lynch has vetoed similar bills in previous years, and in 2006 he had the backing of then-Attorney General and current U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte of Nashua.
But the GOP-led House of Representatives and state Senate each adopted this latest measure by more than 3-1 margin.
It takes a two-thirds majority to override a governor’s veto.
Lynch also vetoed legislation (HB 542) that lets parents decide what school material they find “objectionable.”
Under this bill, school officials would have to find an alternative for the student of the objecting parent at the family’s expense.
The four-term Democratic chief executive said the bill goes too far. Current law permits parents to remove their children from lessons on health or sex education.
“This legislation in essence gives every individual parent of every student in a classroom a veto over every single lesson plan developed by a teacher,” Lynch wrote.
The two other bills Lynch vetoed would extend for two more years the life of the state Commission on the Status of Men (HB 380) and the other to prevent cities and towns from requiring automatic sprinklers be installed in mobile homes within mobile home parks (SB 91).
Lynch noted that as part of an efficiency move affecting dozens of state boards, the Legislature eliminated the Commission on the Status of Women that was in place since 1969.
The commission for issues affecting men came into being in 2002.
“People may in good conscience disagree and debate the relative merits of the two commissions. But there can be little disagreement that eliminating the Commission on the Status of Women while extending the Commission on the Status of Men makes little sense,” Lynch wrote.
“If the Commission on the Status of Men wishes to continue its work and mission, it should do so in the same way as the Commission on the Status of Women, as part of private or nonprofit organization.”
On sprinklers the Legislature overrode a similar Lynch veto last month to prevent cities and towns from requiring sprinklers in new, one and two-family residences (HB 109).
Kevin Landrigan can reached at 321-7040 or klandrigan@nashuatelegraph.com. Also check out Landrigan (@KLandrigan) on Twitter and don’t forget The Telegraph’s new, interactive live feed at www.nashuatelegraph.com/topics/livefeed.
Tell me again why Lynch wasn’t a one term governor? He seems completely out of step w/ the legislature on most issues.
It isn't as if many other states haven't already enacted castle doctrine laws so we can see what actually happens.
“Tell me again why Lynch wasn’t a one term governor? He seems completely out of step w/ the legislature on most issues.”
Just my thought too. What the hell is wrong with New Hampshire electing this clown.
...unless the Republicans there are bigger doofusses than on the national level.
Lynch has been able to pose as a “moderate” Democrat for seven years now, partly because Democrats would have been far more profligate with their spending, had they been given their way. For much of his (four, 2-year) terms, he’s had to deal with a Republican legislature and that has restrained his impulses. He’s a very mild-mannered man too, but at heart, he’s a liberal.
At least he got this one correct.
Lynch is the living personification of Rush Limbaugh’s ‘chickification’ of the American male.
The claim that ‘immigrant mASSholes’ are voting in Lynch, “Let’s kill all the babies” Shaheen and have turned this once Red state Blue isn’t true. In the last couple of elections, it’s been the voters ‘North of the notches’ and far from the southern border that have been voting ‘Blue’ and supporting Dims. Reading the letters-to-the-editors pages in either of the largest two ‘newspapers’ up here - demonstrates a well-honed ability to parrot the latest BS that comes from the fax machines and e-mails of the DNC, Organizing for Obamba, oops, I mean Organizing for America,the MSM, etc. I mean they have just declared a holiday for ‘Granny D’ - who dramatically illustrated that wisdom definitely DOES NOT come with advancing age- you just become more incoherent and strident when you start out life as a lefty, anti-capitalist, Democrat activist-thugette.
There’s a reason the ‘Old Man of the Mountains’ came tumbling down. It’s proclaimed purpose of indicating where ‘God made men’ had been proven to be pathetically and very sadly wrong.
LOL - that's not far off. I work in Concord, NH near the State House, and I see him on the street fairly often. Let's just say he's a man of slight build and narrow shoulders...
Governor Lynch is an imbecile.
Felons in possession of a weapon are already breaking the law. This law does nothing to embolden a felon.
You are absolutely correct in regards who is voting dem in NH. A UNH pol verified that. It is not the former MA residents that typically move into Rockingham or Hillsborough county down south that vote Dem. It is the people that have moved into the lakes region and farther north to retire in NH. This is the group that has changed the demographic and is voting for all the gimmie stuff they had in their former states mostly in the mid Atlantic. Generally, the Mass emmigrants move to NH to escape the taxation/liberal politics of MA. They tend to be conservatives that felt outnumbered in MA. Also, it is the NH retirees that as they have aged have wanted more from the govt.(ie SS and Medicare). They want to put in an income tax because they think it will reduce their property tax burden.
The biggest problem we have in NH is letting the “independents” vote in the nations first primary.
This has led to moderates like McCain winning the primary when most of the actual Republicans voted for someone more conservative. We need to change the law so that you need to declare your affiliation 60 days or more ahead.
Melodramatic much.
Voter fraud, same day voter registration, NO ID required, out of state students voting as residents, scumbags coming over the border from Mass, VT, in order to vote/ influence our election results for Democrats. Need I go on?
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