(Photo courtesy of New Hampshire Union Leader)
New Hampshire’s House of Representatives voted 188-165 on Thursday to advance legislation that would strip public colleges and universities of their authority to ban firearms on campus. House Bill 1793 now heads to the Finance Committee before potentially moving to the Senate.
The bill would prohibit publicly funded colleges from restricting lawful possession or use of weapons on campus — including firearms, pepper spray, mace, stun guns, and tasers. In other words, if you can legally carry it in New Hampshire, you can carry it on a public college campus.
“Live Free or Die” Finally Applies to Students
State Rep. Samuel Farrington (R-Rochester), a UNH student who sponsored the bill, made the straightforward argument: your constitutional rights don’t evaporate when you cross an invisible line onto campus property.
“College students are adults, deserving of equal protection under the law as it already stands here in New Hampshire,” Farrington said.
He’s not wrong. New Hampshire is a constitutional carry state — no permit required for open or concealed carry. But somehow, unelected university administrators have been allowed to create gun-free zones that override state law and leave law-abiding adults defenseless. HB 1793 would fix that inconsistency.
The Opposition’s Argument: Geography Trumps Rights
Rep. David Meuse (D-Portsmouth) pushed back with the claim that campus carry restrictions don’t target students specifically because they apply to “everyone on campus, regardless of age.”
“These restrictions apply to everyone on campus, regardless of age,” Meuse said. “In short, they have absolutely nothing to do with who you are and everything to do with where you are.”
That’s… not the defense he thinks it is. “We’re not discriminating against you personally, we’re just declaring this entire geographic area a constitutional rights-free zone” isn’t exactly a compelling civil liberties argument.
The Usual Panic About “Guns in Dorms”
At a public hearing last month, some students testified that they’re old enough to vote, serve in the military, and take on crushing student loan debt — so maybe they should be trusted with their Second Amendment rights too. Radical concept, we know.
Other students clutched their pearls about guns in “cramped spaces like dorms and classrooms,” apparently unaware that responsible gun owners manage to carry firearms in elevators, movie theaters, restaurants, and every other confined space in society without the predicted bloodbaths.
The Eight-Year Flip
Here’s the interesting part: Eight years ago, weeks after the Parkland shooting, a bipartisan group of New Hampshire lawmakers rejected a similar campus carry proposal. Now they’ve reversed course with a solid 23-vote margin.
What changed? Maybe legislators realized that gun-free zones don’t stop criminals — they just disarm victims. Or maybe they noticed that the dozen or so states with campus carry laws haven’t descended into Wild West chaos. Either way, New Hampshire appears ready to join the growing list of states that trust legal adults to exercise their rights on college property.
What Happens Next
HB 1793 is referred to the House Finance Committee to assess the fiscal impact (spoiler alert: allowing people to exercise existing rights costs exactly $0). If it clears Finance, it heads to the Senate.
New Hampshire has a Republican-controlled legislature and a Republican governor, so the path to passage looks promising. The question is whether the Senate has the same common sense that the House demonstrated Thursday.
College campuses aren’t magical force fields where the laws of physics — or the Constitution — stop applying. They’re public property where adults work, study, and have the same right to self-defense as anywhere else in the state. New Hampshire is finally acknowledging that reality.
About time.
Sources:
NRA-ILA: “New Hampshire: House Passes Campus Carry Bill” (February 5, 2026) https://www.nraila.org/articles/20260205/new-hampshire-house-passes-campus-carry-bill
Concord Monitor: “N.H. House advances bill allowing guns on college campuses” (February 5, 2026) https://www.concordmonitor.com/2026/02/05/new-hampshire-campus-carry/