New Hampshire Gun Licenses: A Thriving Export Industry

Gun licenses sold to out-of-staters are something of an export industry here in New Hampshire.

Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont sold less than 3,000 non-resident licenses last year combined, whereas New Hampshire alone sold well over 10,000. Assistant Safety Commissioner Earl Sweeney says a budget proposal to raise the license fee from $20 to $100 would bring in some much-needed cash.

Sweeney: "The benefits to the state will be additional money for the general fund. If you figure there’s over 10,000 of these issued in a year, each year, well then there’s more than $800,000 of additional revenue that will come to the general fund of the state. And it’ll be paid by non-residents rather than New Hampshire tax payers."

So why do tens of thousands out-of-staters want a New Hampshire gun license?

Not necessarily to use a firearm in this state but perhaps to use it in others.

There’s a legal protocol called reciprocity.

That’s an agreement made by one state to honor licenses issued in another state.

And New Hampshire’s got reciprocity in spades.

Some 20 states across the country will recognize your New Hampshire-issued gun license, regardless of where you call home.

That’s great for hunters, who can pick up a license to carry a firearm in 20 odd states just by filing New Hampshire’s two-page online license application.

Sweeney says this frees hunters from various restrictions they might face in their home state.

Sweeney:"If you come from a state such as Massachusetts or New York where it’s extremely difficult to obtain a license and you want to hunt in some other state such as West Virginia, who recognizes a New Hampshire license, as a Massachusetts individual the only way you would be able to do that is to get a non-resident license from some jurisdiction that the state where you want to hunt in would recognize."

State Police say this has meant big sales of licenses not just to residents of nearby Massachusetts, but also Minnesota, Ohio, and South Carolina.

It’s a system that works well for hunters, but has some in the law enforcement community concerned.

Sgt. Bill Golmane of the Maine State Police oversees licensing in his state.

Golmane: "It’s difficult to do a background check on some people when they are from, say, Washington state and they never planned to come to the state of New Hampshire but are only getting that license so they can go to some other states. Say they have a New Hampshire permit, they could go to maybe 20 different states and never come to New Hampshire. But is that the real intent of the law, by giving somebody a non-resident permit? I don’t think so."

Unlike some states, New Hampshire issues just one kind of license to non-residents: a concealed carry license.

In fact, people from out of state can get a New Hampshire license to carry a concealed weapon even if their home state doesn’t share reciprocity with New Hampshire and may have rejected them for a gun license of any kind.

Some see this as a dangerous loophole, but proponents of New Hampshire’s non-resident licenses say the risks involved are minimal.

New Hampshire gun rights attorney Evan Nappen says it’s not the people who get licenses that you need to worry about.

Nappen:"If a person is licensed, that means that this other state, wherever that other state may be, approved this person. Now it may not be to the so-called ‘high standards’ of Maine, but you know what? This person is a licensed carrier."

But gun control groups say research suggests that a license isn’t a guarantee of good character.

Chad Ramsey is a senior associate director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Ramsey: “In Florida for instance, and in Tennessee, they looked to see whether or not people who had these concealed weapons permits were committing crimes. And we found in those states that there were plenty of crimes being committed and you were just as likely to commit a crime with a CCW or concealed weapons license as you were if you didn’t have these permits.”

As a rule, law enforcement agencies track the source of a weapon used in a crime but they don’t systematically monitor the source of the license the person held.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office says they haven’t received complaints about non-resident licenses.

For NHPR News, I’m Kathryn Wells.