Women's Defense League: Hassan Supports State-Sanctioned Discrimination

Fresh off the heels of releasing a poll showing overwhelming support around New Hampshire for changes to the licensing permitting process for concealed-carry, the Women’s Defense League of NH is asking anti-discrimination activists and gun rights supporters to prepare for a veto from Gov. Maggie Hassan, D-Exeter, after she refused to meet with them to discuss women’s safety and the bill.

SB 116 would replace a more than nine-decade old policy requiring a local police chief to sign off on a pistol permit. The org has spent nearly a year meticulously researched the origins of the law and traced it back to New York’s 1911 Sullivan Act. The law, the group stated, “allowed for legal discrimination against ethnic and racial minorities,” according to a press statement, as well as union members and women.

“It became law in New Hampshire in 1923, ironically three years after women gained the right to vote,” the statement said.

Following a meeting with a junior staff member that took three months to schedule, the group stated that the staffer “dismissed the documented history as simply the League’s ‘perspective’ and, when confronted with the deadly reality of women’s rights being left to the discretion of local law enforcement, said women who felt aggrieved could pursue legal remedies.”

The group pointed to the recent death of Carol Browne, a New Jersey woman who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend while waiting for her local police chief to approve her pistol permit, a story that has made national headlines, as another reason to remove the requirement.

“We find this not only egregious but given the fact that women ARE being discriminated against, we find it unconscionable Governor Hassan would take this stance,” the statement said, in light of the murder of Browne.

The org also noted that Vermont, New Hampshire’s neighbor to the west, also does not require pistol permit approval by police chiefs and has a lower crime rate than New Hampshire. The group stated that it was again requesting a personal meeting with the governor to discuss the issue.

“Her staff averred saying they would ‘certainly’ make our perspective known to her,” according to the statement.

Hassan is in the process of signing and vetoing bills, with the House already overturning a couple of vetoes.