New Hampshire
Students, officials oppose bill on campus carry – Valley News
A bill to bar state colleges and universities from curbing gun rights on their campuses drew a crowd to Concord on Tuesday. Most came to fight the bill, including the president of the University of New Hampshire, students from several state colleges, and multiple members of law enforcement.
“We are stunned we are even here today talking about this,” Durham Deputy Police Chief Jack Dalton said at a small rally before the bill’s state Senate hearing. “Hopefully common sense prevails, so we can move on in Durham.”
Under the bill, anyone legally allowed to carry a weapon could do so on a college campus in the state without limit. The proposal is similar but more sweeping than laws already on the books in about a dozen states. Its backers say the bill, which cleared the New Hampshire House along party lines in February, will make campuses safer while honoring fundamental rights.
“We want senators to understand, they took an oath to defend the Constitution,” said Rep. Sam Farrington, R-Rochester, the bill’s lead sponsor and a current UNH student. “College students are adults and deserving of all their rights.”
The bill would block any college or university that accepts taxpayer funding of any kind from regulating firearms, as well as non-lethal weapons like pepper spray, stun guns or tasers. Right now, UNH students are allowed to keep guns for hunting or target shooting but must store them at the local police department. This bill would allow students to store weapons in their dorm rooms.
According to several people who showed up for the hearing who manage college dormitories, the atmosphere there is already volatile enough.
“A lot of our incidents revolve around alcohol,” said Hans Hendricks, who has been a UNH resident hall director for three years. “We see it every single week, and truly I cannot say it enough: We don’t need guns added to the mix.”
That message was echoed by top college administrators, who stressed that this bill goes farther than similar policies in effect in other states.
This would make New Hampshire unique, said UNH president Elizabeth Chilton: “It would be the most liberal or the most conservative, depending on the way that you look at it.”
According to Farrington, that was by design: “This would be the best campus carry statute in the entire nation,” he told lawmakers.
But the proposal’s breadth appeared to be a sticking point with several senators.
“I am a big gun person, but I do have concerns,” Sen. Bill Gannon, R-Sandown, said, noting that even U.S. military academies bar cadets from keeping guns. “I am scared that institutions that really know weapons have chosen not to have it in their dorms.”
Sen Daryl Abbas, R-Salem, meanwhile, pushed Farrington about whether his bill should include provisions to allow colleges and universities to punish students from carrying weapons while drunk.
“It seems to me pretty much a no-brainer,” Abbas said after Farrington at first seemed to oppose the idea.
“I would support an amendment, so long as it was carefully written, that allows the school to regulate that,” Farrington said.
Winning favor with the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is expected to vote on it later this month, will be this bill’s first test. Republicans hold a 16-8 Senate majority, and this bill has four Senate co-sponsors.
But Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who has prioritized policies she says promote public safety, has yet to take a position on the bill.
Tuesday’s hearing attracted several dozen students to the Statehouse plaza who held signs protesting the proposed bill.
Emily Hunt, a student at the University of New Hampshire, said she felt safe on campus but was worried that making it easier for people to carry guns would change that dynamic.
“I spent all of my education, K through 12, being afraid of a school shooting, both for myself and for my loved ones,” Hunt said. “And I don’t want that at college.”
Eli Orne, a UNH freshman, said he was concerned that more guns on campus could lead to more suicides as it would be easier for students in crisis to get their hands on a deadly weapon.
“Because when you have access to a gun in any capacity — it doesn’t have to be yours, it could just be around — your risk of dying by suicide increases,” he said.
These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.
New Hampshire
Trans athletes drop lawsuit to gain access to girls’ sports in New Hampshire after SCOTUS ruling
Fighting the transgender sports ban is ‘utterly misogynistic’: Riley Gaines
Fox News discusses the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold transgender sports bans. Former NCAA All-American Riley Gaines states it’s ‘insane’ to challenge biological sex in sports, asserting boys should not compete in girls’ sports. She calls the opposing movement ‘misogynistic,’ advocating for female athletes’ rights and fair competition, a view echoed by Education Secretary Linda McMahon. This highlights the contentious issue in women’s sports.
A pair of trans athletes in New Hampshire have dismissed their lawsuit to challenge the state law that protects girls’ sports after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Title IX ruling on June 30.
The trans teenage plaintiffs, Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle, originally filed the lawsuit in 2024 to challenge a current New Hampshire state law prohibiting trans athletes from participating in girls’ sports. The lawsuit later expanded to add President Donald Trump’s administration to the defendants after Trump signed the “No Men in Women’s Sports” executive order on Feb. 5, 2025.
The lawyers for the trans athletes claimed Trump’s executive order, along with parts of a Jan. 20 executive order that forbids federal money from being used to “promote gender ideology,” subjects the teens and all transgender girls to discrimination in violation of federal equal protection guarantees and their rights under Title IX.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
A transgender athlete and the Supreme Court (Getty Images)
The U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire then ruled last year that female athletes represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys were permitted to intervene in the case to defend the state’s women’s sports law and the administration’s executive orders.
Now, after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling, which protects state laws that ensure only females compete in girls’ sports, there is no room for the trans teens to fight the law in New Hampshire.
“Women and girls deserve privacy, safety, and equal opportunities. That can’t happen when males are competing in women’s sports, taking spots on women’s athletic teams, and winning women’s championships,” ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Litigation Strategy Jonathan Scruggs said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.
USA POWERLIFTING, ONCE IN TRANS ATHLETE LAWSUIT, SUPPORTS SCOTUS RULING: ‘LAW HAS CAUGHT UP WITH THE SCIENCE’
“President Trump’s executive orders and New Hampshire’s law recognize common sense and track Title IX, the federal law that ensures equal opportunities for women in athletics. We are grateful this case is coming to an end and that New Hampshire is free to protect its female athletes.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Tirrell and Turmelle’s attorneys at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) for a response.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
A protester waves a transgender pride flag outside of the U.S. Supreme Court Building on June 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. Advocates organized a rally in response the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in US v. Skrmetti, in which the justices ruled to uphold state bans on gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The SCOTUS rulings in West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, the high court upheld state laws requiring student-athletes to compete on sports teams that correspond with their biological sex at birth rather than their gender identity, in a 6-3 decision.
However, there are still 23 states, including California, New York and Massachusetts, that don’t have any such laws, and some of those have laws to protect trans athletes in girls’ sports.
New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte (Getty Images)
New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte has signed legislation requiring public school employees to disclose information about transgender students to their parents or legal guardians, reversing a 2024 state Supreme Court ruling that upheld students’ privacy rights in certain circumstances.
Ayotte’s office announced on 2 July that the legislation had been signed into law. Under SB 430, educators must respond to written requests from parents for “material information” about their child, even if a student has asked that the information be kept confidential or fears negative consequences at home.
Supporters of the legislation, such as Republican state Senator Tim Lang, argue the measure strengthens parental rights and enables families to better support children who may be struggling. “If you don’t tell the parent, the parent can’t watch for the signs of self-harm,” Lang told New Hampshire Public Radio.
Educators and LGBTQ+ advocates, however, say the law places teachers in an impossible position by forcing them to choose between complying with the law and protecting vulnerable students. Megan Tuttle, president of NEA-New Hampshire, the state’s largest teachers’ union, said in a statement that the legislation is “vaguely written and risks putting educators in a position of outing a student.” She added that schools should remain places where every student feels “safe, seen, and free to be themselves.”
Aimee Terravechia, executive director of LGBTQ+ advocacy group 603 Equality, warned the law could erode trust between students and educators while speaking with New Hampshire Public Radio. “Schools should be a place of learning… and a place of critical self-examination,” she said. “Placing educators into a role of monitoring and reporting removes the trust necessary for a thriving academic environment.”
The legislation also effectively overturns a 2024 New Hampshire Supreme Court decision, in which justices ruled that keeping a student’s gender identity confidential did not unlawfully interfere with parents’ rights, noting that parents still retained numerous ways to support and communicate with their children outside the classroom.
Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.
-
Wisconsin3 minutes agoA Wisconsin family is suing Target after their 10-month-old died from swallowing a water bead
-
West Virginia10 minutes agoHow midsummer wild berries connect people, wildlife, and West Virginia’s forests – West Virginia Explorer
-
Wyoming13 minutes agoFourth Annual Wyoming Firearms & Outdoor Recreation Expo, Wyoming Governor’s Match returning to Casper July 18, 19
-
Crypto18 minutes agoBitdeer Invests $36 Million in First US Sealminer Factory as Bitcoin Mining Margins Stay Tight
-
Finance25 minutes agoHow AI Is Evolving in Sage Intacct and What It Means for Finance Teams | CBIZ
-
Fitness28 minutes agoTim Henman, 51, Has Barely Aged Since Retiring – Here’s His Fitness Formula
-
Movie Reviews40 minutes ago‘Evil Dead Burn’ Movie Review – Spotlight Report
-
World48 minutes agoHoops Players’ Win Tops Big Day in NCAA Eligibility Litigation
