New Hampshire Senate tables bill inspired by state hospital shooting

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A bipartisan bill drafted in the response to the fatal shooting of a New Hampshire Hospital security guard has hit a roadblock in the state Senate.

The GOP-controlled Senate voted 13-10 along party lines Thursday night to table a bill inspired by Bradley Haas, who was killed in November by a former patient at the psychiatric hospital in Concord.

While federal law prohibits those who have been involuntarily committed to psychiatric institutions from purchasing guns, New Hampshire currently does not submit mental health records to the database that gun dealers use for background checks. Bradley’s Law would require those records to be submitted. It also would create a process by which someone could have their gun ownership rights restored when they are no longer a danger to themselves or others.

The bill is sponsored by Republican Rep. Terry Roy and Democratic Rep. David Meuse. In the House, where Republicans have a narrow majority, the bill passed 204-149, with about two dozen Republicans joining Democrats in supporting it in March. It will die in the Senate unless senators vote to take it off the table next week, or a super-majority votes to consider it after that.