New Hampshire Workers Set to Be Safer Come January 1st

With the new year approaching, there are going to be a number of new laws that go into effect. Lawmakers like making January 1st the kick-off point for new rules, and it makes sense. People are kind of primed for change anyway, so it’s not as jarring as if you make a law go into effect on March 22nd or something.

In New Hampshire, workers are going to have one interesting change that their employers may not particularly care for, but they’ll learn to get over it.

You see, come the first of the year, carrying guns to work becomes legal.

In a way, anyhow.

Employee Right to Store Firearms or Ammunition in Their Vehicle (Certain Employers)

Certain employers will be prohibited from:

• restricting employees from storing legally owned firearms or ammunition in their vehicles while in transit or parked on the employer’s property, so long as the vehicle is locked and the firearm or ammunition is not visible; or
• taking any adverse action against any employee who stores a firearm or ammunition in accordance with the new state law.

These requirements will apply to:

• any employer (whether public or private) that receives public funds from the federal or state government, regardless of the funding’s form, amount, or level; and
• the state or any municipality as an employer when the state or municipal employee’s vehicle is on property owned or leased by the state or municipality.

So, based on this, only those who receive taxpayer funding to any degree are impacted. Now, that includes even people with city or county contracts for goods and services, apparently, but it still leaves a lot of people unaffected.

Or, it would if that were the totality of what the law does.

There’s more.

Employee Right to Privacy Regarding Firearms in Vehicles (All New Hampshire Employers)

All New Hampshire employers will be prohibited from:

• requiring an employee to disclose whether they are storing a firearm or ammunition in their vehicle; or
• searching the employee’s vehicle for a firearm or ammunition (except for lawful searches undertaken by law enforcement officers).

What’s Not Changing?

Despite the new law, private employers will still have the ability to set some rules regarding weapons at work, including: 

• banning firearms anywhere else on employer property (anywhere except for firearms properly stored in an employee’s personal vehicle parked at work); and
• prohibiting employees from carrying or storing firearms in employer-owned vehicles.

Now, while I don’t actually support employers banning workers from carrying guns while they work, it’s their property and they have a right to make that determination for themselves. If you don’t like it, you can always seek employment somewhere else.

Otherwise, while the new law might not specifically legalize leaving a gun in your car, it does make it impossible for them to do anything to make sure you left your firearm at home. They can’t make you say you have a gun in your car and they can’t make you unlock the car so they can look for themselves.

It might not technically make it legal, but it makes it impossible for them to do anything about it, which is close enough. Especially since the law itself doesn’t tend to specify that you can’t have a gun in your car while at work.

So that’s very good news for folks in New Hampshire, who don’t have to just hope they don’t get carjacked on their way to and from work.