New Hampshire could become the twelfth state to open college and university campuses to lawful concealed carry this year, and the recent shooting at Brown University is providing supporters of a campus carry bill with a timely argument in favor of passage.
Brown is a “gun-free zone”, but that didn’t stop Claudio Neves Valente from bringing two 9mm pistosl onto campus and shooting up a classroom, killing two students and injuring nine others. The primary sponsor of the Live Free or Die State’s campus carry legislation says policies that prevent legal gun owners from lawfully defending themselves and others creates an intolerable risk to student safety.
“Brown had a school policy that disarmed their students, and that policy – it can be blamed for leaving those kids as defenseless victims inside of that room,” Rep. Sam Farrington (R), Rochester, said.
Farrington, a UNH Senior, says he and his fellow students should be able to fully exercise their rights.
“Right now, when bureaucrats at UNH or Plymouth State or Keene State colleges are funded by taxpayer dollars, when they restrict the Second Amendment rights of college students, that’s an overstep of authority.”
The debate over campus carry has raged for well over a decade, but this is the first time I can recall a college student serving as the primary sponsor of campus carry legislation. It’s a unique twist, though Harrington’s Democrat counterparts in the legislature don’t seem impressed by his argument. Instead, they’re regurgitating talking points that have been debunked long ago.
“They’re going to lose students, they’re going to have to pay more to harden the campus, they’re going to have to hire more security officers — and their operating money for all three campuses will go up,” Rep. Wayne Burton (D), Durham, said.
Burton, a retired college administrator and combat veteran of the Vietnam War, says more guns will make campuses less safe.
“You have not seen bodies that have been shot – I have killed people in Vietnam with a 50 caliber machine gun,” Burton said. “I carried a .45 caliber pistol, and when the bullets start flying, you cannot control what happens.”
Opponents of campus carry regularly declare that colleges and universities will lose students to states where guns are banned on campus, but there’s simply no evidence that’s the case. The University of Texas-Austin, for example, announced a record-high 55,000 students for the fall 2025 semester, nearly a decade after campus carry became the law of the land.
When Kansas adopted campus carry in 2017, critics were quick to seize on reports of a couple college professors who chose to jump ship as evidence of a larger exodus of students and staff, but the University of Kansas has also reported record-high enrollment levels this year. Kansas State University’s student population did decline for several years after campus carry was adopted, but that number was already on a downward trend before campus carry took effect, and over the past two years the university has seen significant growth in the number of students on campus.
What about Burton’s claim that it will cost these colleges and universities a ton of money to harden campuses or hire more security officers? Again, there seems to be little evidence that’s the case, with West Virginia University estimating that implementing campus carry would cost no more than $350,000… about $150,000 less than the president of the University of New Hampshire is paid every year. And frankly, if students and staff can’t lawwfully protect themselves with their legally owned firearms on campus, that’s an even more compelling reason to pay for costly security upgrades and an ncrease in the number of law enforcement.
Burton’s last argument isn’t limited only to campus carry. He’s essentially arguing that it’s too dangerous to allow individuals to exercise their right to armed self-defense anywhere in public. But New Hampshire has been a constitutional carry state since 2017 and still has one of the lowest homicide rates in the country. Additionally, violent crime overall has steadily been decreasing in the Granite State since 2013. If lawful carry was inherently dangerous to public safety, New Hampshire would be a war zone. Instead, it’s one of the safest places in the nation.
With Republicans in control of the legislature and the governor’s office, it might seem like Farrington’s bill is assured of passage. Unfortunately, we’ve seen campus carry efforts derailed in ruby red states like Oklahoma and Florida in recent years, so New Hampshire gun owners shouldn’t take it for granted that campus carry will soon be enshrined into law. If they want it, they’re going to have to work for it, and that starts by reaching out to senators and representatives to encourage their support for House Bill 1793.
Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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