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House bill would limit exports of certain firearms and seek Supreme Court test of commerce clause
Summary
Representative Mike Belcher told the Senate Judiciary Committee that House Bill 381 is designed to create a legal vehicle to challenge the reach of federal commerce‑clause authority, allowing intrastate manufacture of items such as suppressors while prohibiting their export from the state.
Rep. Mike Belcher told the Senate Judiciary Committee that House Bill 381 is aimed primarily at setting up a court challenge to federal regulatory power and is not itself a blanket nullification of the National Firearms Act.
“For the record, Representative Mike Belcher out of Carroll County District 4, Wakefield,” Belcher said while introducing House Bill 381. “The foremost point of this bill is a legal battle that I would like to see us get into the courts and potentially all the way up to the level of the Supreme Court.”
Belcher told committee members he crafted the measure to create a narrow state law that would permit intrastate manufacture of certain firearm components and accessories — including suppressors, short‑barrel rifles and shotguns — while making it a crime to export items that the state had specifically marked as “for New Hampshire use only.” He said the strategy is intended to force a judicial test of long‑standing Commerce Clause precedent,…
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