WMUR – November 14, 2024
By KATHERING UNDERWOOD, Breaking News and Traffic Anchor
MANCHESTER, N.H. — It’s been almost one year since a former patient opened fire inside the state psychiatric hospital in Concord and killed security officer Bradley Haas. Since then, some lawmakers have tried to pass legislation they say could have prevented the gunman from buying the weapon he used that day. John Madore, 33, walked into New Hampshire Hospital armed with a gun on Nov. 17, 2023. Within seconds, he opened fire, shooting and killing Haas before being fatally shot by a state police trooper.
“I feel like I need to be able to come to this hospital and tell people that I’ve done everything I can think of to prevent this from happening again,” Dr. Jeffrey Fetter said. Fetter was at the hospital that day and has made it his mission every day since to advocate for change. “I don’t know that we’ll ever know exactly what Mr. Madore’s motive was or what was going through his head that day, but I do believe that many tragedies that involve mental health crises could be prevented if it was just a little bit harder for someone in a behavioral health crisis to access a gun,” Fetter said.
Investigators confirmed Madore was a former patient at New Hampshire Hospital. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and involuntarily committed for several months in 2016 and 2017.
Federal law prohibits anyone who’s been committed from purchasing a gun, but Fetter said there is a loophole at the state level. “The way we enforce it in New Hampshire is that we ask the gun purchaser to attest that they do not have a mental illness,” Fetter said.
New Hampshire is one of just a handful of states that do not report mental health records to the federal background check database. That means a person with proven mental health issues can buy a gun if they just lie on Question 21-G of the firearms transaction record, which asks whether or not the person has been committed to a mental institution. Authorities said Madore checked “no” when he bought his weapon from a licensed dealer in Barrington in 2020.
“Makes me sad. It makes me really sad,” Milford firearms owner Nick D’Augustine said. D’Augustine said he tries to vet his customers to ensure his guns don’t end up in the wrong hands. “I ask people, you know, ‘What are you looking for today?’” D’Augustine said. But if he doesn’t sense a problem, he said it’s not up to him to question someone’s answers on a federal form. “People lie all the time, unfortunately. But that’s where some of the issues fall. And in this, it needs to be a conversation about the mental health because it is a crisis,” D’Augustine said. “First, I thought, ‘OK, we have to fix this,’” state Rep. Terry Roy said. Roy, a Republican, reached across the aisle to co-sponsor House Bill 1711, named “Bradley’s Law.” “This bill would have saved Chief Haas’ life. Because the only reason that gentleman had a gun was he went there and he lied on the application,” Roy said.
The legislation would, for the first time, require New Hampshire to report some mental health records to the federal firearms background check database, including those of people who are found incompetent to stand trial, not guilty by reason of insanity or who have been involuntarily committed. “These are only people who are brought before the court because they are dangerous to themselves or others,” Roy said. The bill passed the House but died in the state Senate. State Rep. J.R. Hoell voted against it, calling it a gun grab without due process. “The bill attempts to try and solve the mental health issue — which needs to be solved — by going after the law-abiding gun owners,” Hoell said.
Roy said he plans to bring “Bradley’s Law” back next session. Fetter said he’ll be there to testify in support of what he calls common sense gun reform. “People should not be afraid of mental illness. They should not be afraid of people with mental illness. They should not be afraid of guns, guns or tools. But you should be afraid of the mixture of a gun and a behavioral health crisis,” Fetter said.