The years long fight to put more guns on New Hampshire’s public college campuses is finished for 2026. On Thursday, the state Senate refused to keep negotiating with the House over competing versions of a campus carry bill, sending the proposal into the legislative graveyard for the rest of this session and dealing a sharp setback to Second Amendment advocates who believed this year offered the strongest opening in a decade.

The decision came in the final stretch of “committee of conference” week in Concord, the narrow window when House and Senate negotiators must either find common ground on disputed bills or watch them die. According to reporting by New Hampshire Public Radio, the Senate effectively pulled the plug, leaving House supporters with no path forward.

Two Chambers, Two Very Different Bills

The collapse traces back to a fundamental disagreement between the two chambers about how far the state should go.

The House version, championed by Republican Rep. Sam Farrington, took the most expansive approach. It would have barred any college or university in New Hampshire that receives government money from imposing any limit on students, employees, or visitors when it came to carrying and keeping guns on campus. Under that framework, anyone legally allowed to carry a weapon could do so on a state-funded college campus in New Hampshire without limitation. Farrington, who is himself a student at the University of New Hampshire, framed the measure as a restoration of natural rights rather than an expansion of policy.

The Senate, by contrast, drafted a narrower compromise. It would have given college faculty members the right to carry guns on public campuses while letting students carry only non-lethal weapons such as mace and tasers. That version cleared the upper chamber on May 14 in what supporters called a workable middle ground that addressed safety concerns about armed undergraduates while still recognizing a faculty member’s right to self defense.

When the two chambers sent their respective bills to a committee of conference, the gap was simply too wide. The House negotiators wanted broad campus carry. The Senate negotiators wanted a faculty only carve out. Neither side was willing to move enough to bridge the difference.

Senate Pulls the Plug

On Thursday, Senate Republicans who had backed the narrower version made the call that ended the bill’s chances for the year. The decision was not unanimous, and one of the most prominent supporters of expanded gun rights in the upper chamber made clear his frustration.

“This bill was our best chance to advance Second Amendment protections, in my opinion, for probably years to come,” said Republican Sen. Keith Murphy of Manchester. “I am disappointed, but I am certain it is only a matter of time before this policy is adopted in this state, and I will wait for that day.”

Murphy’s remarks captured the bind that Senate leadership found itself in. With Republicans holding the majority but lacking the votes to pass the House’s expansive version, the choice came down to taking the narrower bill or taking nothing. After the failed conference, the chamber chose nothing.

Farrington, the House sponsor, refused to treat the outcome as a final defeat. After the Senate’s move, he took to social media to say he plans to keep pushing for what supporters call “campus carry” until it becomes law.

“I will always fight for the right to keep and bear arms,” Farrington wrote. “The right to self defense is a natural right, and government exists to protect our rights. This is not the end. It is only the beginning.”

He also tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade the House to attach the language of his original proposal to an unrelated bill requiring insurers to cover the costs of prosthetic limbs for adults. The maneuver, sometimes called a “last minute amendment” or “Christmas tree” attempt, did not advance.

What Current Law Actually Says

For now, the campus gun question in New Hampshire stays exactly where it has been: in the hands of college and university leaders rather than state lawmakers. Each institution sets its own firearms policy, and the major public schools, the University of New Hampshire, Plymouth State University, Keene State College, and the Community College System of New Hampshire, all currently prohibit guns on their grounds with limited exceptions for law enforcement.

That patchwork stands in contrast to thirteen other states that have written campus carry rights into law. In states like Utah, Texas, and Kansas, public colleges generally cannot prohibit licensed concealed carry. The push in Concord this year was, in effect, an attempt to bring New Hampshire into that bloc.

Supporters argued that New Hampshire’s strong gun culture and high rate of legal firearm ownership made the current campus rules inconsistent with the rest of state law. Critics countered that colleges are uniquely sensitive environments where dormitories, parties, mental health crises, and high-stress academic moments all overlap, and that police chiefs around the country have warned about the practical difficulty of responding to an active shooter when multiple armed civilians are also drawing weapons.

The Coalition That Stopped It

The bill’s defeat is also a story about the coalition that lined up against it.

College and university leaders, including the president of the University of New Hampshire, voiced their opposition during public hearings earlier this year. Several members of New Hampshire law enforcement also testified against the proposal, raising concerns about how patrol officers and campus security would distinguish a lawful carrier from a threat in a crisis.

College students themselves turned out in numbers that surprised some State House observers. A rally outside the Capitol drew a large crowd of New Hampshire college students who said they did not feel safer with the prospect of armed classmates and worried about the impact on classroom climate, residence hall life, and mental health responses.

Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican who has built much of her political identity around supporting both gun rights and law enforcement, occupied an unusually careful middle ground. She has said she wants the issue studied further before any major change in state law, a position that effectively gave Senate Republicans political cover to walk away from the House version without breaking with the governor.

The Larger Political Picture

The collapse of the campus carry bill is part of a larger pattern in this year’s session, in which a Republican controlled legislature has had to choose between ambitious House conservative priorities and the narrower, often more cautious instincts of Senate Republicans and a governor with a wider general election audience to consider.

It also fits the pattern New Hampshire watchers have come to expect from a state that holds the Second Amendment in high regard but also takes pride in self governance at the local and institutional level. New Hampshire already permits permitless concealed carry, has strong preemption laws that limit local restrictions on firearms, and welcomes lawful gun owners across most public spaces. The campus question, though, has consistently bumped against a different value: the long tradition of letting college presidents and trustees set policy on their own grounds.

For 2026, those countervailing pressures left the bill where it has landed every other year it has been introduced: a few key votes short of a deal.

What Happens Next

Supporters of expanded campus carry have several options heading into 2027.

The first is a straight reintroduction in the next session. Farrington has already said he plans to keep fighting, and other House Republicans have publicly backed the broader version. Whether a new bill can avoid the same Senate roadblock will depend on the makeup of the chamber after November’s election, on whether Ayotte’s “study it further” position evolves, and on how organized the opposition coalition remains.

A second route is a study committee that does substantive work rather than serving as a soft landing for a failed bill. If the issue gets a serious legislative study with input from college presidents, law enforcement, public health experts, and gun rights advocates, lawmakers could come back next year with a narrower or more carefully tailored proposal that could survive a conference committee.

A third option is litigation. National Second Amendment groups have, in other states, used court challenges to argue that blanket campus gun bans run afoul of the Supreme Court’s recent Second Amendment rulings. New Hampshire has not seen a major case of that kind, but it is a tool advocates can reach for if legislative paths stay blocked.

What is unlikely to change anytime soon is the underlying political reality: New Hampshire voters, broadly supportive of gun rights, are not nearly as supportive of carrying firearms in college classrooms. Until that gap narrows, any campus carry bill in Concord is going to face the same arithmetic that doomed this year’s version.

For now, the institutions themselves keep the keys. UNH, Plymouth, Keene, and the community colleges will continue to make their own rules. The Second Amendment debate moves to another bill, another hearing, and another year.

Frequently Asked Questions

What exactly killed the campus carry bill this year?

The House and Senate passed two very different versions of the bill, and on Thursday the Senate refused to keep negotiating with the House in a committee of conference. That refusal ends the bill's path forward for the 2026 session.

Could the legislature still pass something this year?

House sponsor Sam Farrington tried to attach campus carry language to an unrelated bill on prosthetic limb coverage, but the maneuver failed. With the Senate refusing to keep talking and the session winding down, the issue is effectively dead until 2027.

Can students carry guns on New Hampshire college campuses right now?

Generally no. Each college and university sets its own firearms policy under current law, and the major public institutions, including the University of New Hampshire, Plymouth State, Keene State, and the Community College System, prohibit firearms on campus with narrow exceptions for law enforcement.

How many states currently have campus carry?

Thirteen states grant the right to carry guns on at least some public college campuses by law. The push in Concord this year was an attempt to add New Hampshire to that group.

What is Gov. Ayotte's position?

Gov. Kelly Ayotte, generally a supporter of gun rights, has said she wants the issue studied further before any major change in state law. That position gave Senate Republicans political room to walk away from the broader House version.

For related coverage on this year’s legislative session and gun policy in New Hampshire, see our reports on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s earlier vote to send the bill to study, the House censure of Rep. Travis Corcoran for offensive social media posts, and the final week of committee of conference action in Concord.

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