Security experts like former Defense Secretary William Perry warn that the risk of nuclear war is greater today than it has been since World War II, and medical and scientific experts warn us that a nuclear war with Russia, on top of the initial military casualties, would trigger a global famine that could kill 5 billion people in the first two years and bring the human race to the brink of extinction. In January of 2024, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists left its iconic Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest to worldwide catastrophe it has been in history.

Billions of dollars are spent annually to develop and maintain the deadly U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, robbing New Hampshire communities of taxpayer dollars to support programs that address real security concerns and threats in our communities. This amounts to more than $400 million in federal spending that could address real human needs for Granite Staters.

Furthermore, countless people and communities in America and throughout the world suffer grievous harm from the testing, production, and maintenance of nuclear weapons and the mining and extraction of uranium and other materials used to make them. Medical experts project that 2.4 million people around the globe will die from cancers caused by atmospheric nuclear testing from 1945-1980 (p. 40).

Some justify the obscene quantity of nuclear weapons possessed by the U.S. by asserting that our arsenal deters both nuclear and conventional warfare. However, nuclear deterrence requires a convincing threat of genocidal reprisal should there be a first strike against our country. Not only is this concept immoral and unconscionable, but it is also based upon a theory that has many flaws. No one believes that deterrence would have an effect on terrorist organizations and other non-state actors.

We, as the constituents of the New Hampshire congressional delegation, must urge Representatives Chris Pappas and Annie Kuster to co-sponsor H.Res 77, a resolution introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives with 42 co-sponsors urging the leaders of the U.S. government to "embrace the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons" and adopt the common-sense nuclear weapons policies of the Back from the Brink Campaign, including engaging in serious arms control negotiations with the nine Nuclear Weapon States with the ultimate goal of worldwide nuclear abolition.

This petition does NOT call on our government to unilaterally put down our nuclear weapons and allow our nation to be blown away by foreign adversaries. On the contrary, it urges our leaders to initiate multilateral peace talks in an effort to eliminate the nuclear weapons of ALL countries and save humanity.