CONCORD, N.H. — Veterans, military personnel and their loved ones are thanking New Hampshire Rep. Charles Bass for legislation aimed at limiting disruptive protests outside military funerals.

A bill Bass introduced last year was incorporated into a larger veterans bill President Barack Obama signed into law this week. The bill increases the buffer around military funerals from 300 feet to 500 feet and increases penalties for violators. Bass sponsored the bill after members of a Kansas church protested at the 2007 funeral of an Army captain from Hampstead who was killed in Iraq.

Jean Durgin, of Henniker, whose son was killed in Afghanistan in 2006, thanked Bass at a news conference Thursday. She said she’s sorry that the country needs such legislation to compel people to behave themselves.

Students from Texas A&M formed a ‘human shield’ around a military funeral so that the family could grieve in peace without seeing the protestors. Photo by