Senate leaders this week plan to introduce a bill to require criminal background checks for all gun purchases.
Gun control advocates, pushing the measure, are preparing for a news conference Wednesday in the Statehouse, and gun rights groups say they will object to any new restrictions.
A bill has not been filed. Senate Pro Tempore John Campbell, D-Windsor, said Tuesday that lawmakers are waiting for a new draft from legislative lawyers. He will be the lead sponsor and Sen. Philip Baruth, D-Chittenden, and Sen. Claire Ayer, D-Addison, are co-sponsors, they said. Baruth said a bill should be filed later this week.
Vermont has some of the least restrictive gun laws in the nation and one of the lowest crime rates.
That’s proof that gun laws don’t need changing, say gun rights groups such as the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, the state branch of the National Rifle Association.
“Based on what we’re hearing, we have no reason to be anything but opposed,” said Evan Hughes, the group’s lobbyist and vice president.
Other groups also oppose universal background checks, though they all say they want to see the bill first.
“Vermont Traditions Coalition is categorically opposed to an expansion of the existing background check system,” said the group’s lobbyist Bill Moore.
The gun control bill comes after a grassroots organization, Gun Sense Vermont, spent the off-season rallying support across the state. The background check legislation is likely to be extremely controversial.
The bill would not to create a registry, a concern that gun owners raise, according to Campbell.
“We’re not trying to take anybody’s guns away,” he said.
The group will deliver 1,000 personal letters to senators Wednesday and deliver 12,000 signatures to the governor, Gun Sense Vermont President Ann Braden said.
The bill will have three parts, Braden said.
First, it will require background checks on all gun purchases. A national background check system has succeeded in blocking gun sales to criminals but a loophole in Vermont allows guns to be bought from unlicensed sellers over the Internet, at gun shows and at garage sales with no questions asked, Braden said.
The second part of the bill would push the state to report mental health data to the federal background check system, something states are required to do but many fall short.
States are required to report only whether a person has been adjudicated in court to be a danger to himself or others.
Third, the bill would create a state law to mirror the federal law prohibiting violent felons from possessing firearms. That would allow state law enforcement to confiscate guns from those felons instead of having to call federal agents.
Braden said the news conference will demonstrate the wide support for the measure. Other gun control proposals in the past have been quashed by gun rights groups, which have enjoyed strong support from the governor and lawmakers.
The news conference will feature Vermonters from all 14 Senate districts and speakers including an anti-domestic violence advocate, a Unitarian reverend and a gun owner.
