The overarching issue for Cutler and many gun rights’ proponents, who gathered at the Statehouse on Tuesday wearing blaze orange clothing, is that they view any new gun law as a step toward criminalizing lawful gun ownership.
Vermont has among the most liberal gun laws in the country, according to the Law Center for Prevention of Gun Violence. The state does not require a permit for carrying a concealed gun, and does not impose a waiting period for purchases, limit the number of guns that can be bought at one time, require the reporting of mental health commitments, or require dealers to obtain a state license.
Senate Pro Tempore John Campbell, D-Windsor, the bill’s primary sponsor, sat with Cutler and several others in the cafeteria for a meet-and-greet organized by the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs.
Campbell told Cutler his bill, S.31, would require universal background checks for private gun purchases. The legislation would also make it illegal in Vermont for a convicted violent offender to own a gun. It’s a federal crime for violent offenders to possess firearms, but without a mirror state law on the books, law enforcement officials in Vermont have said they can’t enforce the federal law. Finally, the bill would require the courts to report findings of incompetence and civil commitment to the FBI’s background check database.
Campbell doesn’t have a broader gun agenda, the senator told Cutler.
“Sen. Campbell could be telling the truth. He probably is,” Cutler said, “But last year we had (former Rep.) Linda Waite-Simpson trying to ban a whole bunch of things … Gun Sense (Vermont) and Moms Demand Action (for Gun Sense in America) were behind those bills 100 percent. They may be saying they’re not doing that now, and they don’t want that, but they wanted it last year.”
Gun safety advocates may have narrowed their focus from a broad range of firearms regulations and restrictions to the current push for universal background checks on all gun sales, but that doesn’t mean they’ve abandoned their aim for more regulations and restrictions in the future, Cutler said.
Cutler plans to present evidence in the coming days that Gun Sense Vermont and Everytown for Gun Safety — an organization formed by a merger of Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America — have a larger legislative agenda in Vermont, he said.
Gun rights proponents said repeatedly Tuesday that gun violence is not a problem in Vermont and that the acts criminalized by the proposed legislation are already federal crimes. Requiring all sales to be supervised by a licensed gun dealer, as the bill does, won’t make people safer, but will be a burden for legal gun owners, they said.
“If you’re unlicensed, and you sell to a felon, that’s already a federal crime,” said Ian Galbraith of Burlington. If the U.S. Attorney and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms aren’t able to enforce the law, they need to be given more resources, he said.
Gov. Peter Shumlin echoed that message at a Tuesday news conference. He said Vermont doesn’t need to pass a law that mirrors federal gun laws in state statute.
“If you’re willing to break federal laws, you’re likely to be willing to break state laws,” Shumlin told reporters.
“I think if the federal government isn’t enforcing their laws, that’s a problem. Don’t make ’em if you can’t enforce ’em,” Shumlin said of federal gun laws.
Vermont is well-served by the gun laws it has, and he hasn’t heard from state police that taking guns away from felons is a problem for them, Shumlin said.
Gun safety groups say the need for universal background checks is glaring. People prohibited from having firearms are using online classified websites catering to gun sales to avoid licensed dealers, according to a recent report from Everytown for Gun Safety.
Vermont may have a low incidence of violent gun crimes, but women are disproportionately victimized because firearms exacerbate domestic abuse situations, gun safety advocates said at a recent news conference.
In the 17 states and the District of Columbia where universal background checks are mandatory, the number of women killed by their intimate partner with a gun dropped significantly, they said.
But universal background checks are “de facto gun registration,” according to Cutler and a report by Gun Owners of Vermont, because the form buyers must submit requires them to list the make, model and serial number of the gun they’re purchasing (page 3). While access to that information can only be obtained currently as part of an investigation, Cutler said it leaves the door open to registration and eventually confiscation of firearms.
“This might not happen this year or next, but make no mistake about it, in three, five or 10 years down the road, Gun Sense and some anti-gun legislators will be back asking for registration because the universal background checks aren’t reducing gun crime,” the report states.
“Then, I’ll be a criminal,” Lawrence said.
Were the law to pass, Lawrence predicted that enforcing it could lead to a showdown between police and gun owners. Thaddeus Severy agreed.
“That’ll start the revolution,” Severy said. “They’re going to knock on the wrong door, and that will be the shot heard ’round the world.”
