Proposals to tighten Vermont’s gun laws saw a swell of support this week following a school shooting in Florida and a threatened plan to shoot up a school in Vermont
More than a hundred demonstrators gathered on the steps of the Statehouse in the drizzly, gray morning to call on lawmakers to take up legislation to tighten Vermont’s gun laws.
The rally was organized by Gun Sense Vermont in response to the mass shooting deaths of 17 teachers and students at a Florida high school, and followed the arrest by Vermont State Police of a man police say was planning an attack on a Fair Haven school.
Demonstrators waved signs bearing messages like “Protect kids not guns” and “No more silence, end gun violence.” More than a dozen students from Vermont schools held sunflowers or sprigs of bright purple flowers.
Nathan DeGroot, 16, a junior at Montpelier High School, told the crowd about his experience when a man believed to be armed with a gun was in a fatal standoff with police on the school’s property earlier this year.
“At this point, it’s really, really simple. You either care more about your right to own a gun than you care about kids’ right to go to school and not be shot,” he said. “Or even go to school and feel safe.”
Zoe Hecht, 13, an eighth-grader at the Vermont Commons School, addressed Gov. Phil Scott’s remarks Friday that he is open to a conversation about policies around gun violence.
“I’m glad that Gov. Scott has decided to open up a dialogue but it is our responsibility to hold him to it and make sure that that dialogue remains about gun violence prevention,” she said.
She told the crowd that last week, her school gathered and reviewed the protocols in the event of an active shooter.
“We’ve reached a point where on a Friday morning when we’re supposed to be learning about composition and color in art class, we have to be discussing what we should do if the shooter has us cornered in a room,” Hecht said.
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger called on the Vermont Legislature to pass legislation that would establish universal background checks for all gun sales. Under current law, some private sales are exempt from background checks.
If lawmakers won’t adopt the policy on a state level, he said, they should allow municipalities to pursue policies on a local level.
Lawmakers are currently looking at a variety of measures related to firearms.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is poised to vote in the next few weeks on a bill that would establish a process to temporarily bar people considered to be an “extreme risk” from possessing a gun.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, said that the measure, S.221, is “absolutely necessary” in order to give law enforcement the ability to act in situations that could involve someone planning to go on a “rampage,” domestic violence or suicide.
“Fair Haven worked because they were able to come up with some charges,” Sears said, which he said is unusual. “In most of these situations you would not be able to charge with a crime.”
Sears said he’s been in contact with Scott’s administration about the proposal. The governor said Friday he considered it a good “starting point” for a discussion.
The future of another proposal in the committee is murkier. S.6, which would establish universal background checks, likely does not have the support needed to pass the panel.
Sears is among the members who oppose it. He does not want to create criminal penalties for private exchanges, a practice “that’s been going on for years,” he said.
He also questions how effective the measure would be on its own, without being coupled with a range of other new laws. Sears argued that the universal background check law implemented in Connecticut has been effective because of the other laws the state adopted.
However, the universal background check measure is likely to get a vote on the Senate floor regardless of whether it passes the committee. Sen. Phil Baruth, D-Chittenden, a sponsor of the bill, said the legislative process allows amendments to be offered.
“That’s the avenue that’s open to me, and I plan to take it,” he said.
Baruth said he is open to Sears’ bill as well as H.422, a measure the House passed last year that would allow law enforcement to temporarily confiscate firearms from people accused of domestic violence.
“But I think if you don’t add universal background checks to those bills, they are fragmentary, rather than comprehensive,” he said.
Evan Hughes, of the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, said the group sees S.221 as “providing better tools” for enforcing the state’s existing laws.
“I think what [lawmakers are] trying to do is achieve what they believe is necessary and respect due process of law,” Hughes said.
Asked about the concerns students raised about their safety at school, Hughes said there are state statutes on the books that bar firearms on school property and take other steps to keep people safe.
“Just because they don’t know the law doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist,” he said.
Hughes said the Fair Haven case illustrates that the statutes in place now are effective.
“They were able to intercede and stop whatever this person intended to do because they enforced Vermont’s existing laws,” he said. “They didn’t enforce bills in the Legislature, they enforced the existing laws.”
The group is open to S.221, but has concerns about aspects of the proposal, according to Hughes. They oppose both the universal background check proposal and the House-passed bill restricting gun possession by people accused of domestic violence crimes.
Meanwhile, a House panel took testimony Tuesday on H.31, a separate measure that would allow the use of gun suppressors when hunting. The devices, reduce the volume of the sound of firearms, currently are legal only at shooting ranges.
Rep. Pat Brennan, R-Colchester, said strict background check processes are required to obtain suppressors under federal law. He won one in a raffle recently and anticipates that he will not have the device in his possession until the fall, because the background check process takes so long.
Brennan, cosponsor of the measure with Rep. George Till, D-Jericho, a doctor, characterized the proposal as focused on hunters’ health. Many people, including himself, suffer hearing damage from using firearms, he said.
Asked about the timing, with the renewed push for reforming Vermont’s gun laws, Brennan noted the bill was introduced last year.
“This isn’t about the weapon itself,” he said. “This is about hearing protection. This is a health care bill.”
