[A] House-backed gun bill sent to the Senate just before the crossover deadline appears shelved in that chamber in favor of two other pieces of firearms legislation.
Lawmakers returned to the Statehouse on Tuesday following their annual weeklong Town Meeting Day break. Hundreds of opponents of stricter gun laws gathered in the capitol building, while supporters held a smaller demonstration outside in the snow.
Gun legislation has taken center stage in Montpelier following the arrest of 18-year-old Jack Sawyer of Poultney last month. Police say they thwarted a plot by Sawyer to shoot up his Fair Haven Union School and create “mass casualties.”
But the chilling details of his alleged plot laid out in a police affidavit — together with a national movement to tighten gun laws in the wake of a mass shooting in Florida — has prompted a flurry of gun legislation.
One of those bills, H.675, passed the House on March 2, the crossover deadline when most bills have to come out of committee in order to be taken up by the other chamber.
However, despite House lawmakers meeting that crossover deadline and passing H.675 in the full chamber, that bill looks unlikely to move forward in the Senate.
“H.675 is not going to be the bill that gets taken up,” Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe said Tuesday. “We are going to be working on 422 in Judiciary and the arrangement with House leadership is they will take up 221. So in the end, those two bills will be the ones that pass.”
H.422 passed the House last session and allows law enforcement to seize firearms in certain domestic violence situations. S.211, which unanimously passed the Senate earlier this session, allows authorities to temporarily seize firearms from people deemed to pose an “extreme threat” to themselves or others.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has set aside Wednesday and Thursday to take testimony on H.422. The House Judiciary Committee already took testimony on S.221, but decided to fold it into H.675 rather than move forward with the bill as it was delivered.
A key sticking point in the House was that some members didn’t believe the bill passed by the Senate went far enough in permitting law enforcement to act when its comes to seizing firearms from people who are threat or danger to themselves or others.
Some senators say the House bills go too far, and do not provide enough due process protections.
The House bills had stronger support from victims rights advocates, while the Senate version had the backing of gun-rights activists.
The House bill that passed on crossover day, H.675, has been termed by some a “melding” of the two bills.
“I don’t know what there specific concerns (are) with 221 other than that they also wanted 422,” Ashe said. “So we’re moving forward with 422 and when it leaves the Senate it won’t look exactly like when it came over I’m sure.”
He later added, “So I don’t mean to be opaque, it’s just one of those things sometimes you have multiple vehicles. But in the end there’s gotta be one plan.”
House Judiciary Committee Chair Maxine Grad, D-Moretown, said Tuesday afternoon that as far as she knew the Senate did plan to take up on H.675, and she wasn’t aware why Senate leaders would say otherwise.
And there’s another gun bill that has been passed by the Senate and sent to the House.
This week the House Judiciary Committee is taking up S.55, which includes provisions for background checks on private gun sales and raising the age to purchase the firearms in Vermont to 21.
House Speaker Mitzi Johnson, D-Grand Isle, said Tuesday that both the House and Senate are working to pass “common sense” gun legislation, adding that she believed differences between the two chambers would be worked out.
“This happens all the time with legislation, that a concept winds up in a couple of different vehicles. In the end, we’ll get those concepts to the governor’s desk,” Johnson said.
“The reason for all the confusion about the various different vehicles has to do with rules and timing and how our legislative structure works,” she said. “We’re doing all of this so that we can respond to what Vermonters are asking us to do.”
Johnson confirmed Tuesday that there will be a vote on the House floor for a bill that includes expanded background checks legislation.
Gun-rights activists, most sporting at least one piece of blaze orange clothing, took to the cafeteria and halls of the Statehouse on Tuesday to press their case with lawmakers. They spoke out against added restrictions on gun ownership.
“My whole issue is that, what are we actually going to do to protect the schools,” said Jason Monaco of Cabot, a gun-rights advocate.
“I don’t believe that all these firearm regulations are going to help,” he added. “You’re not allowed to bring a gun on school property anyway. You’re already breaking the law by doing that.”
He said lawmakers seeking to protect schools should focus their attention there, suggesting metal detectors and armed security officials to boost safety.
Evan Hughes of the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs said Tuesday that the recent push to pass more gun measures by the Legislature has motivated gun-rights supporters to make their voices heard like he has never seen before.
“They’re very concerned, they don’t believe their legislators and their governor are listening to them,” Hughes said.
Those who support additional gun restrictions also came to the Statehouse on Tuesday.
Alec Collins, a sophomore at the University of Vermont, said the national response to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead had motivated him to get involved.
“Before a couple weeks ago, I was totally disaffected as far as gun control. It seemed like the political forces were just so incredibly difficult,” Collins said.
“To hear Donald Trump on live television say, ‘you’re scared of the NRA,’ to me that just meant the conversation had changed completely — that there was enough pressure building across the country that we could finally look at this issue and say, ‘what is the stopping point?’” he said.
Collins organized a vigil at the Statehouse on Tuesday. He and a UVM classmate, along with Clai Lasher-Sommers, the head of GunSense Vermont, stood in the snow on the Statehouse steps and held signs bearing the names of the Parkland victims.
“We’re going to keep showing up,” Collins said. “We’re going to keep telling our legislators that if they don’t pass common sense gun reform, we’re going to vote and we’re going to vote against them.”
Meanwhile, speaking Tuesday at his weekly press conference, Gov. Phil Scott spoke in favor of the gun bills passed by the House and the Senate.
And while differences in legislation passed by the two chambers prevented legislation from landing on his desk by Town Meeting Day, the governor said he is optimistic those will be worked out.
“It may not have been as quick as I had hoped,” Scott said, “but at this point in time we’re still having the conversations. I think that’s important.”
Colin Meyn and Michael Dougherty contributed to this report.
