A South Burlington lawmaker is proposing a measure he says is aimed at broadening the discussion about gun legislation.
Rep. Martin LaLonde, a Democrat, has submitted a sweeping amendment to a Senate-backed gun bill that includes several new provisions to the legislation.
The proposal includes a ban on assault-style guns as well as high capacity magazines, defined in the proposal as any device capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition.
Guns and magazines legally owned before the legislation goes into effect would be exempt.
LaLonde’s proposed amendment also calls for a 10-day waiting period after a background check for the transfer of a firearm and a requirement that firearms be kept safely stored.
“I wanted to put the whole reasonable landscape out there,” LaLonde said Wednesday.
“I probably could have gone even further on some issues,” he added, “such as requiring a permit or license and such, but it’s kind of all in the realm of possible things we could do in a comprehensive package.”
LaLonde introduced his amendment to a Senate-backed bill, S.55, that already includes provisions that expand background checks to the private sale of firearms and raises the age to purchase a gun to 21 in Vermont.
The House Judiciary Committee has been taking testimony on that Senate bill this week, with more testimony expected Thursday. LaLonde is a member of that committee.
LaLonde’s proposed amendment is expected to face stiff opposition from gun-rights groups. At an event Tuesday in the Statehouse, hundreds of gun-rights supporters turned out, many lobbying lawmakers against passing additional restrictions on gun ownership.
The South Burlington lawmaker’s amendment lays out characteristics of firearms that would be banned as assault-style firearms, such as a semi-automatic shotgun that has a fixed magazine capacity in excess of seven rounds.
The proposed amendment does not mention the exact models of guns that would be banned.
The amendment also contains a “safe storage” provision. It states that a person “shall not or otherwise leave a firearm outside his or her immediate possession or control without having first securely locked the firearm in a safe storage depository or, by use of a tamper-resistant mechanical lock gun lock or other device appropriate to that weapon, rendered it incapable of being fired.”
Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee began taking testimony on H.422, a bill passed by the House last session that allows police officers to seize firearms without a court order in certain domestic violence situations.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington and the committee’s chair, said that bill would not move forward until the House moved on S.221, another piece of gun legislation that he sponsored, which would allow police to request an order to remove guns from individuals deemed an “extreme risk” to themselves or others.
“The plan would be to vote out 422 when we see movement in the House on 221,” Sears said in a committee meeting Wednesday.
“I appreciate the letters and emails and other things that I have heard on 422 both for and against. We are going to look at the bill and make changes I’m sure,” he said. “So even if we’ve marked up the bill and are close to voting it out I don’t want to vote it out until such time as we see 221 move.”
S.221 was passed by the Senate earlier this session, and formally referred to the House Judiciary Committee this week. It is currently “on the wall” in the committee room, Rep. Maxine Grad, D-Moretown, that committee chair, said Wednesday afternoon.
Grad was noncommittal when asked when the House committee expected to take up that bill.
LaLonde said he supports the actions taken so far in the House Judiciary Committee when dealing with gun legislation.
“My experience with Maxine Grad is that she doesn’t play the kind of games that you hear about in the Statehouse. She’s very straightforward, she puts the policy together that she thinks is the right policy that she gets to the floor,” LaLonde said.
“I support that,” he added. “So whatever Dick Sears or whatever folks are doing downstairs, we’re doing the work that we think will get the most effective bill out.”
