This story by Chris Mays was published by the Brattleboro Reformer on April 4, 2018.
[D]EERFIELD VALLEY — The debate around guns during the legislative session took a grim turn when state Reps. John Gannon, D-Wilmington, and Laura Sibilia, I-West Dover, received violent threats via social media.
“It’s a very tough vote,” Gannon told the Reformer. “It was exacerbated by the threats. We were trying to do the right thing. I understand there were differences of opinion, but it’s hard for me to comprehend someone threatening to shoot you. If you really look at what we did, it didn’t go that far. It didn’t take a single gun from a single Vermonter.”
Gov. Phil Scott has indicated he will sign into law S.55, which expands background checks, bans bump stocks, raises the age to buy a gun to 21 and sets restrictions on the size of magazines to include 15 rounds for handguns and 10 for long guns. He also said he would sign off on bills that give police authority to take firearms from residents cited in domestic abuse cases and those deemed in a court hearing to be an extreme risk to themselves or others.
Gannon and Sibilia voted for S.55. But when voting on amendments before the underlying bill Tuesday, Gannon opposed raising the purchase age, while Sibilia opposed the bans on bump stocks and high-capacity magazines, and the mandate requiring universal background checks on all gun sales.
Gannon said he received one threat as he and Sibilia regularly updated their Facebook pages as the bills were being discussed on the floor of the Statehouse.
“I stopped going on Facebook for a couple of days,” Gannon said. “There was nothing you could say that was going to make anyone happy.”
Sibilia alerted the Capitol Police Department in Montpelier about one threat, and said the person who made it has since apologized.
“I understand why people are angry in general. But this is not going to solve things, behaving this way. It’s not how things get done.”
Gannon spoke with Wilmington Town Manager Scott Tucker and Wilmington Police Chief Joe Szarejko about a threat made to him. The comments were deleted.
Gannon believes the Legislature has taken “straightforward steps that are in step” with incidents that have occurred across the United States. Scott told reporters he was rattled after reading an affidavit from a planned school shooting in Fair Haven in February.
“I’m actually confounded that people are as upset as they are,” Gannon said. “We have a gun violence problem. There’s almost a school shooting a week. I don’t understand how you can’t acknowledge there’s a problem.”
Gannon said many gun owners do not trust lawmakers, but he does not want “blood” on his hands.
“I don’t want to tell a parent ‘I’m sorry I didn’t do something, but I could have,’” he said. “I think the steps we took were reasonable. I think people need to put themselves in the position of a parent or a spouse of someone who has been in harm’s way. Their rights were violated. There are many rights in this world, many constitutional rights, and there have to be limits to those — to some extent — to protect innocent people.”
Gannon has not heard from any other legislators who were threatened. But he noted seeing “some very mean-spirited conversations” on social media. He does not believe social media is a good platform for discussing gun issues because people can bully or intimidate others without knowing them.
Sibilia and Gannon hosted a hearing where Deerfield Valley residents were invited to provide testimony on school safety and gun-control bills.
“I think we made an effort to listen to people,” Gannon said. “We received dozens and dozens of emails from people. I read every one of them.”
He does not believe there is a perfect solution to protecting schools and communities.
“Can there be mass gun violence in the future in Vermont? Yes,” Gannon said. “In Vermont, that can happen, but if we can stop one incident— like we did in Fair Haven— I think it’s good reason to take what I feel are reasonable measures.”
Sibilia recalled a time when people could disagree without threatening harm against each other.
“I think we could all use a little self reflection on how we treat each other,” Sibilia told the Reformer. “Things have changed dramatically in our country and are changing dramatically in our state. Change is hard.”
But she understands the difficulties her constituents might be facing beyond the issue of gun control.
“My folks are really struggling,” she said. “We’ve lost a lot of population, our schools are under extreme stress, our communities are under extreme stress. They are [ticked] off they don’t have things like cell service or broadband, which are things that normal people, average Vermonters, have. It takes 45 minutes for the police to get there. You know, it kind of seems like nobody cares.”
Sibilia said she cares a lot and that is why she serves on the Legislature.
“I work really hard for my people,” she said. “I’ve known my folks for a long time. And while the behavior that was exhibited was completely unacceptable, to make threats and to behave in a way that was done on social media, they’re really hurting. And I understand why people are angry in general. But this not going to solve things, behaving this way. It’s not how things get done.”
Sibilia said she welcomes a contested run for her seat, a possibility raised by her social media critics. She beat incumbent John Moran in the 2014 election, then again in 2016 when he unsuccessfully ran against her.
Sibilia described students and gun-rights activists who have occupied the Statehouse for about six weeks as “incredibly brave, patriotic and respectful.”
An exchange of ideas is good, Sibilia said. But she worries when citizens start threatening to take arms against those who oppose them.
“Those are not good, patriotic behaviors,” she said, adding that they have been fostered at the national level “pretty strongly” in recent months. “I feel like what we’re seeing play out on social media is not respectful. I feel like in many ways, it’s not really courageous to sit in your living room and make threats.”
As she prepared for another day at the Statehouse on Tuesday morning, Sibilia wondered whether updating her constituents as regularly as she does is a mistake. She said she now needs to “get on to other other issues.”
“We have an education finance bill that is really going to mess people up if it passes,” she said. “We’re trying to fight it. We’re losing cell service and it’s the only cell service there is in my zip codes. It’s really going to affect people’s lives.”
