[V]ermont House members are working on a bill aimed at requiring firearms to be removed from an accused domestic abuser when a person obtains an emergency relief from abuse order against them.
The legislation was talked about in broad strokes among lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, the first day lawmakers returned to the Statehouse for a special legislative session.
Whether any legislation regarding relief from abuse orders can wind it ways around the rules and politics of a special session where tax and budgetary matters are the dominant topic remains unclear.
Talk of legislation regarding relief from abuse orders follows on the heels of a homicide in South Burlington, where police said 33-year-old Anako Lumumba’s boyfriend, Leroy Headley, 36, shot and killed her in South Burlington earlier this month. He remains on the run.
She obtained an emergency relief from abuse order against Headley late last year, but didn’t show up for a final hearing. Federal laws allows for guns to be seized when a judge approves a final order relief from abuse order.
Auburn Watersong, policy director of the Vermont Network against Domestic and Sexual Violence, said Wednesday that she doesn’t know all the particulars in Lumumba’s case.
However, she said she is pushing for a change in law that would allow authorities to seize firearms from a person who has an emergency relief from abuse order against them, before having to wait for a final hearing and order.
“It’s current practice by judges that at their discretion they can ask for relinquishment of firearms, they can put that in the emergency relief from abuse order,” Watersong said.
“It’s different across jurisdictions,” she added. “This would just be codifying and improving on current practice.”
Right after a person seeks a relief from abuse order against someone else is one of the most dangerous times for that person, Watersong said, adding that’s why it’s important to allow firearms to be seized at that initial emergency order stage.
Rep. Maxine Grad, D-Moretown, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday she is working on drafting a bill regarding relief from abuse orders, along with others, including Rep. Martin LaLonde, D-South Burlington, who also serves on the panel.
Grad said over the last session the committee did take testimony on the matter, but language never made its way into a bill. She added that she believes it is something the panel could take up next week when lawmakers return as part of the special session.
“This is in an important issue that has come up because of the events of South Burlington,” LaLonde said of revising the relief from abuse process.
“It’s actually an issue that we have talked about before in this committee,” he added. “I think it’s an opportune time to, at a minimum, start getting a handle on the issue of whether there is anything that can help the situation as far as the Legislature goes.”
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday that he would be up to learning more about such a proposal to change state statute before quickly taking action.
“Certainly, looking at the issue of RFAs (relief from abuse orders), in total, wouldn’t be a bad thing to do,” the senator said. However, he said, he would like to hear from a varities of parties before taking action.
“I never say never here, but we’re not planning on meeting and we’re not planning on taking up new subject we’ve been told by leadership that we shouldn’t, “ Sears said, adding. “Sen. Ashe would be the person to speak to.”
Sen. Tim Ashe, Senate president pro tem, spoke Wednesday to the Senate Democratic caucus and reiterated an earlier statement that there is a list of six bills as well as budget and tax legislation that were the priorities for the special session.
Those bills did not include making revisions to the relief from abuse statutes, as it wasn’t taken up during the regular sessions either. Ashe added that he was telling lobbyists, too, that he was not open to taking up new bills in the special session.
LaLonde said how long the special session runs may be a factor in how much work gets done on any relief from abuse legislation.
“If we’re here for a while, which I hope we’re not, then we may have plenty of time to delve deeply into this,” he said. “We may as well as get that lined up for consideration in case in fact we end up having the time.”
And if the special sessions runs long, he added, the Senate would likely have to pursue additional measures as well.
“If we’re here for a while they may need something to do and we might provide it,” LaLonde said.
Bill Moore, of the Vermont Traditions Coalition, which supports gun rights, said Wednesday while he is awaiting seeing the exact language of the legislation, he does have concerns.
Those concerns include ensuring that victims in abusive situations don’t have their firearms taken out of their home when seized by authorities due to an order granted against another party in the household.
That would affect the ability of victims to protect themselves, he said.
“It’s a question that needs to be answered,” Moore said.
School safety bill
Also, on Wednesday, other bills were referred to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration.
The bills include H.1 and H.3. Those measures include parts of the legislation that made up H.675, known as the school safety bill, that failed to cross the finish line of the legislative session that came to a close earlier this month.
A provision of the bill dealing with amending the state’s criminal threatening code to specifically criminalize threats regarding school shootings or explosions, became stalled between the two chambers over issues with the language of the legislation.
One measure that had been added to the legislation along the way called for forbidding sexual conduct between a law enforcement officer and an individual being held in custody by that officer or another officer.
That measure is now part of a standalone bill, H.1.
Other provisions of the school safety bill, drafted last session largely in response to the arrest in February of a teen accused of planning a school shooting plot in Fair Haven, are now part of H.3.
Cara Cookson, an attorney who heads the victim assistance program at the Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services, has been a prime backer of the legislation calling for the criminalization of sexual contact between law enforcement officers and those they are holding in custody.
“There is consensus around it,” Cookson said Wednesday of the legislation. “We’re happy with the language becoming law however that has to happen.”
