[T]he Senate gave initial approval Thursday to a bill that would require a 24-hour waiting period for handgun sales, drawing criticism from both sides but ultimately receiving a 20-10 vote. It was passed on final reading on Friday.
Bills proposed in both the House and Senate this session proposed a 48-hour waiting period for all firearms. Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, the Senate Judiciary chair, came up with the compromise legislation, S.169.
“I’m sure every Vermonter can find something to complain about in this bill,” Sears said on the Senate floor Thursday. “I hope folks won’t be put off by the term compromise, because if we’ve come to that we’re in deep trouble in this state.”
The parents of Andrew Black, a 23-year-old man who killed himself with a handgun hours after purchasing it in December, said after the vote that they supported the revised bill.
“Senator Sears has created a reasonable compromise that will protect safety and reduce harm,” Rob Black, Andrew’s father, said in an emailed statement. “I think a short waiting period will help by creating a small speed bump for somebody buying a handgun for the wrong reasons.”
The Blacks used Andrew’s obituary to ask Vermonters to call their legislators to demand a waiting period.
“While there is nothing that we can possibly do to bring Andrew back,” said his mother, Alyssa Black, “it is my sincerest hope that this effort will save another mother and other families from experiencing the heartbreak we are going through.”
But not everyone was satisfied. Sen. Ruth Hardy, D-Addison, spoke out against what she called a “watered down” bill on the Senate floor and said she would be back fighting to further strengthen Vermont’s gun laws.
“The compromise 24 hour waiting period is not long enough to best ensure time for a person struggling with suicide to seek help,” Hardy said. “The compromise for handguns does not address that somebody can kill themselves with a rifle just as easily.”
Hardy read off statistics that have been repeatedly raised by supporters of the bill: about half of adolescents and young adults who decide to attempt suicide act within an hour; 87 people under age 30 died by firearm suicide between 2011 and 2016; and 90 percent of all firearm suicide attempts are successful.
She talked about a student at her own child’s school in Middlebury who committed suicide with a gun found at home, and how deeply it impacted the student’s classmates. “Our children are stressed and scared and they have been demanding they would do something,” Hardy said.
Sen. John Rodgers, D-Essex/Orleans, took multiple turns speaking on the floor, each time expressing his opposition to the waiting period.
He said all the talk about the importance of compromise made him wonder if his fellow senators would bring the same attitude to the upcoming debate over a bill that would give Vermont the most expansive abortion protections in the country.
Rodgers said that if legislators were really willing to do anything to protect children, they would be talking about major restrictions on the internet and smartphone use. He noted that it was reportedly a photograph on Facebook that began Andrew Black’s spiral toward suicide.
“I believe the internet is much more dangerous than firearms,” he said, adding that the internet is the source of the hate and pain, while “firearms are the tool.”
Rodgers was one of four Democrats who joined the Senate’s six Republicans in voting against the bill. The others were Sen. Bobby Starr, D-Essex/Orleans; Sen. Alice Nitka, D-Windsor; and Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Grand Isle.
Assuming the bill passes a final Senate vote, it will move to the House, which passed major gun reform last year. Gov. Phil Scott has said he will not support any gun restriction bills this session.
