Two months after Gov. Phil Scott struck down legislation that would have created a waiting period for handgun purchases, Senate Democrats are preparing to push for new gun control measures next year, including a broader waiting period policy.
The bill Scott vetoed in June would have created a 24-hour waiting period for handgun purchases, a measure which gun control activists and Democrats say can help prevent suicides.
But now, some in the Senate say they plan to introduce legislation next session for a 48-hour waiting period that would apply to all firearms purchases. After several mass shootings across the country, some say they are poised to introduce or support additional gun control measures.
Scott vetoed the waiting period bill, in part, because he didn’t believe data showed that a 24-hour delay for handgun purchases would reduce suicide rates.
However, some Democrats say there is now clearer evidence showing that a longer, 48-hour waiting period does help prevent suicides.
Sen. Phil Baruth, D/P Chittenden, plans to introduce the 48-hour waiting period bill and other gun control measures in the legislative session that begins in January.
“I will take him at what seems to be his word, which is that he would look more favorably on a 48-hour waiting period,” Baruth said of the governor.
“I think potentially he could be convinced that a longer waiting period could be effective,” said Sen. Ruth Hardy, D-Addison.
“There is evidence that a longer waiting period is more effective because it provides more opportunity for people to calm down, rethink their situation, not be in a moment of stress and anxiety and trauma,” Hardy added. “They’re able to more likely get help.”
Baruth and Hardy couldn’t immediately point to specific research showing that the longer 48-hour waiting period leads to lower suicide rates.
But a 2017 study published in the journal of the National Academy of Sciences found that waiting periods that delay gun purchases “by a few days” lead to a 7-11% reduction in gun suicides “which is equivalent to 22-35 fewer gun suicides per year for the average state.”
Another 2017 study published in The Economic Journal found that policies that delay purchases for firearms in the U.S. reduced firearm-related suicides by 2-5%.
Some Second Amendment supporters, including the National Rifle Association, have dismissed recent research on waiting periods as flawed.
“There is no evidence that waiting periods reduce suicides, homicides, or mass shootings. No studies that identify causal effects have been identified by any of the independent literature reviews conducted since 2004,” the NRA’s Institute for Legislative action states in an online fact sheet.
Scott also said he opposed S.169, the waiting period bill, because the state ushered in a slate of new gun measures in 2018.
Scott broke with his party and his own prior stance on gun control to support last year’s firearms restrictions, which expanded background checks to private sales, raised the age to purchase a firearm to 21, banned bump stocks and limited magazine size for handguns and rifles.
“With these measures in place, we must now prioritize strategies that address the underlying causes of violence and suicide. I do not believe S.169 addresses these areas,” he said in his veto letter.
The governor’s office said Thursday that it was too early for Scott to comment on the 48-hour waiting period proposal.
“There will be plenty of time for the governor to weigh in once a bill is drafted, introduced and going through the committee process,” said Ethan Latour, a spokesperson for Scott.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he doubted the governor would support a 48-hour waiting period for all firearms, given that he rejected the 24-hour waiting period for handguns.
“It’s hard for me to imagine that the governor that wouldn’t accept the 24 would accept the 48,” he said. “I don’t see how that happens.”
While he said he wasn’t “shutting the door” on the policy, he didn’t remember seeing evidence to suggest that a 48-hour waiting period would mean stronger suicide prevention than the 24-hour waiting period.
“I thought that all the info we got that was available to us indicated that 24 hours was long enough,” he said. “I don’t remember testimony saying that it made a huge difference.”
Sears, the governor and House Speaker Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, have all expressed interest in revisiting some other provisions in the waiting period bill that was vetoed in June, including one measure that would address what is known as the “Charleston loophole.”
That loophole allows those seeking to buy firearms to receive certain weapons before their background checks are completed. The loophole was what let the gunman in the deadly church shooting in 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina, obtain a firearm before he ultimately failed a background check.
Scott and Democratic lawmakers have also called on the federal government to strengthen background checks, and red flag laws, which allow police or family members to petition courts to take guns away from those who may present danger.
Baruth and Hardy plan to appear at a rally with gun control advocates in Burlington on Sunday to pressure Senate leadership to move the measures forward.
But Baruth said that following the recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, state legislators need to continue to pass state restrictions on firearms.
He plans to propose additional gun control measures next year, but declined to detail them.
“In the wake of these unconscionable stunning mass shootings there is often the desire to do some tiny thing you can say, ‘OK we acted,’” Baruth said.
“But it’s clear from this spate of dramatic deadly ongoing shootings that tinkering around the edges isn’t going to get it done.”
