Emboldened by a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that created a new test for restrictions on firearms, gun rights organizations are taking the state of Vermont to court over two recently passed laws.
In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court District of Vermont on Monday, the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs argues that the laws violate Vermonters’ Second Amendment rights. One contested law, approved last year, imposes a 72-hour waiting period for firearms purchases. The other law bans high-capacity magazines and became law in 2018.
The plaintiffs say the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen supports their claims that Vermont’s latest gun control laws are unconstitutional.
Brady Toensing, an attorney who frequently represents conservative-leaning legal clients in Vermont, including those in Monday’s lawsuit, told VTDigger via text message that Bruen “put an end to interest balancing when it comes to (Second Amendment) rights.” “Interest balancing” refers to the idea that restricting a right can be justified if that restriction helps achieve a governmental policy goal, such as reducing rates of suicide, for example.
With the Bruen case, the nation’s high court established a new legal test by which to assess whether a law regulating firearms is constitutional. The government seeking to uphold such a law, the court ruled, “must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
“The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Bruen last year held that Second Amendment rights must be protected just like all other fundamental constitutional rights,” the Federation’s president, Chris Bradley, said in a statement released on Monday announcing the lawsuit.
“The Supreme Court made it clear that governments may not impose arbitrary and pointless restrictions like Vermont’s waiting period and its ban on commonly-owned, standard-capacity magazines. These restrictions unconstitutionally infringe on Vermonters’ fundamental right to self-defense and must be struck down,” Bradley said in the statement.
The novel Bruen test has thrown state and federal district courts into a tailspin since it was issued last year. Even the U.S. Supreme Court is set to revisit the issue in a new gun rights case recently added to its docket.
When Vermont lawmakers passed a myriad of gun control measures earlier this year, they knew that a court challenge would likely follow. Early in the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers’ legal counsel referred to the Bruen test and its application in various courts throughout the country as “unpredictable.”
Legislators persevered, saying that public opinion was on their side, and that Vermont’s proportionally high rates of suicide by gunfire made taking action an imperative.
In an interview Monday afternoon, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central — who has pushed for gun control legislation for years — told VTDigger that he is confident the court will uphold the state’s laws despite the new Bruen precedent.
But he didn’t mince words when it came to the merits of the lawsuit itself.
“The lawsuit claims that these regulations are arbitrary and pointless, which seems so ironic to me,” Baruth said. “If anything is arbitrary, it’s the paranoid fantasy that if you leave your house and go to the grocery store, you’re going to be murdered unless you yourself are packing heat in your belt.”
As for the claim that the laws are pointless, Baruth said the stakes of obtaining firearms couldn’t be higher.
“I don’t know how much more of a point you can have for regulation, than to say it is designed to prevent suicide — in the case of a 72 hour waiting period — or homicide,” Baruth said. “Because those things actually do happen at an alarming rate in Vermont.”
Also signed onto the lawsuit as plaintiffs are Williston-based Powderhorn Outdoor Sports Center, Rutland-based Black Dog Guns and Shooting Supplies, Vermont Republican Party Chair Paul Dame and Hubbardton resident and U.S. Army veteran Marsha J. Thompson.
Monday’s lawsuit is not the first time the Federation has taken the state of Vermont to court over its gun control laws. In 2018, the group unsuccessfully sued over a package of gun control legislation Scott signed into law that year, which included the high-capacity magazine ban.
