In what appears to be their sole gun control bill of this year, Vermont lawmakers are taking aim at an elusive target: ghost guns.
The term refers to firearms that are either assembled from separately purchased parts, or by 3D printing, instead of being purchased through a licensed gun manufacturer or dealer. That means these fully functional firearms lack serial numbers, rendering them untraceable, and they’re obtainable outside of state and federal background check processes and waiting periods.
S.209, passed by the Vermont Senate this week, seeks to close what Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, called a loophole in Vermont’s existing universal background check laws.
“I wish I could say that they truly were universal, but they weren’t,” Baruth, the primary sponsor of S.209 and a longtime gun control advocate, said on the Senate floor Wednesday.
Universal background checks were implemented in Vermont in 2018 as part of a sweeping gun control package signed by Republican Gov. Phil Scott shortly after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, and after Vermont’s own close call when a Fair Haven teen wrote of his aspirations to carry out a similar act.
Over the intervening years, the Legislature has passed additional bills to patch up loopholes to Vermont’s background check system — such as the gun show and Charleston loopholes, Baruth said.
Enter S.209, which, according to Baruth, would close a loophole “produced by technology.”
“You can buy a 3D printer now, take it home and produce a gun in your basement that evades the entire background check system,” Baruth said. “You can also over the internet buy a kit called a ‘buy, build, shoot kit,’ which is all the pieces of a weapon, and you can bring it down into your basement, screw in a couple of things, make a couple of adjustments, and you have a fully functional weapon that also does not necessarily go through the background check system.”
S.209 would not render those self-assembled weapons illegal. But it would mandate that, once a 3D-printed or built gun is operable, its owner takes the weapon to a licensed firearm dealer, who would then affix a serial number to the gun and conduct a background check of its owner before giving it back. The bill also would establish stiffer penalties for anyone who commits a felony in Vermont while in possession of a ghost gun.
Those additional penalties are something the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Club could “tacitly support,” according to testimony provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee from the federation’s president Chris Bradley in January.
But S.209’s approach, in Bradley’s estimation, would establish “unenforceable laws that would significantly impact and hurt law-abiding citizens through loss of time and money.” Further, Bradley said, “privately made firearms” are legal under federal law, and are not required to have serial numbers.
Gun control advocates see it differently. Referring to ghost guns as “one of the fastest growing safety problems we face today,” Moms Demand Action’s Vermont chapter celebrated S.209’s passage in a written statement issued Wednesday.
“Nobody in Vermont should be able to get their hands on a gun without a background check, and all guns should be traceable, and the passage of today’s bill moves us one step closer to making this a reality,” Pat Byrd, a volunteer with the Vermont chapter, said in the statement.
The Senate in a preliminary vote Wednesday advanced the bill by a 26-3 tripartisan vote, then offered its final blessing by a voice vote Thursday. The bill now heads to the House; if it prevails there, it will head to Scott’s desk.
Asked about the bill at a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Scott replied that, “Putting a serial number on a gun that is produced at home seems to make sense, but the devil’s always in the details.”
The governor questioned the burden the bill could place on gun dealers, adding, “So I have some concerns about it, but in principle, I’m not opposed to it. It’s just the details that might be problematic.”
