Thursday, March 1, 2018
The Vermont Senate gave preliminary approval Thursday to a proposal that would mandate background checks for most gun transactions, including private sales between individuals.
The measure, authored by Sen. Phil Baruth (D/P-Chittenden), had languished for years in the Senate Judiciary Committee. On Thursday, Baruth bypassed the panel by amending another bill on the Senate floor to include the universal background check language.
Baruth’s amendment passed the Senate by a vote of 17 to 13. The underlying legislation, which addresses state storage of seized firearms, will face another vote in the chamber on Friday before it is sent to the House.
Tags: gun control , Vermont Senate , universal background checks , Image , Web Only
The Vermont Senate is expected to consider legislation Friday that would raise the legal age to purchase firearms from 16 to 21, except for members of the military and law enforcement officials.
Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) plans to introduce the proposal Thursday afternoon as an amendment to unrelated gun-regulation legislation. It would be considered Friday morning by the Senate Judiciary Committee and reach the Senate floor for debate and a vote later that day.
Fifteen other senators signed on as cosponsors of the amendment Thursday, suggesting that it has the votes to pass the 30-member chamber.
The proposal resembles one offered up last week by Republican Gov. Phil Scott as part of a slate of gun-control and school-safety measures. It differs from the governor’s proposal in one key respect: Scott's would allow those under 21 who take a gun safety course to buy firearms, while Ashe's would not.
At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Scott said he would prefer his version of the age restriction, but if one resembling Ashe’s reached his desk, “I could find a way to support that.”
Tags: Tim Ashe , Dick Sears , firearms , gun control , age 21 , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Just before the vote on S.221, its sponsor, Senate Judiciary chair Dick Sears (D-Bennington) said that he hadn't initially expected the proposal to make it to the floor. A narrowly avoided school shooting in Fair Haven, he said, brought a sense of urgency to the Senate’s work.
“The one thing I’m sure of is, Vermont’s not immune [to gun violence],” Sears said. “And I think we knew that before Fair Haven, but I think Fair Haven jolted us all.”
Tags: guns , Phil Scott , Dick Sears , Tim Ashe , Becca Balint , Mitzi Johnson , Maxine Grad , Image , Web Only
Monday, February 26, 2018
Their vote was the latest call for new restrictions in the wake of the February 14 school shooting that killed 17 people in Florida and the recent arrest of a Vermont teen after an alleged foiled school shooting plot in Fair Haven.
The resolution urges legislators to "swiftly act to keep our children alive" and ban the manufacture, sale and possession of military-style assault weapons.
Most of the board members voted by phone in the special session, which fell during a school vacation week. Only two board members were present for the short session at the Ira Allen central office building on Colchester Avenue, as was superintendent of schools Yaw Obeng.
Tags: Burlington School Board , guns , Image , Web Only
Friday, February 23, 2018
The bill, known as S.221, now advances to the Senate floor with support from domestic violence prevention and gun-control groups — and even grudging acceptance from some gun-rights groups.
The legislation would allow law enforcement officials to file for an “extreme risk protection order” even at the scene of an incident. If a judge approved such an order, police could take guns away from a subject for up to 60 days.
Friday's vote represented the first legislative action since Democratic leaders and Republican Gov. Phil Scott called for an aggressive response to last week's school shooting in Parkland, Fla., and a foiled plot in Fair Haven. At press conferences Thursday, Democrats committed to passing S.221, among other measures, and Scott implored lawmakers to send it to him for signature before Town Meeting Day.
Tags: guns , extreme risk , Dick Sears , Bill Moore , Vermont Traditions Coalition , S.221 , H.422 , Image , Web Only
Thursday, February 22, 2018
Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Burlington) promised Thursday that the proposal, which died in committee in 2015, would come to a vote next week on the Senate floor — likely as an amendment to related firearm legislation. In interviews around the Statehouse that day, 17 of Vermont's 30 state senators told Seven Days they would definitely vote for the measure, which would close the so-called "gun show loophole."
Six senators said they would vote against it: Joe Benning (R-Caledonia), Brian Collamore (R-Rutland), Alice Nitka (D-Windsor), John Rodgers (D-Essex/Orleans), Dick Sears (D-Bennington) and Bobby Starr (D-Essex/Orleans).
Tags: guns , universal background checks , Tim Ashe , Image , Web Only
Vermont’s gun politics experienced a historic shift Thursday morning.
“It’s a sea change,” said Sen. Dick Sears (D-Bennington), who has served in Montpelier for a quarter-century. “This issue has roused the Vermont public in a way I haven’t seen since civil unions.”
During separate press conferences at the Vermont Statehouse, Republican Gov. Phil Scott and the state’s most powerful Democrats called for swift action on a series of gun-control measures. While differences remained between them, both camps appeared intent on passing significant new laws before the end of the legislative session.
Tags: Vermont , gun rights , gun control , universal background checks , Phil Scott , Mitzi Johnson , Tim Ashe , T.J. Donovan , David Zuckerman , Rebecca Holcombe , Ed Cutler , Bill Moore , Dick Sears , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
A background check bill, S.6, is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Three of its five members are known to oppose the bill, including committee chair Dick Sears (D-Bennington), so he hasn't brought it to a vote. But Sears says he is open to a procedural move allowing the full Senate to vote on the idea as soon as next week.
"I want to stay true to what I believe, but I don't want to hold up something that may have majority support," Sears said Wednesday. He added that he believes a universal background check bill would gain majority support in the Senate. "I think everything changed in Fair Haven, to be honest."
Last Thursday, 18-year-old Jack Sawyer of Poultney was detained after two people informed police of disturbing behavior and text messages indicating he planned to carry out a mass shooting at Fair Haven Union High School. The police affidavit submitted in court was sobering in its detail.
Tags: Dick Sears , Becca Balint , Phil Scott , universal background checks , Jack Sawyer , David Zuckerman , gun laws , Image , Web Only
Lefebvre was one of three Vermont lawmakers attending an event sponsored by the American Suppressor Association at a shooting range in Barre. Hours earlier and just four miles away at the Vermont Statehouse, students and activists had rallied for new gun control legislation in the wake of last week's mass school shooting in Florida. But at the Barre Fish & Game Club, state legislators were focused on why suppressors, better known as "silencers," should be legal for hunting in Vermont.
Tags: guns , suppressors , hunting , American Suppressor Association , Paul Lefebvre , Patrick Brennan , Susan Buckholz , Louis Porter , Knox Williams , Image , Web Only , Video
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
The demonstration came in reaction to a school shooting in Florida last week and an incident in Fair Haven in which authorities stopped a would-be school shooter before any violence took place.
“Fix this before my kid is texting me from under a desk,” read a sign held by a demonstrator standing in a light rain on the Statehouse steps.
Tags: gun control , firearms , guns , statehouse , GunSense , Miro Weinberger , Burlington , Image , Web Only