Vermont's high rate of suicide with firearms was the dominant theme of a well-attended and well-mannered forum held Monday night in Burlington City Hall.

Organized by advocates of gun-safety measures in a state with few firearms regulations, the event took place 50 yards from the site of a fatal shooting almost exactly two years ago. Josh Pfenning, 35, died on November 10, 2011, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound while camped in City Hall Park during the Occupy Burlington protests.

The way in which Pfenning died is not unusual in Vermont. With the exception of Pennsylvania, Vermont has the Northeast's highest per-capita rate of gun-related deaths, most of which take the form of suicide, said Eliot Nelson, a pediatrician at Fletcher Allen Health Care.

Vermonters are far more likely to kill themselves than one another, noted Sean Ackerman, a Fletcher Allen resident in child psychiatry. The state suicide rate stands at 16 deaths per 100,000 residents and the homicide rate is 1.6 per 100,000, he said, adding that more than half of suicides are carried out with firearms.

While you're putting together your Halloween getup tonight — bonus candy for anyone in a homemade F-35 costume — give this week's news and politics stories in Seven Days a read. Here's what you'll find.

• Development in Colchester has prompted some residents to advocate for tighter hunting restrictions — a microcosm of issues affecting Vermont hunters and wildlife statewide.
• Vermont's law against sex between prison guards and inmates gets an unexpected test: a female prison guard who authorities say had the baby of an inmate.
• You can sell your old smartphone to an "ATM" and get instant cash back at kiosks that recently appeared in local malls. Good idea?
• In Fair Game: Local fights over the F-35 rage on, but the only three people whose opinion matters are still M.I.A. Plus, a Burlington Prog is hit by friendly fire for her pro-F-35 vote, and Sen. Patrick Leahy tries to rein in the NSA.

Pick up this week's issue in print, online or on the app. Finally, go Sox.

This week's issue of Seven Days gets into the Halloween spirit, so grab a growler of Donovan's Red and sit down with these news and politics stories:

• After landing a six-figure grant to serve every town in Vermont, online community-building service Front Porch Forum is more of a digital public square than ever. Now it's under increased scrutiny for its moderation policies.
• Snowboarders accounted for nearly a third of ski resort visits four years ago, but since that peak, snowboarding's share of mountain traffic has gone downhill (rimshot). What happens when the once-edgy winter sport settles into middle age?
• A Jericho woman donated her property to the local fire department in 1986 under the condition that it remain undeveloped. After her death, the department is trying to sell it without development restrictions.
• This week in Fair Game: Making the case for "Bernie for President" in 2016. Plus, T.J. Donovan considers another run for attorney general, and Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger flip-flops on his assault-weapons ban proposal.

Get this week's issue on newsstands — that creepy zombie gas-mask thing is hard to miss — at sevendaysvt.com, or on the iOS app.

The Burlington City Council covered a lot of ground in its meeting last night. It passed a second round of amendments to the city’s livable wage ordinance, approved a purchase power agreement related to the possible installation of solar panels off Sunset Cliff Road, and heard from members of the public once again about the basing of F-35s in Vermont.

But the items that generated the most public interest throughout the evening were four resolutions related to gun control, which had been proposed by the council’s charter-change committee and that came to vote by night’s end. The council passed three of the four.

The three successful resolutions will ban firearms in any business with a liquor license; require gun owners to store their weapons in locked containers; and allow police to seize firearms when domestic abuse is suspected. But by a 10-4 vote, the council struck down a measure that would have required individuals concealing firearms to carry a permit.

A Burlington City Council committee voted on Wednesday to remove a ban on assault weapons from a package of gun-safety proposals tentatively scheduled to be presented to the full council later this month.

The committee did agree to send to the council four local gun-related initiatives. They would require a police-issued permit in order to carry a concealed firearm; ban firearms in any establishment with a liquor license; enable police to confiscate any dangerous weapon in incidents involving allegations of domestic abuse; and mandate that firearms be securely stored when not in the immediate possession of a gun owner.

The committee’s rejection of the assault rifle ban potentially negates the council’s initial response to the slaughter last December of 20 children and six educators at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. The killer, Adam Lanza, used a type of weapon that would be covered by the ban that the Burlington council had urged in January be applied in Vermont’s largest city.

Happy Wednesday, people. Here are the news and politics stories you'll find in the latest edition of Seven Days:

• Vermont's new health care exchange goes live in less than two weeks! In this week's cover story, Ken Picard follows five households and professional "navigators" to untangle how it will work for average Vermonters.
• St. Michael's College fired two longtime custodians, and the campus isn't happy about it. Was it a case of union busting?
• A Vermont-born political strategist is playing a major role in one of the biggest races of the year in Virginia. Some observers think he may feature in the next presidential campaign.
• In looking to revitalize its downtown, is St. Albans turning its back on a piece of history?
• And in this week's Fair Game: After an ineffective 2013 session, Vermont's gun control advocates aren't going away — now they're even hiring a high-powered lobbying firm. Plus, why are F-35s okay for Vermont if missiles aren't?

If those links aren't your style, read these stories in print or on the Seven Days app.

Cover illustration by Michael Tonn

What good are 60 vacated homes awaiting demolition in the high-noise zone bordering Burlington International Airport? Good for training exercises involving local police and fire teams, declares a resolution on the agenda of tonight's South Burlington City Council meeting.

Not according to some airport neighbors and at least one city councilor who recall a training exercise last year that included gunfire and grenade explosions. Several nearby residents complained not only about the simulated shootouts but also about state and local officials' failure to give advance notice that the area was to become a tactical training ground for camo-clad personnel toting automatic weapons.

Principal Bobby Riley insists both the school and the neighborhood are safe, but Jeff Sherman, a resident of one of the units in the 69-85 block of Spring Street, describes conditions there as "pretty bad." The sense of danger has grown in the 12 years he's lived there, Sherman says.

In February 2011, a domestic assault spilled onto the street in front of the elementary school, whereupon a man fired a shot that didn't hurt anyone. The students were on vacation that week, but Wheeler went into lockdown to protect the staff inside.

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger reaffirmed on Monday his support for banning assault weapons in the Queen City, and urged city councilors to take additional steps aimed at preventing gun violence.

"You are on strong legal ground to move forward with an assault weapons resolution of some sort, and I support that,” Weinberger told the three members of the council’s charter change committee. He noted that similar initiatives by other municipalities have survived court challenges.

But any attempt by Burlington to regulate possession of firearms would require a change in the city’s charter thus could not take effect unless approved by the state legislature. City Councilor Rachel Siegel, the Ward 3 Progressive who chairs the charter-change committee, said it’s unlikely the legislature would even consider such an initiative until 2015, assuming it was first endorsed by the council and approved by Burlington voters in March 2014.

“More immediately,” Weinberger told the committee, Burlington might be able to adopt another measure relating to access to firearms.

He noted that in the aftermath of the Newtown, Connecticut, mass murder of schoolchildren and educators, 24 communities around the country “have passed resolutions to encourage action to fix the federal background-check system.” This screening process for prospective gun buyers is “badly broken,” the mayor said. He added that Vermont is one of 19 states rated as having done the least to submit data to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

Weinberger then handed out to committee members a model resolution that urges action to strengthen federal background checks.

“Burlington does have a stake in this, and I’m very much in favor of it,” the mayor said.

In this week's Home & Garden issue of Seven Days...

• Federal law says domestic abusers are prohibited from possessing firearms, but Vermont has few safeguards to keep guns out of the wrong hands.
• Vermont and other maple-producing states are in the midst of a "liquid gold rush" — but is big maple a bubble in danger of bursting?
• No one checked on Burlington's livable wage ordinance for 12 years. What's next?
• It's commencement season, which means a few lucky folks will have honorary degrees bestowed upon them by Vermont colleges.
• In Fair Game, Paul Heintz breaks down yesterday's grand bargain on taxes and the state budget between Gov. Peter Shumlin and legislative leaders.
• Lastly, "Stuck in Vermont" features a character that might be familiar to lawmakers, lobbyists, reporters and anyone else who makes the Burlington-Montpelier commute: Buddy Longworth, the most interesting bus driver on the road.