NO GUNS ALLOWED?: According to a bill being looked at by state lawmakers, gun owners could face penalties even for accidentally bringing a gun into a hospital.
On Thursday morning, lawmakers in the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on a gun control bill that would prohibit firearms from being brought into hospital buildings — potentially preventing those inside from being able to defend themselves.
During the hearing, Gun Owners of Vermont President Eric Davis told lawmakers taking guns away from law-abiding citizens will make hospitals less safe.
“This bill is not only unnecessary, but possibly dangerous for hospital staff and patients alike,” Davis told the committee via Zoom,” he said.
According to the text of S.30, the bill “proposes to prohibit the possession of firearms at childcare facilities, hospitals, and certain public buildings. … A person who violates this section shall be imprisoned for not more than one year or fined not more than $1,000.00, or both.”
Davis said that in the past he’s come into committee rooms citing statistics about gun crimes in order to convince lawmakers that new laws are not necessary. This time he focused on how the fundamental proposals in bills such as S.30 run contrary to the values of the Vermont and U.S. constitutions.
“The Bill of Rights guarantees individual freedom by virtue of the fact that rights are spelled out and understood in the negative connotation,” Davis said. “It’s our opinion that this sort of basic understanding of the concept of law and rights suggests that a method of legislation where every solution to every perceived problem is to just curtail everyone’s freedom across the board, and then leave people on the defensive of trying to explain why they need these rights in the first place.”
He noted that while some hospitals currently employ private security, many don’t. And even when security is present, it doesn’t replace having arms at one’s side.
“These security guards go armed a lot of the time with a can of pepper spray and a flashlight, and a cellphone with which they can call the police who are five to ten minutes away and under no legal obligation to protect you,” Davis said.
Davis said that last year when lawmakers looked at the bill, the committee chair, Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, asked why anyone would want to bring a gun into a hospital. Davis said he would pose a question back.
“The question is this: Is your life worth protecting?” Davis said. “And if the answer is yes, then whose job is it to protect you? The Supreme Court has ruled on multiple occasions that the police are under no legal obligation to protect anyone.”
As the law currently exists, hospital staff members have the right to ask anyone with a gun who acts recklessly to leave or face a felony trespassing charge. Davis said this is an adequate protection against abuses.
“The fact remains that somebody has to confront this individual and say, ‘Hey, obviously you are not being serious about your medical treatment here, you need to leave and go get rid of your gun,'” Davis said.
Legislative counsel Erik FitzPatrick told the committee that, in his opinion, without S.30, hospitals that that post no-guns-allowed signs lack the legal means to enforce it.
“However, a person who simply disobeys the sign and carries a firearm onto the premises cannot be charged,” FitzPatrick said. “Because trespass means entering a property without permission, not violating a property owner’s rule about what you can’t do on the property.”
Examples of unintended consequences from gun control bills such as S.30 can be found in history. One example is Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, in 1991. Survivor Suzanna Hupp recalled how a state gun control law forced her to keep her gun in her car just before a shooter crashed his truck into the diner and killed more than 20 people, including her parents. The whole ordeal led to a reversal of the controversial gun control policy.
“Another outcome of the Luby’s massacre was that in 1995 the Texas legislature passed a law allowing residents with gun permits to carry concealed weapons,” History.com reports.
Thursday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing can be viewed online here.
Michael Bielawski is a reporter for True North. Send him news tips at bielawski82@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TrueNorthMikeB.
After the hospitals, where will the next infringement be?
People seem to forget , We do not need permission to do ANYTHING. The “shall not be infringed” is about the government, not us. STOP ASKING PERMISSION.. Who has the right to make you get that shot, no one but you . Who has the right to make you wear a mask, no one but you. Remember it’s concealed carry. Why are you telling people you are carrying, just do it. If something happens then YOU will be the one the perp is not aware of.
Preach to all, VT should be MUCH nicer to people, you never know who is carrying. But on the other hand an argument is NO REASON to pull a gun. Defending your life, the lives of your family, church, grocery store and so on is the obligation of EVERYONE. As a Black man who has been randomly attacked , yes, here in Vermont by those “good old boys” . Since then, I go anywhere armed. I am not a punching bag. I recommend a book, not too long but it will explain the illogical behavior of some and why it is so important to have the power to defend you and yours.
Negroes with Guns by RobertF Williams.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=negroes+with+guns+robert+f+williams&crid=3CC920G3GHG9G&sprefix=negroes+with+guns%2Caps%2C338&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_3_17
Might take you a hour or two to read but you will see how much, as they are today , they are deranged and immoral folks Problem is so much of this is going on now with that covid garbage and how long before, like me, you will be made to sit “in the back of the bus” or restricted because you will not wear the compliance diaper. As it is you have to show “papers” to go into many places in and outside of VT. How much of WW2 would not have happened if they did not give up their guns under ANY situation. Much like the Dems, progressives, socialist, and commies have done throughout history before major atrocities were/are commited. Oh, never forget it is/was the DEMs who instituted all these bans and restrictions back then, especially if they could disarm the blacks and keep people from congragating.
These same people who are pushing a trans world, a colorblind world and gun free world, are not our friends, they are all but trying to instill the same wordage as was in the old Jim Crow laws. Please remember the law/rules the Nazis made were based on laws IN THIS COUNTRY!
Excellent comment! All the so called elites in this state who identify as democrats have forgotten the roots of their Dem/Prog party. The KKK, the enforcement arm of the democratic party also killed republicans who supported Black’s freedom in the south. Jim Crow laws were enacted by southern democrats to disarm blacks making it easy for the KKK enforcers to raid black farms. The democrats were against the civil rights act. It was republicans that got it passed. There’s so much that the democratic party has tried to hide from the public but they are back at it again. The legislature here in Vermont is being run by carpetbaggers just like the old south after the civil war. And now, the national democratic party is once again in power and trying to disarm US citizens. An armed population of people are free citizens. A disarm population of people are slaves to whatever the government wants to do to them. Take a look at Australia, Europe or the rest of most of the world. We have constitutions that prohibit the government from from ruling us. We need to purge the legislature of those who swear to defend our constitution then get elected and totally disregard their oath. Ronald Reagan said that the loss of freedom is just one generation away. Let’s not let that be our generation!!! Vote to support your freedom before these people take it from you.
Dano they have us on a “death by a thousand cuts” plan and people need to see this.
We have gotten here by Democrat Incrementalism.
They over play their hand every time creating all this extreme drama that is overblown by their controlled propagandists in the media.. knowing full well they won’t get all that they wanted.. just a piece of it.
We looked that the hysteria or insanity and say “Thank God it wasn’t as bad as they wanted”. We have LOST and yet we are thinking we won!
If they got *anything* that is loss for us, not a win.
If they scored, they got a piece of what they wanted and moved the ball down the court.
Just like this Supreme Court decision, we are grateful that only 10 million Americans are being screwed, not 100 million Americans.. well why are ANY?
This was a bad ruling by a “Supreme Court” that apparently is not as good as we think it’s supposed to be.
People have got to understand the political strategy here to not allow this to continue.
Our own Republicans we elect don’t seem to even get this.
They are not going to disarm this nation.
So they’ll do it one piece at a time.
Schools, then hospitals, then the stores, before you know it the only place we are allowed to defend ourselves is 4 miles out into the woods on a deer hunting trip- which we can only take if they allow us to with a permit !!
Stop these incremental wins and when we have the power to do so, ROLL BACK what they have done and RESTORE.
The foundation, our Founding Principles, this is always in need of repair and restoration..part of why we are such a mess is that we have strayed so far from the house that we cannot even see it anymore or even remember what it looked like.
This is all not rocket science and yet few seem to get this- because look at where we are now.
Urrrrmmmmm…am I missing something here?
They are expecting legally armed citizens in hospitals now, causing problems?
Why would they do that? What would piss someone off SOOOO much IN A HOSPITAL – that they had to pull their legally carried gun?
Unless it was coercion or bullying around medical experimental medical procedures…or something…
Just like the DC politicians are arming and weaponizing DC against the citizens, and our State House is weaponizing and arming itself against Vermont citizenry… hospitals…the killing grounds of this current war… are expected to become war zones.
Apparently.
Is that the scenario they are preparing for?
Asking for a possible patient, trying to weigh the cost: risk ratio, and maybe think about getting a second opinion.
Or is this predictive programming, so when the false flag happens in a hospital in Vermont, this legislation is justified…we’re kind of the US proving I mean killing ground. People are going to start demanding answers…and not the hogwash we’ve been spoon fed with our dose of pabulum daily by our supposed truth seeking sycophants of the NWO here in VT.
I seriously wonder WHO these people are, and what State of Vermont they live in… the Vermonters I know are fearless, friendly, neighborly, turn down no one who needs or asks for help, and certainly doesn’t deserve to be gaslighted for a choice and a lifestyle.
Many Vermonters, its turning out, and its turning out its the people of the soil…the people who work their hands, and are outdoors in nature a lot, truckers and frontline workers…people who’ve managed to scratch out a lifestyle from the ground up and stay here instead of abandoning the state each year for six months… THOSE people… would NEVER pull a gun in a hospital unless it was to defend a life.
Seriously.
What Vermont do these people live in?
The one they brought from their inner cities?
The most fearful people on earth are city folk.
They control us with FEAR.
So they want to create “Fear’.
Fear is their weapon.
What is there to be afraid of in a hospital?
I was in one yesterday and I don’t think I saw a single person under 75 years old.
The staff were all very professional.
Why would anyone be scared there?
They are doing this to create this false sense of Fear for their trained sheep- and the fact that they need safe spaces and therapy dogs just to exist should show us how well they’ve done.
The Bible and the Founder’s of this nation were very clear in the fact that we are supposed to be BRAVE and walk forward.
This is a woman that has lived through it all and she has an important message for Americans.
I wish I had some way to get this to Mr Fort the CEO of Rutland Regional Medical center and anyone else involved in attempting to take away gun rights in the state of Vermont and in America
https://fb.watch/aFMant6MT_/
I am amazed…so many questions that should be asked and answered.
Questions totally pertinent to our God given right to self defense and overpaid CEO’S trying to deny those rights.
One of the witnesses was
Mr. Fort CEO of Rutland Hospital whose earnings are around half a million dollars a year. Wh thinks he has any concerns for the average Vermonter?
How many shootings in hospitals?
How many gun problems have been recorded in hospitals?
How many law in abiding tax paying gun owners involved with any instances that occurred in hospitals?
Now how many problems has RRMChad wit people in wit drug addicts or drug overdoses?
How many doctors havebeeb sued for malpractice?
I’m the answers to these questions would far outweigh any problems they attempt to associate with gun problems.
This is about a ever ending agenda of control and the destruction of of Vermonters rights through rich witnesses and rich donors that are more of than willing to put their booton your neck. They don’t care about YOR SAFETY..they care about LINING THEIR POCKETS
Unfortunately this will only get worse until people make their voices hard while they still cann
Call Mr. Fort at Rutland Regional Medical Center 802-775-7111 and let him know what you think of his lack of concern for you and your rights.
As far as the communists under the dome of gloom they have heard us BEGGING TO DEFEND OUR RIGHTS everytime they are in session and attempt to pass these laws.
The result is them attempting to destroy our rights year after year.
We need to start to place calls to anyone involved in the destruction of our rights!
Do not leave it to someone else…be involved..start placing your calls and encouraging family and friends to research political candidates and vote in real representation.
Wake up vermonters…
I apologize for errors in the above post..
Richard Ley
January 20, 2022
I am amazed…so many questions that should be asked and answered.
Questions totally pertinent to our God given right to self defense and overpaid CEO’S trying to deny those rights.
One of the witnesses was
Mr. Fort CEO of Rutland Hospital whose earnings are around half a million dollars a year. Who thinks he has any concerns for the average Vermonter?
How many shootings in hospitals?
How many gun problems have been recorded in hospitals?
How many law abiding tax paying gun owners have been involved with any instances that occurred in hospitals?
Now how many problems has RRMC had with people with drug addicts or drug overdoses?
How many doctors have been sued for malpractice?
I’m willing to bet the answers to these questions would far outweigh any problems they attempt to associate with gun problems.
This is about a never ending agenda of control and the destruction of of Vermonter’s rights through rich witnesses and rich donors that are more of than willing to put their boot on your neck. They don’t care about YOUR SAFETY..they care about LINING THEIR POCKETS
Unfortunately this will only get worse until people make their voices heard while they still can
Call Mr. Fort at Rutland Regional Medical Center 802-775-7111 and let him know what you think of his lack of concern for you and your rights.
As far as the communists under the dome of gloom they have heard us BEGGING TO DEFEND OUR RIGHTS everytime they are in session and attempt to pass these laws.
The result is them attempting to destroy our rights year after year.
We need to start to place calls to anyone involved in the destruction of our rights!
Do not leave it to someone else…be involved..start placing your calls and encouraging family and friends to research political candidates and vote in real representation.
Wake up vermonters…
Shall Not Be Infringed
Another solution in search of a problem
To the House Judiciary Committee, you can follow your liberal-leaning anti-gun
counterparts, with more nonsense on guns like where they can be carried but let
me tell you, ” you ” can pass all the nonsense gun bills, and yes all law-abiding gun
owners will follow, but the problem is those ” criminals ” that do not follow your
nonsense or any other bill or laws and will do whatever they want……
You are elected to protect the citizens of the state, not open pandora’s box for the
criminals ravaging our state, some of the same elected officials that want to defund
the POLICE, you people can’t be that nieve !!
Stop the nonsense
The proposed law ensures that only people who break laws will carry guns into hospitals. That strongly biases the balance of force in favor of people who break laws. Will OSHA administer these laws (like vaccine mandates), the Violent Felon Injury Reduction law?