Editor’s note: The following is Bob DePino’s testimony on S.30 submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 8. DePino is vice president of Gun Owners of Vermont.
For the record I am Bob DePino, Vice-President of Gun Owners of Vermont. I spend many hours watching and analyzing testimony and researching the various anti-rights legislation introduced each year in Montpelier.
During testimony in the Senate Judiciary committee the question was raised [edit: and again during the Democratic Caucus], “why would someone want to carry a firearm in a hospital or emergency room?” I would like to answer that question.
Here are a few events where the citizens were not permitted to carry firearms in “gun-free” hospital zones:
2/24/2021: (Pennsylvania) – A patient stabs a female doctor in the head and face while receiving treatment.
1/8/2021: (Minnesota) A man stabs his wife at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester.
3/21/2019: (Hawaii) – Three people are stabbed in a Hilo hospital.
3/10/2019: (North Carolina) – A man stabbed an employee at Johnston Medical Center while waiting in ER. 10/14/2017: (Maryland) – A woman stabbed her husband to death in the hospital waiting room.
7/21/2017: (Massachusetts) – Nurse brutally stabbed in a hospital by schizophrenic suspect.
10/28/2009: (Massachusetts) – Nurse stabbed repeatedly by psychiatric patient.
“Police said that Desrosiers was stabbed so many times that there weren’t many areas on the doctor’s body that were untouched.” – The subject was fatally shot by an off-duty security guard (who would be unable to carry in Vermont under S.30).
However, one of the most infamous of all hospital attacks in American memory occurred four decades ago just fifty miles from the southern border of Vermont in “gun-free” Massachusetts. The event still brings headlines to the local papers as recently as 2014.
The event occurred on June 23, 1980, at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts. I will quote the account of the event from the Jan. 3, 2014 article on MassLive.com. [Account of event quoted from article]
This occurred in a matter of seconds. Five innocent people were stabbed and traumatized, and a small boy lay dying in a pool of his own blood. He died a short time later as the result of this vicious attack.
From the analysis of the case COMMONWEALTH vs. WILLIE ROBINSON, we learn that the judge in this trial tried to protect the jury by only allowing BLACK & WHITE photos of the bodies due to the attacker’s “extreme atrocity and cruelty.”
Had anyone in that waiting room been lawfully armed, Anthony Lombardi may have grown up to be known as something more than just the victim of a sadistic killer.
Massachusetts and the other state hospitals listed above are all gun-free zones. The atrocities committed at hospitals bear indisputable evidence that criminals cannot be stopped until it is too late in gun-free zones.
We can’t protect innocent lives with a sign and a criminal statute.
The gun-owning community is sick and tired of being lectured that “Vermont is not immune from gun violence.” Vermont is not like any other state because the deterrence of armed self-defense has kept our citizens safe since 1791.
There is no rational reason to create gun-free zones out of our hospitals by creating a statute to criminalize the lawful carry of firearms. And, as Senator Baruth said during testimony, Vermont gun owners have three levels of lawful authority to bear arms for their defense. These levels of lawful authority cannot be revoked based on one legislator’s irrational fear of the citizens of Vermont.
Putting the physical safety of Vermonters at risk for a false promise of security based on unfounded fear is unconscionable.
S.30, and its sister gun-free zone bill, S.63, need to be buried before our state becomes another entry in the long list of government-created victimizations above.
Bob DePino
Vice-President
Gun Owners of Vermont
Good Job Bobby ! This is all well and good going up to the capitol and testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee and giving them the statistics and facts, getting it on the record and trying to get them to listen to reason. The only thing is it’s a waste of time and energy because they don’t care. No matter how right you are, no matter how true your statistics and information is, they don’t care. No matter how unconstitutional the law(s) they are passing are, they don’t care. The statistics and information on guns and gun control have been piling up for years in gun owners favor yet they have been incrementally been chipping away at out 2nd Amendment rights, getting what they can every year for years. They are going to pass what ever laws they feel like with total disregard of the Vermont Constitution and the U.S. Constitution. Their minds are made up. You are not going to change them. The gun control agenda will be pushed thru by them no matter what because it’s the last plank of “The Agenda” of Total Control.
It is time to take a different tact. Go On Offense! We are not going to stop the Gun Control agenda thru political means at Montpelier, we don’t have the votes or the right Governor to do so. Gun Owners of Vermont, of which I am a member should be going directly to the citizens of Vermont and encouraging them not to obey unconstitutional laws. To circumvent them at every opportunity they can. Defiance and Civil Disobedience is one of the answers. When they pass laws that are unconstitutional and we obey them we are legitimizing them by our compliance and voluntarily surrendering our rights. Start a 2nd Amendment Sanctuary movement in every county in Vermont. This could be done by getting petitions started as was being done before Covid lockdowns started. If we as a state do not do this we will have to fight more and more laws that they will be passing.
Members of the Vermont House and Senate should be charged with perjury, with charges being filed with the the Sargent of Arms of both houses under Section 56 of the Vermont Constitution for every politician violating their Oath of Office for drafting or voting for laws in direct conflict with the Vermont and U.S. Constitution Constitution.
Section 56:
Oaths of Allegiance and Office
Every officer, whether judicial, executive, or military, in authority under this State, before entering upon the execution of office, shall take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation of allegiance to this State, (unless the officer shall produce evidence that the officer has before taken the same) and also the following oath or affirmation of office, except military officers, and such as shall be exempted by the Legislature.
The Oath or Affirmation of Allegiance
You do solemnly swear (or affirm) that you will be true and faithful to the State of Vermont and that you will not, directly or indirectly, do any act or thing injurious to the Constitution or Government thereof. (If an affirmation) Under the pains and penalties of perjury.
The Oath or Affirmation of Office
You do solemnly swear (or affirm) that you will faithfully execute the office of ____ for the ____ of ____ and will therein do equal right and justice to all persons, to the best of your judgment and ability, according to law. (If an oath) So help you God. (If an affirmation) Under the pains and penalties of perjury.[1]
All county sheriffs should be on record as to whether or not they will enforce unconstitutional laws as they are elected by the people. Stop playing defense and go on offense. We should make them feel as uncomfortable as they make us feel.
“When so ever the general government assumes undelegated powers, it’s acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force”. Thomas Jefferson
H.R. 8, the Universal Gun Registration Bill I have been warning you about, will be voted on in the House of Representatives TODAY.
The clock is ticking fast, so help NAGR fight back by calling your Congressman immediately.
Call Peter Welch at (202) 225-4115 right away.
And it gets worse, H.R. 1446, a bill that would delay a person from legally purchasing a firearm for 10 days or more, will be voted on in the House TODAY.
There is no time to waste, so call and urge Peter Welch to vote against H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446 immediately.
You can read the email below to learn more.
And be sure to sign your “No Universal Gun Registration” Petition and make a generous donation to NAGR today.
Really Mike ? Do you think that even if every gun owner in VT called Welch and he got overwhelmingly more calls for voting against HR-8 or HR-1446 than voting for them he would change his mind ? This is the jerk that voted for an unconstitutional impeachment of President Trump. He has no regard for the Constitution, he wants to destroy it.
Today, the House of Representatives will vote on 2 radical gun control bills.
I’m talking about H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446.
If you want to learn more about these anti-gun bills you can read Dudley’s email below.
The vote is TODAY.
So, for the sake of our gun rights please take advantage of the next few hours by urging your Congressman to oppose HR. 8 and H.R. 1447.
Call Peter Welch at (202) 225-4115 right away.
If that doesn’t work for you, call (202) 224-3121 to be directed to your Representative.
There is no time to waste, so call and urge Peter Welch to vote against H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446 immediately.
It’s time again for All Vermonter Gun owners to sand up no matter what their political
beliefs are, this bill is all hype and will not fix the non-existant problem that is found
only in Senator Baruth’s mind, this another fictional writing from the author !!
Why isn’t the Senator trying to fix real problems and concerns ?? Oh that’s right that
would mean he would really have to do real work, instead of blowing the dust off his
lame gun legislation year after year…… pretty pathetic.
Vermont we deserve better !!
Is there any evidence that shows that gun violence was curbed by the last round of second amendment changes that they made? Until there’s evidence (there never will be) saying that it works I don’t want to hear about this crap anymore.
Our elected representatives fear is not our problem it’s theirs, and the question should be raised who do they fear?
They should be spending their time figuring out how to get us out of the debt that they caused through bad policy, reopening our state, and avoiding another great depression due to government overreach and overreaction to something that ended up with the numbers being highly overblown; not trying to remove our rights.
If Vermont had a gun problem there would be more than 12 homicides every year. Most of those over the years occur in the most progressive portion of Vermont which is Burlington and most of its involving drug deals with out of staters that likely brought their own gun. The problem they are trying to solve is a societal and poverty problem both of which the government is currently fueling at a pace I’ve never seen in my lifetime.
If they really cared about us they would be caring about the suicide rate not the guns that are sometimes used for suicide and the poverty that they have caused through years of wasteful spending, high taxation and bad policy.
Furthermore we should not be giving up our second amendment rights in any way especially this year. The government recently locked us all in our homes, told us who could travel and when they could travel, grocery stores were empty, businesses closed, food shortages were in the news, crimes been up all across the country, riots have caused over 2 billion dollars in damage in the cities over false narratives created by the media and the government, the media, big tech and government are colluding together to “save” the election (You better damn well believe I’m being sarcastic here) and silence those that disagree with them.
According to our recently proposed local and federal policies racism is rampant everywhere and a huge national emergency (we all know it’s not).
We here in Vermont are not immune to any of this.
Then there’s the thousands of national guard stationed at our nations capital fenced in with razor wire.
Now’s not the time anybody should be giving up their guns or thinking anything about the second amendment being a problem as it’s fast becoming one of the only rights we have left.
Great to hear from you sir – lovely graphic. Keep em coming 😀