Gun control bills would set 48-hour waiting period, ban possession in some public places

By Guy Page

Bills introduced into the Vermont Senate would set a 48-hour waiting period for most firearms transfers, allow health care providers to notify police when a patient may harm self or others with a gun, and ban carrying firearms in some public places, Eric Davis of Gun Owners of Vermont (GoVT) reports.

On a Jan. 15 Facebook post, GoVT provided information on the following bills:

S.4  would require a 48-hour waiting period for most firearms transfers. It was introduced Jan. 12 by Senator Phil Baruth (D/P – Chittenden) without co-sponsors and sent to Senate Judiciary, where Baruth is vice-chair.

Public domain

Gun Owners of Vermont is working closely with the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs in response to multiple gun bills introduced at the Statehouse.

S.5, would require the state to report annual data on the use of extreme risk protection orders, and permit a health care provider to notify a law enforcement officer when the health care provider believes a patient poses an extreme risk of causing harm to himself or herself or another person by purchasing, possessing, or receiving a dangerous weapon or by having a dangerous weapon within his or her custody or control.

S5 was sent to Senate Judiciary after being introduced Jan. 12 without co-sponsors by Sen. Richard Sears (D-Bennington), chair of Senate Judiciary.

S.30 would ban possession of firearms at childcare facilities, hospitals, and government buildings (not including U.S. government buildings). It was introduced Jan. 14 by Baruth and co-sponsored by Sens. Balint, Bray, Campion, Chittenden, Clarkson, Cummings, Hardy, Hooker, Lyons, McCormack, Pearson, Perchlik, Ram, Sirotkin and White. It too was referred to Senate Judiciary.

Senate Judiciary is scheduled to take testimony on S.30 Wednesday, Jan. 20 at 9 a.m., via Zoom. Only one representative of a ‘gun rights’ organization, Chris Bradley of the Vermont Federation of Sportsmens Clubs, has been invited to testify. The following people are scheduled to testify:

  • Erik FitzPatrick, Legislative Counsel, Office of Legislative Counsel
  • T.J. Donovan, Vermont Attorney General, Attorney General’s Office
  • Doug Hoffer, State Auditor, State Auditor’s Office
  • Beth Pearce, State Treasurer, Office of the State Treasurer
  • James Condos, Vermont Secretary of State, State of Vermont
  • Jennifer Fitch, Commissioner, Buildings & General Services
  • Chris S. Bradley, President, Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs
  • John Campbell, Executive Director, State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs’ Dept.
  • Matthew Valerio, Defender General, Vermont Defender General’s Office
  • Honorable Brian Grearson, Chief Superior Judge, Vermont Judiciary
  • Michael Schirling, Commissioner, Department of Public Safety

S. 31, co-introduced by Senators Alison Clarkson (D-Windsor) and Ruth Hardy (D-Addison), is a “catchall” gun control bill that would:

(1) require a 72-hour waiting period for all firearms sales;

(2) repeal the statute that permits large capacity ammunition feeding devices to be manufactured in Vermont;

(3) require that, when a firearm is not in a person’s immediate possession or control, the firearm must be locked in a safe storage depository or rendered incapable of being fired;

(4) permit a family or household member to file a petition for an Emergency Risk Protection Order; and

(5) authorize health care providers to inform a law enforcement officer when the health care provider reasonably believes that a patient poses an extreme risk of causing harm to himself or herself or another person by purchasing, possessing, or receiving a dangerous weapon or by having a dangerous weapon.

“GoVT is working closely with the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs on these bills and we promise to keep everyone up to speed on any new developments. Be sure to check back frequently as things move quickly this time of year,” Davis said.

Read more of Guy Page’s reports. Vermont Daily is sponsored by True North Media.

Image courtesy of Public domain

15 thoughts on “Gun control bills would set 48-hour waiting period, ban possession in some public places

  1. Since when does a Liberal / Socialist give a damn about the Constitution? They will pass legislation and introduce bills and the opposition has to go thru the Liberal Judges (who are nothing more than pompous lawyers in a black robes pretending to be a judge to seek justice. Fair and balanced? HA! Many have been bought off-greed. The legal system is gotten so expensive that a “commoner” can’t afford justice. The scales of justice is vertical, not level. Conservatives and the Courts is like Conservatives and Twitter.

    So here we go again with gun control. Does the legislature know anything about the Constitutions, Fed and State???? What did they swear to and put their hand on, an old Sears and Roebuck catalog? God, these NY gov Flatlanders, Baruth and Clarkson for example. Her legislative past is that she’s voted for $350 million in spending as of two years ago. Look at the bills she’s sponsored. A control freak. Balint,came from Germany. She must be mindful of how Hitler came to power and desires to feel at home.

    2021 is going to be a far rougher year than the last. VT’s become the cess pool of the nation.

  2. Another year of “Gun Control” madness is in the offing under the golden dome. Legislators, specifically Mr. Baruth, have some form of grandiosity that makes them think that they are the chosen ones to solve all the NON problems in Vermont. They parade here from out of state because Vermont offers an alluring lifestyle and freedoms not available in their home states and then work to change it to be more like what they left behind. Then they decide they “must run” for office to “fix” all their perceived ills of this great state. Sue Minter was another one as is Maxine Grad who basically think that Vermonters are as dumb as box of rocks and need to be controlled and herded into compliance with the Progressive socialist movement. How wrong and self-righteous they are! They quickly forgot that nearly 50% of this nation’s voters vehemently disagreed with their holier than thou Progressive agenda in November. Luckily, in Vermont, a few of them got kicked out this past election, namely the self-proclaimed “Nancy Pelosi” of Vermont, former speaker Mitzi Johnson.

    The “new” (not) gun bills are a sad repeat of previous sessions. Vermont has, by national reputation, proven to have the most responsible gun owners in the country. Vermont enjoys the FBI’s continued ranking as one of the three safest states in the nation when it comes to violent crime and has done so for decades. Nineteen states have now modeled themselves after Vermont’s successes by becoming constitutional carry states themselves. What a complement to our state and Vermont gun owners!

    The problem is that these rabid anti-gun legislators couldn’t care less about statistics and the well-earned reputation of Vermont gun owners. It doesn’t fit their left-wing socialistic narrative that they are the power to be reckoned with and where thoughts and opinions by their constituents are viewed as pure background dribble to be blown off.

    We enacted new gun laws in 2018 based on the “thoughts” of a high school student that he was going to shoot up his school. Think about that. 180,000 Vermont gun owners were basically told to shut-up and comply with the new laws only to find out that a court will not hear a case based on one’s thoughts. By then, and since then, every gun owner has been forced to comply with laws based on a flawed reasoning. Of course, no legislator proposed they go back and review/revise the new laws, neither did the Governor. They never will because that would be a “set-back” in their long-term strategic plan to limit or eliminate private gun ownership through harassment, escalating fees and much more.

    A “Red Flag Law” (S.221) was enacted to remove firearms from “potential” miscreants who are believed(?) to be a threat to themselves and others. This law seems to have been working successfully in Vermont and was written with reasonable protections for citizens, but now S.5 and S.31 are proposing to add more “teeth” and “flexibility” to remove firearms from citizens without due process. This is extremely dangerous. This is just an extension of what Progressives are pushing with social media. If they don’t like what you say, you will be banned, labeled and “shamed” for what you have expressed. You don’t get a vote!

    Also, another year, another movement to enact a waiting period to transfer a firearm. This is all based on one incident, I repeat, one single incident in nearly 25 years that MIGHT have waylaid a suicide in VT for some period of time. Such a successful and positive history certainly does not justify the expense and time loss to our 180K responsible gun owners to travel multiple times to a gun dealer to secure a firearm or complete a transaction. This is just pure harassment and something to punish all gun owners with for ONE individual’s choice in his life.

  3. Like the frog in the pot, Legislative incrementalism is slowly stripping away your constitutionally-protected civil rights one “common sense measure” at a time. Wake up!

  4. All of these Marxist goals are absurdly un Constitutional,however this one, “(3) require that, when a firearm is not in a person’s immediate possession or control, the firearm must be locked in a safe storage depository or rendered incapable of being fired;”
    Has already been ruled un Constitutional by the court in Heller v D.C.,perhaps the Left is expecting a different outcome.

  5. This is just the beginning. They’ve got their new excuses, Chairman Phil slavers for the power, and the corporate media is providing an onslaught of cover. There will be incremental measures, seperate but coming rapidly, and eventually total confiscation. When will we unite and resist?

  6. People would do well to reframe the conversation to expose the truth….

    Progressives spent teachers retirement, massive cuts coming soon!

    VT Democrats keep more retirement for Government, on the backs of our teachers.

    VT Democrats lied with unrealistic retirement projections to get your vote.

    VT Democrats spend your covid money on their pet projects.

    VT Progressives want to keep covid stimulus for their pet projects.

    It’s all in digger,

    https://vtdigger.org/2021/01/17/painful-cuts-proposed-in-pensions-for-teachers-state-employees/

    Problem is we don’t have a free press in our state. ALL the blame lies with the Vermont Democratic party, they have the majority, they spent the teachers retirement money!

    They are throwing the teachers under the bus. We knew it was coming….gonna be a shock for those who drank all the kool-aid and thought they really cared.

  7. Time to fight folks. Enough shaking our heads and crying, “liberal lunacy”. In case you haven’t noticed, they are kicking our asses at every turn because they never stop going. Lester makes a great point regarding lefty doctors and their ability to take your guns away, period.

    New caravan headed for the border. Bernie in charge of the budget. The list of appointees and the direction we’re headed is a problem. Town meeting now done by mail-in. Mail-in corruption is here to stay. The list goes on and on and on and on. I’ll say it again, they DO NOT STOP and if you sit on your hands, the land of the free will no longer exist.

    • They are kicking our butts because we have too many of them on our own side. They are establishment politicians, aka New World Order pimps.

      People have no party to represent them, because for the most part they are all the same. There is no difference between either side, when 96% of Washington votes for Biden…..

      What was the percentage in Vermont that found the most pressing issue of our times to impeach a president, with no basis for crime a second time? How many “republicans” in Vermont did that?

      The party needs to par things down, get rid of the trouble makers, Benning, et. al they are really are Democrats anyhow, they would enjoy the company of like minds in a different party.

      You go attacking government and you’ll find they are all currently the same, there will be no quarter spared. You’ll get no assistance from conservatives in office because their voices will never be heard and their vote never present because it’s complete diluted from within the party that supposedly loves you and America.

      Right now is perhaps not the right time. It is their plan to instigate an insurrection so they can declare martial law and…”normalize” the country.

      Their day is coming….

  8. I bet tha same bills or more are being introduced across the usa by the NWO pimps.

    They have a plan, they are organized, but it’s not for freedom or our constitution!

    The jig is up, across the United states this Sunday, only antifa showed up at the capital protests! The true fascist hiding behind clever names. We want peace. This massive corruption will be exposed. Hillary, Biden, made billions while working in Govermnent????.

    No country can stand on such corruption forever. People can see when you are asking for the shut down of entire news organizations, something is amiss. We’ll go back to paper, you can’t continue the blatant lies, because people are onto you.

    It may not happen in the next coming 3 days, but the lies will be exposed!

  9. Just more liberal lunacy, we have one of the safest states in the country, Why because
    ” Real Vermonter’s ” understand.

    We get these carpetbaggers that migrate here and then try and run our state the way
    the state they came from was run…….. pretty pathetic.

    It just shows Montpelier’s Golden Doom is just that, the state is in a complete destress
    and the first bill out of the gate is just a feel-good bill for a bought and paid for agenda.

    Wake up people, don’t let Chittenden Counties Liberal agenda ruin our state and our
    way of life…………. control freaks !!

  10. Consider “permit a health care provider to notify a law enforcement officer when the health care provider believes a patient poses an extreme risk …” the ramifications of a healthcare provider with an anti gun agenda. A number of years ago it was found that a psychologist had torpedoed prospective job applicants at a nuclear power plant because of being anti nuclear. Found out because of the volume of failures.

  11. Why is this the most pressing needed bill out of the gate?

    Actions speak louder than words. The bills they work on first put the most energy into tell you their priorities.

    1st big news. Impeach Trump, despite his presidency ending on the 20th.
    2nd big news restrict guns further in the safest state

    Now, what other countries would put these in the highest priority? What other organizations? There is your puppet master.

Comments are closed.