Americans have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms. The U.S. Supreme Court has strongly affirmed that individual right in the Heller (2008), McDonald (2010), and Bruen (2022) cases. Vermonters have an even more explicit constitutional right.
Gun stores are closing at rapid rates after the Biden administration implemented a “zero tolerance” policy for gun dealers and added updated language to define what can be classified as a “willful” violation, leaving Federal Firearm License (FFL) revocations at a 16-year high.
An Oregon judge ruled Wednesday that local governments can not declare themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries, further saying that the sheriffs that implemented a Second Amendment ordinance were embracing “racist and white nationalist ideologies.”
Republican Montana Gov. Gregory Gianforte sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland Thursday, saying that Montana will not enforce the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) final rule for pistol braces.
The right to bear arms in public for self-defense is not “a second-class right subject to an entirely different body of rules.” In the coming months, you will hear of various firearm laws being struck down in courts across the country as challenges are raised using the new standard.
“It’s time for gun manufacturers and dealers to be held accountable when they act irresponsibly, such as in failing to prevent the straw purchasing of guns or employing marketing strategies that target vulnerable youth,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement.
A new Vermont bill seeks to ban so-called paramilitary training camps. The proposed bill implicates more than just gun rights; it squarely attacks the First Amendment rights of free speech and peaceful assembly.
Measure 114, often referred to as the Reduction of Gun Violence Act, will require background checks, firearm training, fingerprint collection, and a permit to purchase any firearm. And it will place every gun owner in a database.
Let’s not forget that government officials have already done this — illegally forcing honest gun owners to relinquish their rights.
The FBI has been contacting states and asking them to cooperate with federal investigations into concealed carry permits. At least one state attorney general says that amounts to an unacceptable violation of Second Amendment rights.
The decision, combined with the fact that the Supreme Court has also remanded two separate cases regarding magazine capacity limits back to the 3rd and 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to be reheard under the context of Bruen, has huge implications for states like Vermont.
Proper cause to carry concealed is a common requirement of state or local jurisdictions if you need to apply for permission to exercise that right, but the U.S. Supreme Court just declared it unconstitutional. The case is New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.