The day after a 19-year-old gunman killed 17 students at a Florida high school, Gov. Phil Scott defended Vermont’s permissive gun laws and rejected calls for new restrictions.
“We’re fortunate we’re one of the safest states in the country, and I believe our gun laws are balanced,” the first-term Republican said Thursday afternoon. “They balance public safety with our rights.”
Rather than limiting access to firearms, Scott said the state should focus on providing more training and drills in schools so that staff and students can prepare for active-shooter situations.
“We should do more [training], and certainly we should be vigilant at this point in time,” Scott said, citing concerns about “copycat” shootings in the wake of the Florida massacre.
Sen. Phil Baruth (D/P-Chittenden), an outspoken gun control proponent, saw it differently. He said the latest incident should “increase the shame” on the Vermont Senate, which he criticized for failing to address gun violence.
“We are doing jack shit about a problem that’s every bit as pressing nationwide as the opioid epidemic,” Baruth said Thursday. “And the reason I say that is not to denigrate what’s happening with the opioid epidemic — people are dying — but the mass-shooting epidemic that we’re experiencing is decaying American life at its foundation.”
Five years ago, after a gunman killed 26 people at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School, Baruth introduced legislation banning assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition. Under pressure from fellow senators, he quickly withdrew the bill.
In 2015, the Senate considered legislation that would require anyone purchasing a gun in Vermont to undergo a federal criminal background check. Current law mandates such checks only when the seller is a federally licensed firearm dealer.
That bill failed on a 3-2 vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, with Sens. Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) and Jeanette White (D-Windham) supporting it and Sens. Dick Sears (D-Bennington), Alice Nitka (D-Windsor) and Joe Benning (R-Caledonia) opposing it.
Baruth made a new push for universal background checks last year. But because the panel still consists of the same five members, he argued, “one senator in that committee is making the decision for the entire Senate” as to whether his bill reaches the floor for debate.
“What I’ve been trying to say since the beginning of this session is that that’s not allowable anymore,” Baruth said. “We’ve reached a point where we have to demand that the Senate function as the deliberative body it’s supposed to be.”
Attorney General T.J. Donovan said Thursday that he supports Baruth’s proposal.
“I understand the culture of sportsmen and women. I fully support it,” the Democratic AG said. “They are responsible gun owners, but when somebody … is a threat to our public safety, they have forfeited their right to own and to possess a firearm, in my opinion.”
House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero) responded to the Florida shooting by condemning inaction by Congress.
“It was yet another awful and sobering event,” she said. “At some point Congress decided that it was okay for children to die.”
Johnson noted that the Vermont House passed a bill last year that would allow police to confiscate guns when they make an arrest for domestic violence. That legislation is also stuck in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sears, who chairs the panel, has refused to advance the House bill, citing constitutional concerns.
Sears said Thursday that Florida’s school shooting would not change his approach to gun legislation. He introduced a bill this year that would create a court process allowing police to take guns away from those deemed to be an “extreme risk” to themselves or others. He said that such a policy might prevent situations similar to this week’s mass shooting, “assuming that somebody came forward and said to police, you know, this person is dangerous right now and has shown these pictures on Facebook, has indicated threats.”
Gov. Scott said Thursday that he had not spoken with Sears about the bill, but he indicated that he would keep an open mind if it passed the legislature.
“We’ll make sure that we have all voices heard on that,” the governor said. “I agree with the premise that someone that has a mental illness should be prevented from obtaining a firearm.”
But Scott said his mind was made up about Baruth’s universal background check bill. He noted that early reports suggest the Florida shooter passed a background check in order to obtain the weapon he used in the shooting.
“So that doesn’t always prevent these types of situations, unfortunately,” Scott said.
Disclosure: Tim Ashe is the domestic partner of Seven Days publisher and coeditor Paula Routly. Find our conflict-of-interest policy here: sevendaysvt.com/disclosure.
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To all the people who are calling for even more restrictions in firearms. I would like to offer a challenge. Debate me on this subject. I am thinking we could do a 1 or 2 hour debate at the statehouse, put it on a video station and reported in all the news organizations. This offer is open to any one including legislators the general public or members of any gun control organization. I would do this at any time that would be convenient to you.
Ed Cutler
President
Gun Owners of Vermont
i am totally pro gun but it doesn’t matter because the united states has already made an agreement with that amazingly great UN to take our guns. go to the un web page its all there hidden in a nuclear disarmament agreement. hidden all over the place it talks about how it will happen and it has begun. news flash there are way to many to get even half of them. the ones left will be in the bad guys arms or worse it will start a war in our own borders and then children will be dyeing all the time. Americans will not give in to this trash government. china general said it best we cant fight them on there own soil there will be a gun behind every blade of grass. and nothing has changed so sit back and wait cuz its not going to get any better. if all you people worried more about your own children giving them discipline instead of coddling them things would change. every one is so worried about offending someone.
A_Trout – I am sorry-Is my satire to much for your delicate sensibilities to handle?
So sorry to inform you of the realaties of our nation- that our democratic strongholds are crime ridden hell holes
Ever been to West Oakland or South Chicago? I have. Have you?
Perhaps its your ignorance that causes you to be outraged
We need Phil Baruth to run for Gov instead
I just can’t believe our Gov. Scott said this”
“Were fortunate were one of the safest states in the country, and I believe our gun laws are balanced,” the first-term Republican said Thursday afternoon. “They balance public safety with our rights.”
Rather than limiting access to firearms, Scott said the state should focus on providing more training and drills in schools so that staff and students can prepare for active-shooter situations.” He is living in the past and cites incorrect information.
Solid B+ for trolling, snowcreek. You just about nailed all the good stuff. Would have given you a A+ if you had found a way to work ‘snowflake’ into it. Regardless, you’ve done well and added great depth to the commentary, and as with your other comments, you’ve kept it classy. Remarkable ability.
Elaine Morse- You are surronded by white males with guns in Vermont!
You need to flee immediately for your safety
I suggest a democratic city
one that cares about keeping its citizens safe
Perhaps West Oakland, CA or South Chicago, IL
Not many white men with guns there.
It must be safe
Dear Gov.Scott –
Have you ever experienced an active shooter drill with young kids? I suggest you go to the nearest elementary school and huddle in the dark quiet classroom with kids too scared and too young to understand what is going on. And then explain to them that instead of doing something to prevent their possible deaths from an angry white male with an assault weapon, you would rather they practice hiding and cowering in a dark classroom in the hopes that should someone come into their school shooting, they will survive.
Practice drills do nothing to prevent someone with an agenda and an assault rifle from going into a school and shooting. We need action. From people like you. How fortunate you are that you are surrounded by security and well protected from guns. The rest of us are not. No wonder you dont care.
The AR 15 has been available for public purchase since 1964. Its our culture that is promoting these kinds of tragedies. Every time this happens it sets a precident for a new normalcy and creates a new reality where this kind of thing is not only condoned it is expected.
one needs only to turn on your TV to view the level of violence directed at our population as a normal part of every day life. Shows such as “vikings” which never would have been on the air 20 years ago are now viewed by kids who think nothing of watching people bruatally murdered by people with no remorse.
its no surprise that some people in our society take this to the heart and act out what they see as some form of retribution to being isolated or somehow alienated from other people or whatever the reason.
while yes- these guns with quickly changeable magazines are something that is not helping- the bigger causation in my opinion is the continuing desensitation to violence. Even as our society actually gets less violent as a whole
Fascinating to watch people defend gun ownership, refuse to set any limits (which would be described as bad parenting in another context) because of their emotional attachment to the 2nd Amendment. I guarantee that the founders did not foresee and want automatic weapons being brought into schools.
The republican party touts itself as being pro-family, pro-morality, and conservative, when in fact it is actually anti-family since it supports everything that harms families, anti morality with it’s defense of pedophiles and rapists, including the pussy grabber in the White House, and is certainly not conservative as they seek to pillage every natural resource possible and conserve nothing.
It’s time to call the republicans what they are…pro violence, pro greed, pro destruction. Gov. Scott, this is directed at you. What are YOU doing to make Vermonters safe from violent psychopaths?