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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There are already gun laws in place and have been for years. But yet, the shootings still continue to happen. Even more shooting happen in Chicago where the guns laws are more strict, but yet the shootings continue. Any new law will not change anything since criminals don’t obey laws, that’s why they are criminals. We have a smart society so lets put our brains together, put away the political BS and party affiliations and find a real working solution. For starters, how about a controlled entry point at schools with security present.
You really want a solution to the societal ills we currently experience? Here’s one for you. Stop treating children as if they can do no wrong. Stop teaching them there are no consequences for their bad behavior. Stop telling them that they can succeed with no effort. Stop coddling them as if everywhere in the world is their own person safe space. Stop allowing them to be babysat by electronic devices while their parents noses are stuck to a screen of yet another electronic device. Stop allowing them to play extremely violent first person shooter games. Stop allowing them to watch any and all videos/movies they feel like watching. Stop desensitizing them to graphic violence. Let them fail. Stop with the participation trophy mentality our society has developed! To fail is learn to get back up and DO SOMETHING! Rather than roll into a little snowflake ball and weep until someone comes along to pick you up. Teach them the value of the word no! And here, you’ll love this one, beat their asses when they need/deserve it! Stop letting them whine their way out of situations. What the hell do you think is going to happen to them when they reach the real world or get close to it and see that not everyone is a winner. Not everyone can be successful at everything. What a serious disservice our current system of family/education/justice does for these young people!
The best Phil Scott could come up with is school children and their teacher need to practice more active shooter drills? i cannot conceive that statement as the best solution to the problem because it is incredibly ignorant… and short sighted… no suggestions on how to keep a killer from getting the guns in the first place… an excellent example of what is wrong with politics today- the politicians. poor form Governor.
No Sharon. It goes nukes [guns] don’t kill people. Chuck Norris kills people.
Seatbelts dont prevent all deaths either. Should we discontinue our enforcement? And do we really, as a society, think that our teachers and children should have to learn how to deal with mass shooters better just so a few weapons makers can get richer and continue to bribe our politicians? Thats your answer Mr Scott? Seriously?? This mans comments are sophomoric at best and show a clear lack of understanding of the issue and a lack of compassion for those affected by this misuse of money and power.
Who cares if Kim Jong-un gets a nuke? Nukes dont kill people, PEOPLE kill people.
… see how stupid that sounds?
FTK – The ignorant, simple minded endless diatribe of people who use the chant of our rights, our rights as an excuse to do absolutely nothing in response to these continued tragedies is indicative of someone so small minded, intellectually lazy and bound up in extreme right wing ideology that they arent interested in solving a problem, just in pushing their infantile, irrational mindset on the rest of society. There is a balance to everything and its time to balance the rights of the hillbilly, gun crazed culture of some against the rights of others to not be shot and killed. I know that may be really tough for you to comprehend and its hard to believe that one could be so blatantly stupid but, that would seem to be the case.