Updated at 6:06 p.m.
The National Association for Gun Rights mailed postcards to Vermonters this week attacking Republican Gov. Phil Scott for embracing new gun control proposals. The Colorado-based group urged recipients to call the governor and ask him to veto S.55, a gun control bill that passed the Vermont Senate earlier this month.
The postcards feature a doctored photo of a childlike Scott sitting on the shoulders of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who stands beside Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) — both outspoken advocates of new guns laws.
“Is Vermont Governor Phil Scott Feinstein & Bloomberg’s gun control lovechild?” it reads.
A lifelong proponent of gun rights, Scott changed course last month and embraced certain gun-control proposals following a school shooting in Parkland, Fla., and a foiled plot closer to home, in Fair Haven. But according to his spokeswoman, Rebecca Kelley, the NAGR postcard distorts the governor’s views.
“It’s this type of misleading propaganda that’s so destructive to the work being done to better protect our kids and communities, and the governor will continue to exhibit bold leadership that keeps our kids safe without infringing on constitutional rights,” she said in a written statement.
Kelley noted that NAGR mischaracterizes the scope of S.55. The postcard suggests the legislation “could include” new “‘gun confiscation orders’ letting officials seize your firearms without due process” and “a ban on virtually all private firearm sales and purchases.” Vermont lawmakers have proposed no such thing.
It also raises the specter that provisions already abandoned by a House committee — such as a 10-day waiting period for firearm purchases and a ban on sales of “semi-automatic” firearms — could become law.
S.55, as passed by the Senate, raises the firearm purchase age to 21 and requires background checks before private gun sales. The House was debating those measures Friday afternoon — as well as ones that would ban the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines and so-called bump stocks.
Clai Lasher-Sommers, executive director of the gun-control group Gun Sense Vermont, called the postcard “awful.”
“It’s very divisive, and it causes people to stop having a democratic conversation,” she said. “I don’t like it.”
NAGR may also be running afoul of Vermont’s lobbying statutes.
According to Will Senning, director of elections and campaign finance in the Secretary of State’s Office, “there is little doubt” that the postcards constitute lobbying because “they are soliciting others to communicate with legislators or administrative officials to influence legislation.” But NAGR has not registered as a Vermont lobbyist employer, a step that is required within 48 hours of spending $500 or more on such activities.
Organizations are also required to file expenditure reports within 48 hours of spending $1,000 or more on advertising designed to “influence legislative action.” NAGR had not done so as of Friday evening.
The group did not respond to a request for comment.
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Sorry, but you don’t get to decide that only people who oppose any and all gun control measures are “true Vermonters.” Scott grew up here and is as “true” a Vermonter as there is. The issue of whether we put restrictions on the ownership of crowd-killing-machines does not split down the line of so-called Vermonters v. non-Vermonters. Plenty of native-born Vermonters support gun control, and plenty of people in the paranoid 2d Amendment “anti-gubmin” crowd were not born here.
RHINO or true Vermonter? Will Scott do the right thing and support real Vermonters? Or will he support the paranoid tlefty trust fund babies..
‘Feinstein & Bloomberg’? Dog whistle anyone .
As to the argument that the 2nd Amendment can’t be restricted. Every other right under the constitution can be restricted as long as it meets the proper test as laid out by the Supreme Court (general examples are: strict scrutiny, intermediary scrutiny, and rational basis).
The government can restrict free speech if it meets the strict scrutiny test. The government can discriminate based on gender if it meets intermediate scrutiny. Why would gun rights be any different?
S.55 gives me hope for the future of Vermont. Thank you to all the hard working legislators who have worked hard to craft a decent bill and thank you to everyone who raised their voice to demand Vermont update it’s gun laws!
Looks like the gun nut crowd is running out of tin foil for their hats. The paranoia surrounding this issue is evident in most every anti-Scott, anti-gun legislation screed from the people claiming Da Gub-mint is coming to swipe your rights. It is such bullshit, the product of gullible minds listening to NRA manipulation. Try reading the bill and understand what it is trying to balance. Critical thinking skills would really benefit this crowd, as well as a review of what the 2nd amendment actually says.
The National Association for Gun Rights sounds like an astro-turf group funded by fascist Right Wing billionaire Robert Mercer.
There is no end to Right Wing derangement.
James Boudreau, it’s Phil “flip-flop” Scott… says one thing does the opposite .. Makes promises, get’s in office and flip-flops to the liberal democrats. He can’t figure out if he’s a democrat or republican… Rebecca Kelley is full of bull.. if this gun control passes next it will be “‘gun confiscation orders’ letting officials seize your firearms without due process” and “a ban on virtually all private firearm sales and purchases.” only time till Vermont lawmakers will propose that too.
How is the truth divisive? Democratic conversation? Referendum, these are my constitutional rights your messing with.
You can smell the panic in the air.