The Vermont Senate on Thursday advanced legislation that would impose a 24-hour waiting period on those purchasing handguns. The preliminary vote came despite opposition from gun-rights supporters, who claimed the bill would infringe upon their rights, and from those who said the restrictions weren’t strict enough.
The 20-10 vote suggested that supporters in the Senate would be able to override a potential veto from Gov. Phil Scott, who has expressed opposition to new gun laws. The measure is expected to face a final vote in the Senate on Friday and would then move to the Vermont House.
All six Senate Republicans opposed the bill, as did Sens. Dick Mazza (D-Grand Isle), Alice Nitka (D-Windsor), John Rodgers (D-Essex/Orleans) and Bobby Starr (D-Essex/Orleans).
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Dick Sears (D-Bennington), said he was proud that the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, found middle ground between the two divergent positions. “I hope folks won’t be put off by the word compromise, because if we’ve come to that, we’re in deep trouble,” Sears said.
Sears, who had previously opposed the measure, said he learned from experts who testified before his committee that suicide attempts with guns are far more successful than by other means, and that those who make such attempts usually do so impulsively.
“The vast majority of the people who decide to commit suicide [do so] based on an impulse, and that decision was made within eight hours,” he said.
If enacted, the law would require gun buyers to wait a day after undergoing a federal criminal background check before taking possession of a firearm.
After the vote, the family of Andrew Black released a statement supporting the Senate’s move. The 23-year-old Essex man shot and killed himself in December, hours after buying a gun.
“If this handgun purchase waiting period was the law last year I know it likely would have saved our son’s life,” Alyssa Black wrote. “I sincerely hope that this effort will save other families from experiencing the heartbreak we are going through.”
Leading the opposition was Sen. Rodgers, who argued that those who commit mass shootings or suicide are often more influenced by social media than by gun access. “I believe the internet is much more dangerous than firearms are,” Rodgers said.
Similarly, far more teenagers are killed texting while driving than from guns, he said, and yet there is no rush to take phones away from them. He did not mention that lawmakers recently toughened laws against texting while driving.
The Senate rejected an amendment Rodgers offered that would have limited the waiting period to new gun owners. It did approve other suggestions he made, including allowing law enforcement officers from other states and those competing in organized shooting events to possess high-capacity magazines. He said the Second Amendment should not just be viewed as a right for sportsmen.
“It’s about protecting oneself, one’s community, one’s state, one’s country,” Rodgers said.
The Northeast Kingdom Democrat got some backup from Sen. Joe Benning (R-Caledonia), who argued that he wouldn’t support a waiting period on a woman’s right to choose, nor would he support one on when newspaper reporters could file their stories.
Benning argued that, while suicides are tragic, there is no evidence that a waiting period would really work. “But make no mistake, it is an impediment placed in the path of someone who would choose to exercise their right to self-defense,” he said.
Sen. Ruth Hardy (D-Addison) said she was disappointed that the bill didn’t impose stricter rules. She grew up in and lives in a rural area and supports firearms for hunting and sport, she said, but is keenly aware of the dangers they present.
“I also know that guns pose a significant public health, domestic violence and public safety threat,” she said.
The mother of three school-aged children said she knows firsthand the impact gun violence — especially school shootings — is having on children today. “Our children are stressed and scared, and they have been demanding that we do something,” Hardy said.
She said she considered 24 hours too short of a waiting period, noting that many states require waits of a week or more. She also lamented the limitation to handguns, noting that someone could just as easily kill himself, herself or others with a rifle. She said she would support the bill out of the spirit of compromise Sears expressed.
“More change will come and I will be here in this chamber to help make it happen,” she said.
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Still doesn’t address the folks who care less of laws. We never get to the root cause of the problem!
Heres a novel idea, why doesnt someone make public the VT specific statistics related to this alleged social issue. How many people, by year, have purchased a handgun and within 24hrs committed suicide? Let the numbers tell the story. SevenDays is very lazy when it comes time to holding the Legislature accountable on gun legislation. SevenDays relationship with Tim Ash is not healthy for any of us.
Every day I’m more confident I made the best decision leaving your state.
The whining about suicide rate spikes within a week of a gun purchase isn’t even a good stat. It’s false causality. And what does 24 hours do when you keep citing a week timeline?
You pay rich people to live there who don’t commute while being behind on basic road maintenance, have burdensome vehicle regulations, and went over budget on salt which from what I hear does something to those cars. Your tax base is leaving, young people are leaving, and your legislature is doing this.
Good job VT. You made this bed.
Here we go with the gun nuts collective outrage. These people couldn’t care less about anyone other than themselves and their prepubescent views of themselves as the cowboys in the wild west. Its expected that Republicans like Joe Benning would fight any and all common sense regulations with respect firearms, but those that call themselves “Democrats” that fight all efforts to try and mitigate the damage that guns can cause should be thrown out of the party to join their good buddies in the Republican party. I don’t advocate the banning of all firearms and in fact own some but I do support common sense regulation.
When somebody wants to kill themself. They do it. Whether its with a hose attached to the exhaust in the car window, with pills, a gun….they do it. Dont blame the tool. Taking constitutional freedom away wont stop this terrible thing.
You Vermont Legislators keep your hands off of our constitutional rights! Figure out ways to make us more free. Not less!
At what point do we make the people that commit these violent acts responsible for what they have done instead of passing it along and blaming it on someone else.
I really hate to see someone take their own life but it is their own free choice to do that and it is not up to anyone to infringe upon my rights because someone else exercised theirs.
This is just another step in accomplishing the goal of taking the guns away from the hard-working tax-paying law-abiding people in the state of Vermont..
Who are the experts that testified?
Are they people that were conjured up to defend the infringement upon the gun owners in the state of Vermont or are they real people with no agenda and no axe to grind..
It is time to stop punishing the people in the state of Vermont that abide by the law because of those that don’t.
I want to thank those in our government that stand up for our rights time after time but when we slip and fall and concede to those contrary to our constitution give away something that should never be given away…
It is such a sad day in Vermont when honest people are stripped of their rights
DICK sears name says it all . Do you sir think a person who wants to commit suicide will wait for permission, you and your cohorts are true idiots . Your group of anti Americans are a reason why my home is for sale to leave this sinking ship of a state I love .
So stupid, leave our guns alone!!! This just made it annoying to buy a gun thats at a dealer thats far away. One you have to go in person, so say you r buying a gun that only one shop has thats 100 miles away you now would have to travel there on the first day to fill out paper work and submit background check then not be able to get your purchase till the next day making it so you have to travel all that way again.
Rates of suicides have doubled since the use of technology.
CDC Statistics, VTSPC, VTDOH. (firearms #1 over mva’s).
Thank you supporter of VTSPC & MADD
This waiting period proposal has nothing to do with suicide at all. It looks like a group of people who have always cared a great deal about gun control suddenly pretending to care a lot about suicide as a means of forwarding their favorite laws. It is an excuse for gun control, like domestic violence was last year. Next year they will find a new excuse for more gun laws, and nothing whatever will have been done about suicide or domestic violence, least of all by the people who most vociferously supported the gun laws.