by Now that the Vermont House and Senate have approved sweeping gun control legislation, Gov. Phil Scott (RINO-VT) has promised to sign it. While Scott said he was pro-Second Amendment, he is showing no hesitation in signing restrictions on magazine size, banning bump stocks, and raising the purchase age for a firearm to 21.
From the Burlington Free Press:
Scott acknowledged that many Vermonters would be disappointed by the vote and by his support for provisions that he opposed as recently as two months ago.
“I share it. I know why they are disappointed,” Scott said. “But I think at the end of the day, they’ll soon learn that what we have proposed, what’s being passed at this time, doesn’t intrude upon the Second Amendment. It doesn’t take away guns, and I believe that we will get accustomed to the new normal, which is trying to address this underlying violence that we are seeing across the nation.”
Most provisions of the law will go into effect when the Gov. Scott signs the bills into law. This includes the provisions relating to bump stocks and standard capacity magazines. Given that Vermont had been the first state to have constitutional carry and had a good record on protecting gun rights, this is exceedingly disappointing to say the least.
In response to this abridgment of the freedoms of residents of the Green Mountain State, Recoil Magazine in conjunction with Magpul organized the Green Mountain Airdrop. Similar to what they did in Colorado, Magpul provided 1,200 standard capacity magazines to be given away to gun owners in Vermont.
These magazines were distributed on the steps of the State Capitol in Montpelier on Saturday afternoon. Rob Curtis, Executive Editor of Recoil, was on hand to hand out these magazines. As you can see from the Instagram photo below, there was quite a number of people that showed up.
While the gun prohibitionists have not given up on passing legislation in Washington, I think it is safe to say that they have shifted their major focus to the states. It takes less money to make an impact on a state and that is especially true in a small state like Vermont. Moreover, as Tom Gresham noted a couple of weeks ago, Everytown and the other gun prohibitionist organizations have been building a corps of lobbyists and community organizers in the states. By contrast, your average NRA-ILA state representative will cover 3 or more states. In North Carolina, I counted 2 lobbyists for Everytown, 2 for NCAGV, and 1 for Giffords. The NRA has 2.
I think it is imperative that everyone belong to a state level gun rights organization. I will be working on making a directory of state level gun rights groups so that you can help in your state. As for me, I belong to Grass Roots North Carolina. While the NC Rifle and Pistol Club is the NRA affiliate, the heavy lifting in NC is done by GRNC.
The actions of the Vermont Legislature and the duplicitous actions of Gov. Scott are a blow and they hurt. However, I remember something that Gene Hoffman, Chairman of the Calguns Foundation, said at a Gun Rights Policy Conference. Speaking of California, he noted that they had lost their gun rights over a period of 40 years and that they would not be won back quickly. The fight to preserve our gun rights is the long war and we need to remember that.
Given that Vermont had been the first state to have constitutional carry….
As I understand it, they were rather the only state in the nation to never restrict concealed carry, nor can I recall in my lifetime any pro-gun legislation coming from it besides maybe preemption, which is pretty much a post-1981 thing after Morton Grove, Illinois banned handguns and the Supremes denied cert a couple of years later. It was only a matter of time before it turned anti-gun for the usual reasons.