By Guy Page
Senate Pro Tem Phil Baruth (D-Chittenden Central), perhaps the most gun-control minded Senate leader in the history of Vermont’s upper chamber, successfully asked the Senate Rules Committee to waive crossover rules and introduced a sweeping gun control bill today.
S.329, “criminal procedures involving firearms,” was introduced today, Wednesday April 15. Baruth, who is not running for re-election, is the sole sponsor. The bill needed permission from Senate Rules because it was not introduced and voted out of its original committee by the mid-March Crossover deadline.
The bill would (1) provide that stealing a firearm of any value constitutes grand larceny; (2) increase the penalties for second or subsequent offenses of firearms possession by prohibited persons; (3) prohibit the possession of firearms by persons who have been found by a court to pose a danger of harm to themselves or others as the result of a mental illness; (4) prohibit the possession of machine guns; and (5) prohibit the possession of firearms on premises licensed to serve alcohol.
The bill resembles H.606, an omnibus bill that passed the House. It’s now in Senate Judiciary, of which Baruth is a member. Crucially, H.606 did not include the prohibition of firearms on premises licensed to serve alcohol (bars and restaurants).
A Burlington charter change advanced by Baruth to ban guns in alcohol-serving restaurants and bars passed the Senate last year and since has been hanging on the wall in the House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee.
Members of the Senate Rules Committee are: Baruth, Chair; Kesha Ram Hinsdale (D-Chittenden South); Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (D-Chittenden South); Scott Beck (R-Caledonia), and Brian Collamore (R-Rutland).