by Bob DePino
In the Senate Judiciary hearing on S.209 on 1/31/2024, Senator Sears posed the question, “I still don’t understand why people are opposing this bill. I think this is the simplest bill I’ve ever introduced in terms of anything to do with firearms.”
Senator Sears is correct in that S.209 WAS a very simple bill.
Our answer to his question is also simple.
S.209 is firearm REGISTRATION.
The Gun Owners of Vermont have ALWAYS opposed registration.
The Gun Owners of Vermont have ALWAYS opposed Universal Background Checks (UBCs).
Our organization and its membership have opposed UBCs specifically because it is a firearm registration scheme.
By forcing ALL lawful transfers of a firearm through a licensed firearm licensee (FFL), the serial number of EVERY firearm has to be logged into the dealer’s INVENTORY before the federal background (NIC) check can be processed. In other words, the FFL TAKES OWNERSHIP OF THE FIREARM DURING THE TRANSFER PROCESS!
As Senator Baruth acknowledged during testimony on S.209, the goal is to force ALL unserialized firearms to be processed through the background check system. Adding a serial number to a firearm AND logging it into an FFL dealer’s inventory is registration!
As all FFLs MUST permanently record all firearms into their inventory, form 4473 is the de facto firearm registration document. While the electronic background check request information is only held temporarily by the federal government on their computer system, that form 4473 is forever.
In our 2017 UBC Report, “form 4473 must be kept FOREVER by the FFL and turned over to the ATF when the shop ceases business. The ATF/FBI are now currently entering ALL THOSE 4473s from defunct businesses into a national computer database in Quantico Virginia.”
Well, THAT is registration at the time of serialization. Final entry into the new federal database is simply delayed by the lifespan of the FFL, or by any random inspection of FFL records at any time by the ATF.
The newest version of S.209, v2.1, includes § 4084 (2)(c) MANDATING the FFL turn over the now serialized frame or receiver to law enforcement for disposition, REGARDLESS of the reason for denial of a background check. So, gun builders who attempt to comply with this new law, run the risk of losing their property AND
being prosecuted for the crime of possession for false positive denials. The former registration bill is now a registration AND CONFISCATION BILL.
You wonder why gun owners don’t trust our legislators.
Here are some links to our previous reports on Universal Background Checks and how they facilitate registration:
2014 GoVT Report:
“The ONLY thing that Universal Registration will do is single out law abiding citizens, and identify WHAT they have.”
“The ONLY thing that Universal Registration will NOT do is effect criminals in any way, shape or form!”
2015 GoVT Report:
“Charles Morgan, Director of the Washington, D.C. ACLU, during testimony before the House Subcommittee on Crime stated, “I have not one doubt, even if I am in agreement with the National Rifle Association, that that kind of record keeping procedure [gun registration] is the first step to eventual confiscation under one administration or another.”
“UNIVERSAL BACKGROUND CHECKS ARE DE FACTO REGISTRATION:”
“Before an FFL dealer can do a background check, a person has to fill out a form 4473, which lists the make, model, serial number, caliber and who is purchasing it.”
“The NRA-ILA posted an article in 2000, that still stands true: “Gun owners also know that criminals will never register their illegally possessed guns and, in fact, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Haynes v. U.S. (309 U.S. 85 (1968)) that since felons are prohibited from owning firearms, compelling them to register them would violate their 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination.”
“So, the very laws that gun control radicals proclaim will reduce crime, do NOT actually affect criminals, but ONLY affects law-abiding gun owners! The truth is clear, Universal Background Checks and registration have nothing to do with crime control, but they have everything to do with control over the law-abiding gun owners of this nation!”
2017 GoVT Report:
“The truth is clear, Universal Background Checks and registration have nothing to do with crime control, but have everything to do with increasing government control over the ability of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms!”
“It is not about safety; it is about furthering a political agenda.”
“Is Vermont going to be under endless assault, year after year, by out-of-state political forces with millions of dollars in the hope that we will eventually crack?”
Here we are in 2024 and they are still at it.
Senator Sears said he introduced this bill in an attempt to reduce violent crime. I believe he was sincere. However, the only crime that can be “solved” and prosecuted by the use of a serial number is THEFT. Possession of ANY firearm by a felon is ALREADY a prosecutable crime. Violent crimes are solved by the use of ballistics and video evidence. Whether a firearm has a tiny serial number on a receiver can only tell who the registered owner is. Oh, wait, “registered” owner…
Senator Baruth co-sponsored the bill because he knows that serialization, is by definition, registration and with bills on the wall like S.239; YET ANOTHER Assault Weapon Ban just like Senator Baruth introduced in 2013 (S.32), the end goal for legislators like him has always been the banning and outright confiscation of all legal firearms.
On 1/25/2024 Senator Baruth even pressured the NRA lobbyist to state whether or not Americans have a Constitutional Right to own an unserialized firearm. The lobbyist avoided the question and didn’t answer.
Well, we at The Gun Owners of Vermont don’t have a problem answering that question. YES. Americans DO have the Constitutional Right to own unserialized firearms.
Even the federal government says Americans have the right to build and possess unserialized firearms.
Why do Vermont lawmakers want to make it a crime to “possess” something the federal government understands is a Constitutional Right?
Senator Baruth made it VERY clear; the object of serialization is to FORCE gun builders to go through a background check to see if they are disqualified from possessing a firearm. The person who gets their gun serialized has to pass a BACKGROUND CHECK, before getting it back! To pass a background check you need to fill out that 4473. Listening to the Senators and Representatives talk about the radicalization of the police, insurrection, and the litany of comments and legislation aimed at the systematic restriction of lawful possession and carrying of firearms, makes it clear to everyone that the goal of these anti-gun legislators has nothing to do with crime, but the fear of an armed populace.
Registration of homemade firearms is just the “next step” with the banning and confiscation of those firearms around the corner (see S.239).
In fact, it was also mentioned in committee, the goal of S.209 is that the actual SALE of an unfinished receiver would be BANNED by this bill, and the manufacturers of these parts will have to post “WILL NOT SHIP TO VERMONT” on their websites.
So, S.209 is a REGISTRATION, CONFISCATION and a de facto BAN on homemade firearms!
In Vermont, there have been over ONE HUNDRED gun control bills introduced since 2013 in violation of the legislator’s Oath to “solemnly swear (or affirm) that as a member of this Assembly, you will not propose, or assent to, any bill, vote or resolution, which shall appear to you injurious to the people, nor do nor consent to any act or thing whatever, that shall have a tendency to lessen or abridge their rights and privileges, as declared by the Constitution of this State.”
Most Vermont legislators have made it clear to the world they will not tolerate the very existence of lawful gun owners in this state.
Senator Baruth talked about S.209 making Vermont “gun culture more law-abiding…” which means Senator Baruth knows the REAL Vermont “gun culture” is comprised of lawful gun owners, not the imported drug
dealers and gang-bangers from other states that use guns in the commission of their illegal drug trade. It’s just that lawful firearm ownership is the target of legislation, not violent criminals.
Vermont legislators have been pulling out all the stops, attacking lawful gun ownership from every angle, every session, relentlessly, to criminalize every aspect of lawful gun culture. They will not stop until all gun owners are dead. Laugh. You cannot have Utopia until there is no opposition from the People.
Vermont, the tiny state FOUNDED by a militia, just OUTLAWED militias, the very thing that the 2nd Amendment protects! Ethan Allen is rolling over in his grave. Bill S.3, was also sponsored by Senator Baruth, and now its national counterpart has been introduced into Washington D.C. legislation.
Vermont has fallen to the very Tyranny our Founding Fathers warned us about, the incremental criminalization of a Constitutional Right. The Super-Majority of the One-Party State can now do anything it wants to the People without recourse. Joseph Stalin would approve.
We have every right, reason, and duty to oppose ALL gun control in Vermont because the billionaires that fund and control the anti-gun state legislators have made it their mission to disarm Americans across the nation.
Just a thought, even if S.209 passes into law, the federal government has already made it clear, as criminals, we will not be required to register our homemade firearms…
Bob DePino is Vice President of Gun Owners of Vermont.
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100% accurate.
These criminals under the dome should be removed from office for violating their oath and prosecuted for tyranny and under the Rico act for conspiring to push such tyranny by attempting to remove our god-given and therefore constitutional rights
looks like the key board thumpers are getting mad/// you should have got mad three years ago when they tried to kill you with the covid kill shot/// now they want to take your guns/// people are waking up////
Thank you Mr. DePino for this comprehensive factual look at gun control, and the disingenuous politicians that promote it.
When Tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty!
Any citizen of Vermont who votes for or has voted for these democrats, or any democrat/progressive is an existential threat to democracy. That statement uses the kind of “simplicity” that Sen. Sears seeks to promote. He used to be a decent man…for a democrat. He has a big heart and used to be guided by common sense and had concerns about protecting civil liberties. I can’t say the same for Baruth…he is pure flatlander, New York evil. The the voters of Chittenden County who maintain him in office are useful idiots, who should hang their heads in shame.
And this is why Hunter Biden is not guilty of any of the gun charges brought against him by the federal government. The government is not delegated the authority by our Constitution to require the government’s permission to exercise any right affirmed to us under the Constitution. The government is not delegated the authority by our Constitution to compel us to waive our guaranteed 4th Amendment right to be secure from unwarranted interrogation, search, or seizure in the absence of probable cause of criminal conduct. Or compel us to waive our guaranteed 5th Amendment right to due process as a precondition to being allowed (or denied) the exercise of our right to keep and bear arms. This violation of our 4th and 5th Amendment rights happens every time that we are interrogated under penalty of perjury without probable cause that a crime has been committed when we fill out B.A.T.F.E form 4473 to purchase a firearm.
https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/545847-according-to-the-founders-all-federal-gun-restrictions-are/#:~:text=There's%20also%20ample%20evidence%20from,tyrannical%20governments%2C%20including%20the%20federal
Guns without serial numbers are not illegal.
https://firearmslaw.duke.edu/2022/10/federal-judge-strikes-down-prohibition-on-possessing-guns-with-removed-or-altered-serial-numbers
“A free citizenry does not ask its governments’ permission to exercise a right. It does not register its exercise of a right. It does not waive any other right, such as the right to privacy, or the right to due process, or the right to be secure from being compelled to waive a right in order to exercise a right, in exchange for permission to exercise a right such as the right to keep and bear arms which government does not have the authority to issue or deny in the first place. It does not permit government to claim the exercise of a right is probable cause, or prima facie evidence, or even a suspicion, of a crime having been committed. It does not discuss, or negotiate, what rights it will or will not exercise with government or with any government functionary. In short, a free citizenry, founded in principles of liberty, does not give up its right to determine what kind of government receives its Consent to Govern. A free citizenry respects, honors, and protects the lawful rights of others, by force of arms, if necessary, else liberty cannot be preserved for anyone.
A State government that exercises any power prohibited to it by the Constitution of the United States as amended is by definition a rogue occupation government and criminal regime. Its authority is null and void and no one is bound by any rule of law to obey its prohibited color of law”. – Donald L. Cline
WE DO NOT HAVE TO OBEY UNCONSTITUTIONAL LAWS
Supreme Court Decision – Norton v Shelby County 1886
6 Am Jur 2d, Sec 177 late 2d, Sec 256:
The general misconception is that any statute passed by legislators bearing the appearance of law constitutes the law of the land. The US. Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and any statute, to be valid, must be in agreement. It is impossible for both the Constitution and a law violating it to be valid; one must prevail. This is succinctly stated as follows:
The General rule is that an unconstitutional statute, though having the form and name of law is in reality no law, but is wholly void, and ineffective for any purpose, since unconstitutionality dates from the time of its enactment and not merely from the date of the decision so branding it. An unconstitutional law, in legal contemplation, is as inoperative as if it had never been passed. Such a statute leaves the question that it purports to settle just as it would be had the statute not been enacted. Since an unconstitutional law is void, the general principles follow that it imposes no duties, confers no rights, creates no office, bestows no power or authority on anyone, affords no protection, and justifies no acts performed under it.… A void act cannot be legally consistent with a valid one. An unconstitutional law cannot operate to supersede any existing valid law. Indeed, insofar as a statute runs counter to the fundamental law of the lend, it is superseded thereby. No one Is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and no courts are bound to enforce it. The Supreme Court’s decision is as follows; “An unconstitutional act is not law; it confers no rights; it imposes no duties; affords no protection; it creates no office; it in legal contemplation, as inoperative as though it has never been passed”. Norton vs Shelby County 1886 – 118 US 425 p.442.
“All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void”.
Marbury vs Madison, 5 US (2 Cranch) 137, 174, 176, (1803)
Thomas Jefferson: “Whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, it’s acts are authoritative, void and of no force”.
Alexander Hamilton explains unconstitutional law in Federalist No.76; “No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid. To deny this, would be to affirm, that the deputy is greater than his principal; the servant is above his master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the people themselves; that men acting by virtue of powers, may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid”.
THE 2nd AMENDMENT DOES NOT GRANT US THE RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS. THE 2nd AMENDMENT TELLS THE GOVERNMENT IT CANNOT INFRINGE ON OUR RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS – PERIOD!
Anyone who goes thru the State of Vermont’s Universal Background Check system and goes thru an FFL dealer to sell a privately owned firearm, which is private property, is like Mr. De Pino said, registering their firearms and is a fool.
“If society is honest and historically accurate, the only question that has any relevance to the gun control debate is, do you trust those in government, now and in the future, to not take your life, liberty or property thru force of government? If the answer to that question is “no”, the gun control debate is over”. Kris Ann Hall, JD
They are playing a long game. They are playing by an entirely different rule book and agenda, to which we lose, little by little every year.
We need to expose them. We need to control the narrative. We need, knowing in advance their every move, because it’s all written out for us to see and they can not veer from it….
only then will we start winning.
Once we have some small victories under our belts and citizenry gets a taste of winning it will be all over, they won’t go back.
Until then we are subject to their whims.
All thru out history the dictators of the world have taken away the guns of the people to solidify their power.
1911 – Turkey disarms its citizens. Between 1915 & 1917 1 to 1.5 million Armenians
Murdered.
1929 – Russia disarms its citizens. Between 1929 & 1953 20 million Russians murdered.
1935 – China disarms its citizens. Between 1948 & 1952 20 million Chinese murdered.
However, in China they believe it’s more like 100 million murdered.
1938 – Germany disarms its citizens. Between 1939 & 1945 over 13 million Jews and
other nationalities murdered.
1956 – Cambodia disarms its citizens. Between 1975 & 1977 1 million educated
Cambodians murdered.
1964 – Guatemala disarms its citizens. Between 1964 & 1981 100 thousand Mayan
Indians murdered.
1970 – Uganda disarms its citizens. Between 1971 & 1979 over 300 thousand
Christians murdered.
2024 – Donald Trump the dictator allows the people to keep their guns.
Adolf Hitler: “The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So, let’s not have any native militia or native police. German troops alone will bear the sole responsibility for the maintenance of law and order throughout the occupied Russian territories, and a system of military strong points must be evolved to cover the entire occupied country”. (On November 11th, 1938, Wilhelm Frick, passed Regulations Against Jews’ Weapon Possession. This regulation effectively deprived all Jews the right to possess firearms or other weapons.)
“2024 – Donald Trump the dictator allows the people to keep their guns.”
I wouldn’t go that far he backed red flag laws until he saw that it wasn’t doing him well in the poles…
Red flag laws, when PROPERLY ADJUDICATED WITH DUE PROCESS are consistent with EXISTING federal laws regarding possession of firearms by those with serious mental disorders. Law-abiding gun owners should support such statutes, as they target only to those who are an acceptable exception to the Second Amendment.
Whackos doing bad things with guns only make for more fodder for the anti-gun contingent to use against the law-abiding.
Rich while in theory we agree, in practice and from what I’ve seen out of the politicized judges these days, I trust a judge as much as I a politician in respect to whether I am “allowed” to protect myself or not.
Here we go again, another attempt to have a gun registration, so the gestapo we have in Montpelier can one day have there wish, I wish they may come to regret as
criminals don’t care about these feckless bills or demands to comply, do these so-called legislators really believe this bill will stop crime ??, Nah they just want to control gun data for later political biased nonsense ……………………..
So my question to Dick Sears, and this to is simple, with all the real issues within the state, why is this legislation front & center, if these so-called ” ghost guns ” are such a problem, then there must be a plethora of crime data from the FBI to show the issues
and Vermont must have crime data for the concern with in the state from you legislators, data something I haven’t seen or heard of, so please supply all Vermonters this data for this so-called issue.
I’ll be glad when real Vermonters take a stand and vote these inept legislators that
only know one thing………… Power, it’s either good or bad, so look at the condition of the state, are you pleased………time to wake up people.
The old adage ” When Guns Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Guns ” these legislators will regret there decisions, when they hear a sound in the middle of the night, who they going to call, they hate you ” gun owner ” law-abiding citizens and they hate the police, defunding…….. Oh well !!
Bob DePino, Thanks, maybe this article will open some eyes.
Re: I wish they may come to regret as
criminals don’t care about these feckless bills or demands to comply, do these so-called legislators really believe this bill will stop crime??
They absolutely know that these bills do not stop crime or suicide. What they really know is that if they take away our guns, especially our long guns, we no longer have the ability to resist their stripping us of the US Constitution.
Abraham Lincoln: “This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their ‘constitutional’ right of amending it or their ‘revolutionary’ right to dismember or overthrow it.”
Abraham Lincoln: “We the people are the rightful master of the congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who would pervert the Constitution”.
Abraham Lincoln: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves”.
This purposed rewriting of the law will do nothing for actual crime prevention.
In my experience in the military, federal and local law enforcement, competitive shooter, hunter and as employe in a gun shop, I cannot fathom where this will do anything but create a registration system.
See the disturbing heresy underlying this issue? We have a pervasive legislative culture that presumes elected officials can grant, restrict, define and otherwise manipulate access to citizens’ liberty. This legislative culture positions the commonweal as the manager of our God given, constitutionally protected rights. Didn’t we formulate a constitution to enshrine individual liberty and protect us from such presumptive government intrusion?
When the day comes that Vermont considers our firearms, lawfully owned and quartered, as property of the state I hope people are well stocked with accessories. Because it is clear to me that is where we are headed. For what reasons? To satisfy the liberal control standards.
“From My Cold Dead Hands”, and I mean every word of it!!!
It’s obvious that no contributors to this discussion have lost a loved one or friend to gun violence.
You’re hysterical. Did you check lost and found?
It’s obvious that John has never had a loved one or friend lost or damaged due to government violence or lawlessness.
As we now know, even the criminal misuse of a computer can result in a threat to human lives or health when a hospital system is targeted. Some people build their own computers from parts, and those computers are no more or less deadly to a cancer patient that cant get in for treatment because of a malware attack.
All due respect to those whose lives have been negatively affected by the criminal misuse or a suicide by firearm, but that is a separate argument from a situation where the Constitutional Right for the law-abiding to bear arms is being threatened. Criminals are running wild and unrestrained in Vermont and people have a reasonable right to use common and legal tools for defense of self and others. Some people like to build and customize their own firearms and want the ability to purchase the component parts, just like people who customize cars, tractors or chain saws. If you violate existing laws with a gun you bought or you built, there is no difference other than traceability. According to FBI uniform crime statistics there is no evidence of a significant level of criminal use of guns that are assembled from parts and never serialized. Most criminals who use guns are lazy and unsophisticated and procure assembled firearms on the black market, often with the serial numbers obliterated, preventing any tracing. This proposal is pure spite by partisan ideologues who get way too much largess from special interest groups.
You have not heard about the bill that outlaws files ? 🙂
No, but we lost our son to fentanyl. What politicians are trying to stop that? What about knife violence or blunt force trauma violence or poisoning violence, strangulation violence. It does not matter what tool is used by a human being to commit violence. Just like the Volsted Act did nothing to prevent alcoholism or drunk driving.