The United States Attorney’s Office for Vermont has announced a three-part campaign to promote safe gun storage in Vermont.
The campaign consists of a public service announcement (PSA) aimed at encouraging gun owners to safely store weapons, as well as distribution of free cable gun locks to facilitate safe gun storage, and promotion of the Vermont State Police’s partnership with federal firearms licensees (FFL) around the state providing for temporary, off-site storage for firearms that cannot be maintained safely at home. All of the relevant information related to this safe storage initiative, including the locations to pick up free cable gun locks, the Vermont State Police/FFL website, and links to the PSA, is compiled on a new website – http://www.gunsafevt.org.
This gun safe storage initiative is the result of collaboration among many partners, including the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont, the UVM Medical Center, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Vermont State Police, the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, the Vermont Sheriffs’ Association, the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Vermont’s Office of the Director of Violence Prevention.
U.S. Attorney Nikolas P. Kerest thanked all of the initiative partners for their important contributions and also stated, “Storing guns securely protects children and adults by preventing unintentional shootings, gun suicides, gun thefts, and criminal discharges of firearms. Our slogan ‘Keep your gun safe. Keep your people safe,’ and this initiative, are designed to raise awareness and promote responsible gun storage and ownership. If guns are stored safely, we can help prevent personal crises from escalating to include gun violence.”
Categories: Gunrights
Most gun owners have safe storage. This is a choice. With zero children in a household, gun owners may make other personal choices.
“If guns are stored safely, we can help prevent personal crises from escalating to include gun violence.”
It can also help prevent you from defending yourself against a home invader, depending on how onerous the “safe storage,” is. One of the current proposed bills requires that guns be stored in a locked safe and ammo be stored elsewhere. This takes valuable minutes when seconds matter, or you might just be in the wrong room entirely. It’s like saying you can carry concealed, but the gun has to have a trigger lock on it. It’s effectively disarming you. It’s not actually safe.
As for the “personal crisis,” portion, well, crazy also goes for kitchen knives. I just avoid people who might have this kind of “personal crisis.” You should too.
I generally have a problem with laws that interfere with access to a Constitutionally guaranteed freedom with the intent of suicide prevention when the State of Vermont has a statutory allowance for an individual to take their own life. If someone chooses to do so, it is not the state’s or the fed’s business to tell you how to do it or to make it less convenient or effective. Our US Attorney is well intentioned but should instead be spending his time prosecuting real crimes, especially those involving the ILLEGAL use of guns by criminals against the innocent.
Agreed. People don’t spontaneously commit suicide by firearm. They think about it for a very long time. A lock or a safe isn’t going to make a difference. Children in the house might be the one valid reason here, but many folks do actually choose to educate and discipline their children. All a mandated storage law would really do is potentially disarm law abiding citizens, and give the state another reason to prosecute victims of violent crime who dare to defend themselves from the criminals that leftists continually set free out of insane woke guilt or worse, for the sake of communist anarcho-tyranny with totalitarian political aims.
Spontaneous. Not spurious. That was quite an autocorrect. LOL.
Safe storage of firearms is a good idea in appropriate places and situations as long as it is VOLUNTARY. There are many dangerous items and tools around the house that are NOT required to be secured, the most dangerous being an automobile, because most folks just hang their keys by the door. The definition of “secure” has changes recently since we have all been led to believe that keeping something in a locked garage, next to the old Corvette is now considered “locked up”. That being the case, the lock on one’s door to their dwelling should suffice as secure storage for a firearm if there are no small children in the home. As far as the availability of cable locks or trigger locks to disable a firearm, one generally comes included when purchasing a firearm in VT.
My children are 9 and 12. I raised them to never touch my firearms without me and without asking me first. I let them touch or use them under my direct supervision whenever they ask. I also made them both take a hunter’s safety course, much of which involves firearm saftey. They are capable of using or safely loading/unloading any action weapon including pistols. One hunts one doesn’t but if put in an unsafe situation, say at a friend’s house when i cant be there and someone decides to play with a gun, they are armed with the skills and ability to access and address the situation. I have a safe at home but keep several guns in more readily accessible locations for worst case scenario. If other children come to my home i make sure the weapons are inaccessible for them. Lets be honest, no one is stopping a burglary or worse with a weapon thats double locked in a safe. Its up to families to ensure whether or not their homes are safe, not government legislation.
The front door on my house makes my Gun Storage safe. Incapacitating law abiding Americans with ever more restrictive rules, guidelines or whatever linguistics you choose will never affect a criminal in any manner.
How about you stay the hell out of our lives and actually hold criminals responsible for their crimes ? As the Federal Prosecutor for VT I can imagine how proud you must be for what Sarah George and the liberal Judge did this week by releasing a criminal who violated multiple laws in the commission of the attempted murder of his Brother.
But hey, who cares about actually doing your job when the marxists in the Legislature and the injustice system back you and your fear filled agenda ?
Here’s a state that gets it. North Carolina cancels gun buy back as ineffectual and supports treating criminals as criminals.
https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2023/02/17/gun-buyback-cancelled-after-effectiveness-questioned-n67491
Same thing as safe storage. It’s none of the governments business what happens inside our homes and how we decide to defend our families and ourselves. Legislating does not stop ignorant people from hurting themselves or others. If it did there would be no murders, rapes, drugs or anything you can think of. Personal responsibility is the answer. You mess up, you pay the consequences. That’s life and human nature. It can’t be fixed with feel good suggestions or laws.
Since some federal prosecutors may read this article and comments, I have a question. I have constitutional rights in all states without question. Why is it that I can be arrested for carrying a handgun in one state without a permit to carry, but my state says I’m legal under the US constitution which is the supreme law of the land, and which is supported by Article 16 of the Vermont constitution? The tenth amendment only applies to those issues not listed in the body of the constitution. Yet, some states allow and honor driver’s licenses, marriage licenses and other privileges but they are allowed to violate the 2nd amendment listed in the Bill of rights.
Error, actually all states honor driver’s licenses, marriage licenses, vehicle registration and other privileges, but they violate the rights outlined in the 2nd amendment. How is this not unconstitutional?
In 2021 USAO Kerest’s office Dismissed federal gun charges against convicted felon Christopher Mesick- who just last week murdered a Vermonter.
These prosecutors want to disarm the population while simultaneously releasing violent deranged criminals free and loose on our communities .
Fight Back!
The way to fight back as far as having a competent US Attorney is to elect a President who will appoint one. We instead chose to elect a senile, partisan, career politician who stripped us of our very competent US Attorney, Christina Nolan. Way to go voters…
Thank you for paying attention urorwellianlife. The agenda never includes doing their job. Just keep making it more difficult for law abiding Americans.
Ironically, if any of these State or Federal Attorneys actually did their job the criminals wouldn’t get multiple opportunities to injure and kill Americans.
Must be they skipped that Class.
Growing up in the sixties and seventies, we knew where our father’s guns and ammo were, they were not loaded, but we had access. We also knew under no uncertain terms NOT to touch them unless we had direct permission to do so. Fast forward to my kids growing up, they knew where my guns and ammo were, they also knew NOT to touch them without direct permission. They also knew how to assess a firearm to determine it loaded/unloaded status, knew proper gun handling and usage…and eventually had their own. My grandkids know NOT to touch weapons without permission, when they were little I put them safely away when they were here, no longer necessary. The recurrent pattern here is respect for authority, training and earned trust, all of this starts at home and when done correctly expands into the greater society. No need for govt authority to dictate policy and sad that they need to instruct anyone regarding it.
Reading the news would indicate that owning a boat and/or fishing pole is more dangerous than owning an unfettered gun…..