Commentary

Grok: Amid rising homicides, Vermont says its Red Flag Law is model for the nation

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Gov Phill Scott - Gov Page Screen Grab

by Steve MacDonald, www.GraniteGrok.com

Vermont has a Democrat majority legislature and a governor who, while registered as a Republican, could use some basic instruction on what that means. As proof, he has just come out and touted his state’s red flag law as a s model for America.

The red flag law passed by the state Legislature five years ago allows a judge to temporarily remove a gun from a person who is believed to pose a danger to themselves or others.

Scott says he’s not certain that such a law would have prevented the recent mass shooting in Maine, which does not have its own red flag law. But he says he supports the passage of a national version.

“We’re ahead of many states in terms of what we did back in 2018, but I think it’s time for this to be a national conversation with other states on another level and to adopt some of the red flag laws that we’ve gone ahead with,” Scott says.

Vermont has experienced record numbers of homicides in recent years. In October of 2023, they had 8 of them. In 2022, there were twenty-five, and this year could match that, three times the number in 2021.

I don’t suppose that is the law’s fault, and if we are honest, that was never the intention. Job one was to set a precedent for abrogating due process rights. Red Flag laws do that, and it is the only reason Democrats advance them with an understanding that at least a few who favor the political Left have no idea that this is the point.

Once you have justified denying due process rights for any reason, you can expand that infringement—incrementalism with the goal of making the people servants of the government’s will.

We have a similar tactic from the Left here in New Hampshire. Democrats pretend to be concerned about high property taxes. Yes, they are high, but that keeps the total tax burden low. The Granite State consistently has one of the lowest real tax burdens in the country. Our Dems decry high property taxes to justify a new or expanded state-level executive branch office of taxation. Once in place, this mechanism can grow to collect broad-based taxes anywhere, everywhere, and as often as the Governor or Legislature can imagine.

Democrats never lower spending. Taxes can only go up, so any exhortation to the contrary is a bald-faced lie.

The idea that red flag laws will lower violent crime or gun crime is also a lie, but it gets repeated without regard for anything approaching the truth. But everywhere they are implemented, the only thing that disappears is natural rights. Crime and violent death always rise.

Vermont is – if anything – a model for that.

The author is editor of Granite Grok, a New Hampshire news and commentary website.

Categories: Commentary, Gunrights

9 replies »

  1. Here Here.

    “a governor who, while registered as a Republican, could use some basic instruction on what that means. ” – Thanks for the chuckle.

    Last night I looked up the number of murders by gun in NYC (138 on average, but a serious spike in 2020 to 208 and a record in 2021 of 215) and also the use of red flag laws there. It turns out that in 2021 they used the law 538 times. They used it 4257 times last year, and have used it ~9000 times this year (the source on this wasn’t the greatest, but I did find that by April they had used it ~2700 times so it checks out). Did gun deaths go down yes, by how much you ask, 36% of 173 people. That’s a total of ~62 people have been saved at the cost of ~9000 people who are no longer allowed to protect themselves and instead must rely on the government for protection. A government who’s average response time to critical calls is almost 10 minutes.

    Another thing we need to understand is that the number of gun deaths nationally were the highest ever recorded, and nationally since the pandemic the numbers have gone down anyways so is it due to stripping the rights of citizens to protect themselves or not locking them in their houses and taking their jobs away?

    https://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/GIVE%20Monthly.pdf
    https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/18/red-flag-law-cases-soar-new-york-00097405
    https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/26/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/ (I hate to use PEW but the numbers were easiest to grab there and likely they are slanted to increase gun control)

    Of course meanwhile in VT’s with their great red flag laws the opposite is happening:

    “Vermont has experienced record numbers of homicides in recent years. In October of 2023, they had 8 of them. In 2022, there were twenty-five, and this year could match that, three times the number in 2021.”

    • I’m wondering how the red flag law applies in practice to out of state drug runners and gang members who, by most accounts, are implicated in the homicides.

      • It doesn’t because by nature red flag laws only remove rights from those who follow the laws in the first place.

  2. Due process ? The Constitution is looking more and more like a block of Swiss Cheese.

  3. We already have federal laws on the books prohibiting purchase or possession by persons adjudicated as a danger to themself or others or have a felony conviction. If a current gun owner crosses that line, it makes sense to retroactively apply the prohibition, AS LONG AS CREDIBLE DUE PROCESS OF LAW IS OBSERVED. These laws have been abused by false claims as a way of swatting some for personal reasons. The laws need to be structured so that ANYONE who falsely accuses someone of being eligible for confiscation should be severely punished.
    I defend our Governor in most cases because I consider the alternatives:
    Gov. Baruth, Gov. Balint, Gov. Sanders, Gov. LaLalonde etc. Scared now?

  4. It is to remove guns from citizens any way you can stealing peoples constitutional rights. Wake up.

  7. “We’re ahead of many states in terms of what we did back in 2018…” You got that partially correct Governor Empty Suit. We are way ahead in child poverty, drug issues, mental health issues, general health issues, economic non-growth, highest taxes, lowest wages, homelessness, etc. etc. per capita of roughly 645,000 residents. Ready to see you and your brotheren Legislature take your victory laps right into the abyss from which you came.