By Michael Bielawski
The Vermont Federation of Sportmen’s Clubs has announced they are suing the state over two laws that limit magazine capacity and waiting periods to buy a gun.
“Today, with the support of the Gun Owners of Vermont, several Vermont manufacturers, its member clubs, and the many thousands of individual members, the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs (VTFSC) joined a group of Vermont citizens and sporting goods stores in filing a federal lawsuit challenging Vermont’s 72-hour waiting period law and its ban on standard capacity firearm magazines that are commonly owned in Vermont and across the nation,” the organization’s press release states.
Chris Bradley, President and Executive Director of the VTFSC is quoted stating, “The Supreme Court made it clear that governments may not impose arbitrary and pointless restrictions like Vermont’s waiting period and its ban on commonly-owned, standard-capacity magazines. These restrictions unconstitutionally infringe on Vermonters’ fundamental right to self-defense and must be struck down.”
The organization’s lawyer Brady Toensing spoke with VDC on Tuesday morning.
“Bruen [Bruen v. New York, 2022] made clear that 2nd Amendment rights are to be protected just like every other fundamental Constitutional right,” Toensing said. “It put an end to interest balancing when it comes to those rights. That balancing occurred at the time the 2nd was enacted, and it elevated above all other interests the right of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves.”
Magazine capacity limits
The law concerning the magazine limits is Act 94 which limits just 10 rounds to a magazine for rifles and 15 for a handgun. It became law in 2018.
At the time Darin Goens was a certified handgun trainer and NRA’s liaison to Vermont, and he spoke with TrueNorthReports.com.
“This law would tip the scale in favor of criminals,” Goens said. “Basically, there are various scenarios where you are at a severe disadvantage — for example, what if three armed assailants break into your house and you are stuck with a ten-round magazine?”
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The waiting period
The waiting provision was one of three pieces to a bill that Republican Gov. Phil Scott allowed to become law without his signature. His rationale seemed to be that he supported the other provisions, one concerning gun storage requirements and the other dealing with expanding who can petition a court for an extreme risk protection order.
Scott did not feel good about the 72-hour wait period because he said it may infringe on Constitutional rights.
“Given the relatively new legal landscape we find ourselves in following recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, I have significant concerns about the provision’s constitutionality,” he wrote in a statement. “My struggle with the overall bill lies in the fact that I, and all legislators, took an oath to ‘not do any act or thing injurious to the constitution.’”
The logic by proponents of the bill is that it will give people time to think about their gun purchase before potentially using it against anyone else or themselves. Toensing noted that there are no provisions in this bill to make exceptions for someone who already has a gun, meaning for many the wait period wouldn’t help for this purpose.
He also noted that there are no provisions for someone who is in a dangerous situation and needs the gun immediately for protection.
Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth recently told VtDigger.com that he is frustrated with those who have the notion that these gun laws are arbitrary.
“If anything is arbitrary, it’s the paranoid fantasy that if you leave your house and go to the grocery store, you’re going to be murdered unless you yourself are packing heat in your belt,” he said.
The author is a reporter for the Vermont Daily Chronicle
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Categories: Gunrights, Uncategorized
Thank you Chris Bradley, the VTFSC, and the rest of the people involved in the righteous success in defense of our rights as a free people !
They tired a waiting period years ago and it was ineffective at doing anything but punish law abiding citizens. Mental illness is the number 1 problem in the country today imo but they do little to anything to address it.
“Mental illness is the number 1 problem in the country today imo but they do little to anything to address it.” Do you suppose it’s because politicians do not want to lose such a big voting block as the “mentally ill” ?
It is obvious that one major party absolutely relies on the seriously mentally ill as it’s voter base. Most of these individuals harbor a deep seated delusional disorder.
The magazine limits also make it impossible for someone to attend training is say, neighboring New Hampshire where certain elements of training can and do include 17 to 28 rounds in a magazine. Most sessions do not require that many rounds, but some do, like taking an FBI qualification test.
So far, the magazine limit is only for purchase and not possession. Since there is no date stamp typically on magazines, there is no way to know whether an offending-capacity magazine was owned prior to the ban date or whether purchased out of state. The whole point of this sloppy statute is to provide avenues for selective enforcement. To my knowledge, the only person prosecuted for this was Max Misch of the Bennington area who openly admitted he purchased offending-sized magazines in New Hampshire, to make a point I guess…and he was a big political target due to his alleged hate-group associations…so prosecutors went after him as a poster child of the typical Vermont gun owner.
The other sloppy aspect to this law is that there are rifles/carbines and pistols that use interchangeable mags, so the different capacity limit for each is meaningless.
Just more sloppy, essentially unenforceable law coming out of the Montpelier democrat machine.
$1000 pledge if they win the case. They should also sue for civil damages after they win, and use that funding for future court cases. I’m not sure why the gun groups rarely sue for funding.
Donations are needed now, and while nothing is guaranteed, when we win (not “if”), we will most assuredly request that we be compensated for our legal costs. There are other existing laws to challenge and more being considered.
If there is anything unfortunate in our action, it is that any monies paid back to us will come from Vermonters, all because a majority of our Legislators do not understand the Constitution, and they will therefore willingly break their oath of office.
Thanks Chris. Being compensated for court costs is much different than a civil lawsuit case (42 U.S. Code § 1983). States get sued constantly for 1st amendment violations related to poor legislation. I’m not sure why there isn’t more for 2nd amendment and related violations. For example, someone sued for $280,000 for an 80-minute unlawful detainment. The parallel would be, how many folks had to spend 80-minutes and resources with this waiting period? Doing the math, it sounds like we should be able to easily bankrupt Vermont and invest that money into liberty. It’s the only way they will learn their lesson other than getting a DA in that will arrests these criminals.
Also – The waiting period is causing an increase in usage of carbon emissions, having to travel twice as much. Don’t they already have a law to sue for government increasing carbon usage?
Absolutely an infringement !
if i already own a gun and pass the back round check why is there a waiting period and also why can i not buy a gun from anybody after the back round check//// sick of wasting my time and money dealing with mind less idiots////
Fortunately there is no official database as to who already owns weapons, and that is a GOOD thing.
Actually dealers are required to keep records for as long as they are in business, which the ATFE can look at anytime they want . If you are a licensed dealer, and they can come a knockin at 2AM and want to check your records, you have to let them in to inspect your records. NICS records are supposed to only be held by the Feds for a set time, and then disposed of but …..
You Think there is no database I wouldn’t bet the farm on it
I did suggest there is no “official” database. The kind Baruth dreams of requires registration of all owners and individual weapons, and is necessary in order to enforce “universal background checks”.
Thank you, Chris Bradley, for pursuing this liberal nonsense, hopefully all the Vermont gun owners will support the (VTFSC) with donations to fund all the legal expenses.
We all know too well, about all the rabid anti-gunners we have running loose in the state house funded by outside money, and we also know they are carpetbaggers.
Vermont gun owners better wake up, your rights and heritage mean nothing to the
these anti-gunners in the state house !!
Thanks again Chris.
You know what’s not arbitrary, Phil Baruth?
The absolute right to personal self defense.
It’s even more important now that good folks like Phil Baruth insist upon inviting drugs, gangs, turf wars and escalating violent crime into Vermont. It’s simply not a fantasy to be forced to defend yourself or your property. But perhaps more importantly, I’d also like to be able to defend myself from the likes of Phil Baruth. Don’t forget that these people locked us down for two years over a virus with a 99.8% survival rate with not just a little bit of glee. They think Jan 6 was “treason,” after they stole the vote. There’s a reason they want to disarm law abiding folks while letting violent criminals go free, and it isn’t particularly nice.
Phil Scott:
“Given the relatively new legal landscape we find ourselves in following recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, I have significant concerns about the provision’s constitutionality,” he wrote in a statement. “My struggle with the overall bill lies in the fact that I, and all legislators, took an oath to ‘not do any act or thing injurious to the constitution.’”
…and then, he purposely allowed it.
I am still grateful to have him in office as opposed to say, Gov. Baruth, Gov. LeLonde or Gov. Weinberger…
Well ok, but what is he doing for the long-term political and economic health of the state? He’s a one-man-band looking out for nothing but his own selfish interests.
We might be glad for him in the short term (if only because the Progressive alternative is unimaginable), but he is a long-term disaster for Vermont due to the atrophy in the Republican party that he is directly responsible for.
Both magazine restrictions and the waiting period are nonsensical laws. The magazine size restriction makes our ignorant legislators feel “safer” while putting the law abiding gun owners at a disadvantage if they were in a situation requiring firepower. As for the waiting period, again it makes no sense. As some have pointed out, if someone already owns a gun, what is a waiting period to buy another one supposed to accomplish? As for novice gun purchasers, do you really think this is going to cut down on suicides, the stated rationale? So many ways to kill oneself if so inclined. Far easier to just procure some fentanyl in any of our fair cities.
Those who crafted and approved these laws know full well that they wil heve no effct on reducing crime or suicide. They enacted them in order to hassle and vilify all law abiding gun owners because they knew they could get away with it. They will continue to attempt to pass more restrictions because a majority of Vermont voters are now imbeciles.
hey hey pfizer phil how many vermonters did you kill///lockdowns///and the bodies keep piling up/// covid 19 kill shots/// bloodclots///heart attacks///death rates are way up///see life insurance data
I insist on my right to stockpile as many firearms and explosive weapons as I deem necessary.
Paranoid Fantasies?
How can Phil Baruth be so clueless, so obtuse?
Reminds me of Nancy Pelosi – minus the injections.
I’m not so sure he doesn’t have injections…
Kudos to the VTTSC and gun lobbyist Chris Bradley for suing the state of Vermont for restrictions on one right to self-defense. I suggest we push harder. The U.S. Army has a variety of machine guns that every re-blooded American should have access to in order to fell safe in their private fortress.