Gun Control Questions – Each legislative session brings the imposition of new gun laws on Vermonters, and with those laws the incremental erosion of our rights under the Second Amendment.  

The logic for these new laws always seems to be the same: it’s the gun’s fault. Therefore, the latest round of gun laws from Montpelier, together with current news brought to mind the following questions.

If a Vermont judge releases two men arrested for trafficking fentanyl and cocaine, one man on no bail and the other on almost no bail, and one goes on to shoot a pregnant auto parts clerk and the other murders a grocery store clerk, is it still the gun’s fault?

If an illegal immigrant who was deported four times enters the country illegally yet again, and then murders five of his neighbors because they asked him to stop firing his rifle, is it still the gun’s fault?

If a certain president’s son lies on his gun purchase application, illegally obtains a gun, and faces no legal consequence, is it still the gun’s fault?  

If crime committed with guns can be traced directly to a legal system prioritizing leniency for law breakers over the safety of the public, is it still the gun’s fault?

Answers from any legislator reading this are welcome. – Robert Rich, South Burlington

Negativity or Principle? It has been reported to me among strong support that some feel I am negative. Negative is defined as “marked by the absence, withholding or removal of something positive.” I will remind all, that my reports are from actual reports from the House floor and Committee, so if there is negativity, it comes from the Democratic/Progressive majority who are spending taxpayer money, thinking themselves so helpful and wonderful, but the end game is overburdensome taxes, fees, regulations, programs which are obviously unsustainable; hurting the poor, elderly, low income, the retired on fixed incomes and small businesses. The ruling majority are the ones negatively affecting our lives.

It would be very easy to go along with the majority and what is popular. It is another thing to inform first hand to hopefully save what is good and needs little changing. The new “reset” comes with negative impact on “We the People” that have no say. I represent those who cherish Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. I put my life on hold, in order to stand up to the tyranny of the Left on Socialism. In the House of Representatives, I have been told we are to work things out by crossing over Party lines. Not in this Vermont Legislature; not one amendment or Republican Conservative bill is brought up or gone through because the ruling Parties are negative to the core, or against common sense free speech!

School children are used like “carrots before a donkey,” to lead them to the Left’s propaganda. An example would be from a school child who comes and tells their parents that they must sell their cows because they are polluting the planet. There have been large protests at the State House chanting “FOSSIL FUELS MUST GO!” Is this worth teaching children? I think not.

Are we to believe our governments and special interest groups, for their own gain, can stop all gas, diesel, coal, etc. and change everything to electric with no real plan or doing anything about pollution and not considering at all the cost to electrify Vermont? Just sell propaganda and tax the people …and this will all fail and the Left will be caught in their own web!

In the 1950’s, prayer was taken out of schools. In the 1960’s the Supreme Court said “they knew pornography when they saw it but they can’t define it.” Education, in many schools, is stealing our children. In the 2020’s, Vermont is one of the least churched states in the U.S.A. Is it any wonder that in 2023, the Left tries to cure everything with money and leaves all, decent morals go down the drain? Good is bad and bad is good. Vermont is small and easy to manipulate. No small wonder how we got here. I am so tired of all those who say they love Vermont and then proceed to change everything.

I live for the days…and they will come, when all that is good will be restored and there will be no more intentional division. Our Constitution is to protect” We the People” from tyranny in Government…and lawlessness. – Rep. Charles Wilson, Lyndon

The election manipulation has begun anew. I suggest we all start chronicling it and calling it out. I’ll begin with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and ABC News. 

The DNC has decided not to host primary debates this election cycle. They would have you believe that no one has stepped up to challenge the now obviously cognitively-challenged Joe Biden. But, 2 people with brains have indeed tossed their hats into the ring: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Marianne Williamson. 

I don’t know how anyone could argue with a single word of Bobby Kennedy’s 2-hour-long announcement speech. And I don’t know how it has been possible to have decades-long conversations on healthcare in this country without a single person asking the fundamental question: “Why are so many people sick?” I nearly fell out of my seat, when I finally heard Marianne Williamson ask that question in a highly public setting, in one of the primary debates, last election cycle. When you ask that question, the answer is unlikely to be a convoluted insurance scheme. 

Then, ABC News recently interviewed Bobby Kennedy and admitted that they had edited his remarks, cutting everything that they didn’t agree with—which is apparently against federal law. Kennedy responded that 47 USC 315 makes it illegal for TV networks to censor Presidential candidates. He’s a talented lawyer. I wonder if he’ll sue or seek an indictment against the news organization. 

Meanwhile, Joe Biden, in a room full of kids recently, had to be told by one of them that he had just gotten back from Ireland, when he couldn’t remember, following a question from another. And, at a football event, at which he was going to be presented with a ball, a helmet, and a jersey, he apparently grabbed the jersey and just started walking away through the crowd. I wonder who is really running the show in Washington. Who is our puppetmaster? I’ve said before that I think it might be the unelected Victoria Nuland.

Is the Democratic Party really going to spend a year and a half cheerleading for a man who is clearly cognitively impaired? And self-destruct in the process? While ignoring a candidate—RFK, Jr.—who could breathe new life into a party that has become incomprehensible and irrelevant for many of us? Either way, I’ll be partying like it’s 1999. I’d love to see RFK, Jr., on the ticket. And I’d love to watch the Democratic party self-destruct. In fact, if it came down to Trump and Biden, as much as I dislike Trump, I’d contemplate voting for the man.  That’s how disconnected I’ve become from the Democratic party. Trump was right about quite a lot of the fake news, and I appreciate his abhorrence of war and body bags. There’s a slim possibility that he learned something from his first term in the White House. There appears to be no chance of that for Biden. – Jacqueline Brook, Putney