by Guy Page
The Vermont Senate, under the President Pro Tem leadership of gun-control advocate Phil Baruth (D-Chittenden), in the first week of the session has introduced a gun control bill aimed at reducing violent crime by youth.
S4, sponsored by Judiciary Chair Phil Richard Sears (D-Bennington), Baruth, and Brian Campion (D-Bennington), is billed as “An act relating to reducing crimes of violence associated with juveniles and dangerous weapons.” The bill is not only a gun control bill: for example, it would try in criminal court all persons age 14-21 “charged with human trafficking, trafficking a regulated drug, or carrying a dangerous weapon while committing a felony.” It also would “prohibit a dwelling or building owner from knowingly or recklessly permitting the premises to be used for human trafficking, selling or dispensing a regulated drug, or carrying a dangerous weapon while committing a felony.” And it would provide grant funding to communities suffering from high rates of youth violence.
The bill’s gun control measures, however, are detailed and precise, prohibiting:
- possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number;
- straw purchases of firearms;
- possession of firearms by fugitives from justice;
- possession of semiautomatic assault weapons by persons under 21 years of age.
The bill also would make juvenile case records and files available to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System for purposes of conducting a background check when a person under 21 years of age purchases a firearm.
The list below comprises all bills introduced into the 2023-24 Vermont Senate as of 10 AM Monday, January 19. The entries for the last two categories are subjective judgments made by Vermont Daily Chronicle and are based mostly on the subject matter, influence and committee status of the sponsor(s), and public response to date.
This information is also available copyright-free in Google Doc format. For more information, go to http://www.legislature.vermont.gov. If you appreciate the service provided by this document, Vermont Daily Chronicle is completely reliant on reader support and advertising and welcomes non-deductible contributions. Checks may be sent to VDC, P.O. Box 1547, Montpelier, Vermont, 05601. Contribute via PayPal here.
| Bill # | Introduced | Title | Lead Sponsor | Sponsor party | Committee | Likely to proceed? | High public interest? |
| S.1 | 1/6/2023 | Act 250 and aircraft hangars | Sears | Democrat | Natural Resources | Yes | Yes |
| S.2 | 1/6/2023 | Payment, case management for developmental disability services | Lyons | Democrat | Health & Welfare | Yes | ? |
| S.3 | 1/6/2023 | prohibiting paramilitary training camps | Baruth | Democrat | Judiciary | Yes | Yes |
| S.4 | 1/6/2023 | Violent crime reduction for juveniles through gun control | Sears | Democrat | Judiciary | Yes | Yes |
| S.5 | 1/6/2023 | Affordable Heat Act mandate | Bray | Democrat | Natural Resources | Yes | Yes |
| S.6 | 1/6/2023 | Police interrogation of juveniles | Sears | Democrat | Judiciary | Yes | Yes |
| S.7 | 1/6/2023 | Public defender expanded access | Hashim | Democrat | Judiciary | Yes | ? |
| S.8 | 1/6/2023 | appointing counsel for person found incompetent | Hashim | Democrat | Judiciary | Yes | ? |
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Categories: Legislation
Surely, the “paramilitary training camp,” ban is unconstitutional by both state and federal standards. How else is the militia, consisting of every able bodied male, supposed to maintain a state of being well regulated? (i.e. in good working order.) We should be getting together as private citizens and practicing, that’s how.
I agree how can I join and participate?
All civil defense and paramilitary training will now be replaced with drag queen story hour…
Ah, yes… the usual gun control by idiots who know nothing about the subject…THE FIRST 3 ARE ALREADY AGAINST THE LAW, PHIL!! And are you planning on arresting all our 18-21 yr old National Guardsmen? Or Regular Army Troops on their way to Camp Drum? What an absolute moron this guy is.
All of them are against the law. The Bruen decision says they must put guns into their historical context when passing new gun laws. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/judge-rules-federal-law-banning-guns-with-serial-numbers-removed-is-unconstitutional/ar-AA12Wv0x
They only required serial numbers on guns since October 1968.
https://www.quora.com/What-year-did-serial-numbers-on-firearms-become-required?share=1
The trash reigning in Montpelier don’t care if what they propose is unlawful or unconstitutional. We are not talking about rational people here. What they do know is that it is expensive to take a case to the SCOTUS and that they have all the taxpayer money they can suck out of us to pay the greedy lawyers and we have to crowd fund to do the right thing. How many Vermonters are willing to pay for the fight? Why do so many in Vermont continue to vote for trash communists like Bernie Sanders and spineless rinos like Phil Scott? Why is Baruth still in office (election fraud?)? Vermont is the most apathetic state in the Union.
Who’s going to enforce this? It’s time for our county sheriffs to just say no.
If you still have enough county sheriffs to uphold anything. Orange County has had about half resign because the suprise newly elected sheriff plans to make his job half time and be a snowbird the other half of the year.
So these commies want to outlaw people being trained to defend their own homes… We once had a revolution to get rid of people like this.
The firearms laws on s4 are already on the books except for the under 21 ban
a well regulated militaria is part of the 2nd amendment so this is idiotic. But what else would you expect from montpellier.
Let’s work on gun control for Vermonters but allow illegals to carry switchblades. Vermont legislators don’t make any sense.
We can only pray that the “Affordable Heat Act” doesn’t do for heat what the “Affordable Care Act” did for healthcare.
Democrats at their finest, more useless laws. When is Vermont going to wake up to this idiotic garbage.
WOW I’m sure all the criminals are trembling in their Air Jordan’s about now
There’s more to this “…paramilitary training camp…” than trying to give a definition to what constitutes such a paramilitary training camp. It’s a gun control bill to be sure. But it is also a step towards increased regulations and controls, or the out right banning, of Rod and Gun Clubs, Shooting Clubs, Skeet Ranges, and perhaps most importantly, the private ranges of hundreds of Vermonters fortunate enough to have the space and land for a home range.
In example, I cite the 2021-2022 furor over the “Slate Ridge Range” in Pawlet, Vt:
The owner of Slate Ridge, an unpermitted firing range in Pawlet, was facing jail time and tens of thousands of dollars in fines, if he wouldn’t allow town officials to visit the property within a certain 30 days period, to see if his site was in compliance with town zoning regulations, and later orders from the state Environmental Court.
There are probably thousands of such ranges in hundreds of towns throughout Vermont. Given that there are an increasing number of town councils, boards of aldermen, and select boards with an increasing number of progressive, liberal, anti-gun representatives, more restrictions are just waiting to be enacted. With state laws such as will probably be noted in senator Baruth’s bill S.3 and maybe Sears’ S.4, and eagerly enforced by a very left leaning Environmental Court, liberal cities and towns are just waiting for these severe laws to be passed so they can enact their own regulations and restriction.
Pay attention,people.
Stopping paramilitary training really has nothing to do with Baruth’s bill, it’s about gun control by eliminating land to shoot on, via city and town zoning laws, regulations requiring expensive insurance if you do have the right space, heavy fees to use your own land, and costly legal defense if somebody files a noise complaint against the land owner. The only people hurt with type of legislation are law abiding Vermonters.
Vermonters deserve much better representatives than Baruth, and those like him…
Some cheese to go with the whine? The time to stop this was when these fools were up for election.
The gun control bill would also codify the term “assault weapon” into Vermont law for the first time: Philip Baruth ‘s unholy grail. That’s the real purpose, this must be stopped. Combine this with seeking to repeal the preemption statute, next step is municipal AWBs.
Needs to be disobeyed.
An “assault” weapon? Show one of these to a marine and they would laugh in your face.
Ignorance is bliss right?
Hey Phil!
S Burly PD had ABDIKADIR IN CUSTODY on a stolen firearm charge and was released on “conditions” THREE DAYS before he murdered MUBARAK. So how did he obtain the firearm he blew all of MUBARAK’s brains all over my porch with? Did he-
A) Get the gun back from SBPD when he was released on “conditions”? Prob not likely
B) Go to Powderhorn and legally purchase a firearm? Nope.
C) STOLE ANOTHER FIREARM FROM A VEHICLE LIKE THEY ALL DO.
So as you may be expecting, let me ask you- which of your “solutions” will actually address the problem and not just further restrict the ALREADY LAW-ABIDING? (Hint: That last one is rhetorical, since you and every other lib clearly struggle with cause and effect relationships).
I was already trained by the United States Military, Thank You.
Patrick Henry: “Our militia is our ultimate safety. We can have no security without it. The great object is that every man be armed”.
George Mason: “I ask sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few public officials”.
I WILL NOT OBEY!
I WILL NOT COMPLY!
The 2nd Amendment does not grant us the right to keep and bear arms. The 2nd Amendment denies the government the authority to infringe upon our right to keep and bear arms -Period. THEREFORE, ALL GUN CONTROL UNDER THE CONSTITUTION IS ILLEGAL! Government does not give us our rights. Our rights are not given to us by the Constitution. Our rights are given to us by God and are inherent to us as human beings and by the Laws of Nature. These rights that we are born with are affirmed to us by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments of the Constitution and specify what the government can and cannot do to us as citizens of the United States. Government’s only power is the power which is enumerated to it by the Constitution. The federal government, a state, county or town can not pass a law contrary to the Constitution. Article 6 the Supremacy Clause makes the Constitution the supreme law of the land. Under our Constitution the government is not delegated the authority to legislate, enforce, or adjudicate laws pertaining to the exercise of our rights under the Constitution. 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. The government is not delegated the authority by our Constitution to compel us to waive our 10th Amendment right to a federal government exercising only those powers delegated to it by the United States Constitution, and State governments are prohibited the exercise of any power prohibited to the States by the United States Constitution.
The government is not delegated the authority under the 14th Amendment to make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States. Government is not delegated by our Constitution the authority to license firearm dealers or operate or fund the most powerful anti-rights government agency on the planet called the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Since no Amendment in the Bill of Rights has been repealed thru Article V or by a National Convention of States, the only legal way to change the Constitution, all existing gun control laws presently violate five Amendments of the Bill of Rights and goes against the settled law of two Supreme Court decisions, Heller vs the District of Columbia 2008 and McDonald vs Chicago 2010. Both decisions affirm that the people’s right to keep and bear arms is an individual right and that citizens are allowed firearms in common use, those small arms or those that operate like them and are issued to our National Guard which comprises of citizen soldiers.
The purpose of compelled background checks as a precondition to allowing or denying the transfer of a firearm is to deceive firearm owners and prospective owners into unknowingly waiving their rights guaranteed by the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 10th and 14th Amendments so they will have no rights left to claim when the government decides to register and confiscate our firearms. We have a right to keep and bear arms, not a privilege to keep and bear arms. Our rights are beyond the reach of the government and no citizen has to ask government permission to exercise a right. Government has no authority delegated to it by the Constitution to deceive its citizens into waiving their rights or acquiescing to the loss of their rights by subterfuge, scam, fraud, or force. DO NOT VOLUNTARILY GIVE UP YOUR RIGHTS!
WE DO NOT HAVE TO OBEY UNCONSTITUTIONAL LAWS
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.
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”.
I feel as if this would outlaw paper targets depicting anything other than zombies, deer, or a dartboard.
Are they just trying to freak us out?
S3 An act prohibiting “paramilitary training camps” is dangerous.
I see where hunter education courses are exempt, but nothing about training for self defense with a firearm.
S4 An act to supposedly address “violent crime reduction for juveniles through gun control”
Much of this is redundant as it is already illegal to;
(3) to prohibit possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number
(4) to prohibit straw purchases of firearms
(5) to prohibit the possession of firearms by fugitives from justice; persons subject to final relief from abuse and stalking orders; and persons charged with human trafficking, trafficking a regulated drug, or carrying a dangerous weapon while committing a felony, as well as other parts of this bill.
Again the ubiquitous use of the term “semi automatic assault weapon”. A thumb hole stock ??? Really ? How does a thumb hole stock make anything more dangerous ?
That makes a firearm almost as dangerous as a rifle with checkering in the form of a naked female ! What will these fear mongering idiots dream up next ??? This bill is a firearm fearing fruitcakes dream !
Paramilitary training bad…drag queen story hour good…we voted for this.
Meaning, declare you incompetent and assign someone to make your decisions for you. Psychiatry has long been used as a means of suppression. I’ve been harassed and/or outright threatened both anonymously and by VT psychiatric Survivors, Marina Brown, lawyer Kira Kelley. Dissent isn’t tolerated by the Left. It is common to con people into scenarios which they would never endorse if they weren’t being deceived.
One bizarre, threatening incident involving VT Psychiatric Survivors occurred about a year ago. I discussed it with Rep. Ann Donahue.
Stupid, thy name is Vermont. Anyone who is a democrat or voted for a democrat needs a one way ticket to North Korea so they can live the socialist/communist/dictatorship life they so want to inflict on others.
I’m sorry, but S.3 is the most naked declaration of the intent to make us all subjects that I’ve ever seen. The US has the highest proportion of incarcerated people of any nation on Earth, and we seem to be on some quest to make it more and more difficult to stay in the good graces of our rulers. At a certain point, it stops being worth the effort.
Then what, you glorified hall monitors?
Anything to make these Master Narcissist’s feel more warm and fuzzy about themselves. Sickness abounds under the dome and we can’t wait to re-elect them each time.