Gunrights

Age hike for semi-auto purchase, body armor ban considered by Baruth

By Guy Page

Sen. Phil Baruth will likely sponsor legislation to raise the legal age of Vermonters buying semi-automatic firearms, WCAX reported yesterday.  

Vermont’s leading gun control advocate in the Vermont Legislature also thinks lawmakers should consider criminalizing the purchase of body armor, saying: “We have criminalized things like radar detectors because they give people an unfair advantage over the police and they impact public safety. I don’t know why we wouldn’t do the same thing with body armor,” according to the WCAX report.

Baruth also reportedly wants more stringent requirements for firearms licensing and training. 

Baruth told Vermont Daily Chronicle last week he would be introducing “gun safety” legislation, but did not provide details during the brief conversation. He added that Gov. Phil Scott will likely have the determining say on whether bills passed by the Legislature become law. 

Categories: Gunrights

28 replies »

  1. Per Section 931 of title 18, United States Code, any US citizen who is 18 or older and has not been convicted of a felony that constitutes a crime of violence can purchase and wear body armor in the USA.. Once again Senator Baruth just does not get it. Whether Vermont regulates “body armor” or not, criminals will find it, and commit whatever crime they deem it necessary for. Who gets hurt by regulating it ? Honest people will get hurt, because they were not allowed to possess it. People like Senator Baruth will ask, what legal reason could a person have to feel that they “need” it ? Reducing a legal ,and sometimes even constitutionally guaranteed right to a “need” is a way to try to use something just short of coercion to elicit an answer that is easily attacked by the person questioning the “need”. Until those who feel intimidated by that legal ability change the law, you can because you are innocent of any wrong until proven guilty of a wrong . If Phil Baruth and his ilk are allowed to keep chiseling away at our freedoms, we will soon be wondering why the only people left that can defend themselves are the rich, the politically connected, the police, and criminals . Vermonters, vote these chicken —- politicians out !!!!!

  2. Is Senator Baruth under the impression that radar detectors are prohibited in Vermont? They’re not. They’re illegal in exactly one state. Although, since Virginia and Vermont both start with ‘V’ I guess we should give a long-serving legislator a pass for confusing which state he serves.

    And possession and use of the devices has never been “criminalized” even where they were prohibited. Is it too much to ask that the people who write laws that they use to control us learn the meaning of the words they use?

  3. Can we please just show this guy the door?! When I grew up in the 40’s and 50’s Vermont was “awash” with guns and NO CRIME! Now we are awash with crime (mostly by down country punks who bring their guns with them) almost in direct proportion to the new and unnecessary gun laws thanks to Baruth.

    • Support his opponent and let’s try for someone with reason!

  4. Every anti gun bill that Baruth puts forward is in violation of the Vermont constitution and the path that he swears each legislative session. Constitution is very clear that bills can not even be proposed that are unconstitutional( check out article 1 and article 16 of Vermont Constitution). Therefore be and those who support his bills should be found guilty of perjury of their oath and suffer the penalty mentioned in constition. He and those that vote with him are perjury ,traitors and tyrants and should be behind bars!

    • All facts John, Twice I have been to Montpelier to provide documentation that Baruth and the other co sponsors of these unconstitutional Bills are a violation of their oaths of office. The last time I presented documentation to Sheriff Sam Hill of Washington County. It is his responsibility to enforce the law in his County. Perjury is a crime they have committed it by swearing to uphold the Constitution and then ignoring it.

  5. Here’s an amendment or perhaps a complete replacement for Sen. Baruth’s proposed bill that will significantly lower the number of persons in Vermont with semi-automatic weapons:

    Any non-Vermont resident caught in Vermont with an automatic or any sort of weapon while in anyway engaged with the sale of illegal drugs will have 50 years added to his/her sentence.

    This proposed amendment should significantly help in lowering the the increasing number of shooting occurring in Vermont.

  6. Since we’re criminalizing things that endanger Vermonters’ safety, I think we should make Mr. Baruth a criminal to our safety and ban the SOB from our government!

  7. unbelievable how ignorant these people are that supposedly represent us…….I’m just shaking my head….

    • They are not ignorant at all. In a planned fashion they are taking your rights away one at a time. They know exactly what they’re doing.

  8. So an 18 year old can enlist, and the U.S. military will hand them a fully automatic weapon, but to Senator Baruth, no 18 year old should be trusted with a semi-automatic weapon.

    Also, when was the last time someone was killed using body armor as a weapon?

    • The difference between semi, and fully auto firearms is totally lost on anybody that insists on calling a self loading firearm an “assault rifle”, or a “weapon of war”. Show me a Veteran that says he/she would, given the choice to go to battle with an A.R. or an M4 and chooses an A.R. and I’ll show you a suicidal soldier, or a liar, like little Pete Booty Judge.

  9. When I was growing up in the 40’s and 50’s there was only one gun law in VT: no person could carry a firearm with intent to harm another (I paraphrase). We were awash with guns, then, and could have them at any age. Today we are awash with crime, mostly, it seems, committed by down country gangs who come here (bringing their own hardware).. the increase in crime coincides almost perfectly with all our new gun control/safety/crime prevention laws. Can’t we just send this idiot down the road? November can’t come soon enough.

  10. So stupid!! You actually think a criminal (who became one by breaking the law) is going to adhere to a ban on body armor?!

  11. Sen Baruth: It is patently obvious that young people today are not as mature as in the generation that stormed the beaches of Normandy. With that in mind, I would not have a problem restricting the purchase of semi-automatic firearms to those 21 and older PROVIDED THE VOTING AGE IS ALSO COMMENSURATELY RAISED. After all, we have all heard that the pen is mightier than the sword.

    • And a lot more people have been killed by the pen, than will ever be killed by the sword !

    • Ya mean you aren’t for 16 year olds voting Rich ? LOL Whoda thunk it ? Could the difference in maturity between teenagers, and young adults be in anyway attributed to the way kids are coddled and protected from everything these days ? I can remember as a teenager thumbing home from a day of hunting on Berlin Mtn. with a shotgun, and getting rides home. Now, somebody would call the cops on me, and have my parents put in jail ! People nowadays are such prigs, that it’s no wonder that my Father told me that he was glad that he was born, and lived in the time that he did, as he did not like the way the future looked to him, and my Dad was a young (18/19 year old) WWII vet ! When I was younger I used to think my Dad was, to say the least, living in the past, and as such not as “worldly” (?) as my generation. Ya know, the older that I get, the more “worldly” my Dad gets, and I can only hope to ever be as insightful as he was. On this D-Day, God bless the “Greatest Generation” !

  12. Since a motor vehicle can also be used as a dangerous weapon, any vehicle having a horsepower rating of more than 50HP and/or a fuel tank that allows for traveling more than 100 miles on a fill up ought to also be restricted from those under 21. Purchasing propane tanks of more than 20 pound capacity should be limited to those 21 or older, and only after a background check reveals no arson convictions.

  13. Hmmm… 🤔 2 more things hundreds of Vermonters will panic buy, now that they’ve been threatened. Vermont firearm salesman of the year…Phil Baruth!

    • Phil Baruth needs to know that he is indeed prompting MORE gun and ammo purchases. Can I get me some of those little stickers with Baruth’s picture saying “I did that” like the ones with Biden that I decorate the gas pumps with?

      • Perfect richlachapelle……….I want some too!!!

  14. Wait, what? Since when were radar/laser detectors illegal in Vermont? Oh that’s right, since never.

  15. Justin Trudeau was just deemed firearm salesman of the year! His declaration to outlaw handguns sent Canadians out in droves to buy every last one they could find. So, go ahead Dems/Progs/Rinos – mandate, outlaw, and declare all you wish. Americans will never give up their arms or stop getting them one way or another. Especially now because we know our government is corrupt and the greatest threat to our health and wellbeing. Fact check – US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

  16. Does this fool, Phil Baruth, realize that if this ridiculous bill should somehow pass, that it would then be illegal for parents to purchase currently available clipboards, notebooks and backpacks with built-in ballistic shields for their CHILDREN! Baruth definitely needs to be voted out of office!

  17. What a dunce. The only thing this would make illegal is short-notice defensive body armor. I’m pretty sure someone planning something nasty can work out how to hot-glue nylon straps onto steel plates.

    • This is a dumb proposal, no doubt. But most body armor is Kevlar and most Kevlar has an expiration date. So if this did pass, no matter how much people “stock up”, the public at best will only have access to expired/less effective body armor, or some janky arrangement like you proposed.
      So if Phil’s aim is to make the public less safe, he will actually be able to achieve it this way…