Vermont lawmakers narrowly advance bill increasing gun restrictions

MONTPELIER — Representatives in the House Judiciary Committee narrowly advanced a bill to increase restrictions on guns in Vermont, with members divided along party lines.

Committee members passed the bill Friday just in time to meet a deadline that day, when bills generally must make it out of committee to get a chance at becoming law. All six Democrats on the committee, including chair Rep. Martin LaLonde, D-South Burlington, voted in favor of the bill, H.606, while the five Republicans on the committee voted against it.

A fiercely debated provision would bar people from owning or buying guns while they are under a current court order to receive outpatient mental health treatment.

Ahead of the vote, Rep. Zak Harvey, R-Castleton, said he was “screaming out into the wilderness and it just continues to fall on deaf ears.” He asked Democrats to nix the provision to compromise with Republicans, but Democrats were unwilling to make changes based on his concerns, he said.

Harvey said in an interview that, without the restriction on those receiving court ordered treatment, Republicans in the committee would have supported the bill.

“I mean, think about that, Republicans supporting a gun bill,” Harvey said.

The bill’s other provisions would make it a felony to steal a firearm, with increased penalties for subsequent offenses. For the first time under state law, the bill largely would make it illegal to own or sell machine guns, or devices that can turn other guns into machine guns.

“The reason we’re doing this is because guns that shoot fast kill more people,” said Rep. Angela Arsenault, D-Williston, one of the bill’s lead sponsors, in an interview.

The bill’s most controversial provision bans someone from owning a firearm if they are under a current court order to receive outpatient treatment from the Vermont Department of Mental Health. To be subject to that type of court order, someone has to be suffering from a mental illness and be considered dangerous to themselves or others.

Arsenault argued it’s necessary to create more narrow prohibitions to gun ownership in Vermont because there are many examples of people who, while on court orders to receive treatment, have committed violent crimes.

“There’s a real gap in our state,” Arsenault said. When someone is receiving court-ordered treatment outside of a psychiatric hospital, they aren’t under close supervision even though they’ve been deemed to be dangerous, Arsenault said.

Under the bill, once someone has completed court-ordered treatment, and is no longer considered dangerous, they could legally purchase a gun. The restriction would only apply to those under a current court order.

Suzanne Lurie, a Charlotte, Vt., woman who lost her father to gun violence, told the committee Thursday that a mental illness alone doesn’t make someone dangerous — but having access to a firearm can.

Her dad, a surgeon, was shot and killed by one of his patients, Lurie said. After killing her dad, the gunman killed his own wife, then himself, Lurie said.

Suicides account for 85% of deaths involving firearms in Vermont, she said. Lurie urged the committee to support the bill “so that other families don’t have to live with the consequences of gun violence.”

Meanwhile, Chris Bradley, executive director of the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, said Wednesday he was concerned the bill would unjustly take away people’s Second Amendment right to bear arms.

“I think we can agree there are people that shouldn’t have guns,” Bradley said. But if a court has determined that someone can be in the community, then that person should have the right to own guns, Bradley said.

But it isn’t that simple, Rep. Barbara Rachelson, D/P-Burlington, said. Due to a scarcity of mental health facilities in Vermont, many people who are ordered for outpatient treatment may still be risky candidates to own firearms, Rachelson said.

Bradley said he had many “grave concerns” about the bill, including the fact that the committee only began hearing from experts on the bill Wednesday, knowing they would try to push it through by Friday.

During a Wednesday meeting, some Republicans in the committee similarly complained that the committee seemed to rush their consideration of the bill.

“You know that saying, that if you can’t win on the substance you attack the process?” LaLonde said in an interview ahead of the vote.

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