Brattleboro Citizens’ Breakfast, October 18, 2013, Gibson-Aiken Center – Brattleboro VT
Notes from – Gun Sense VT: a sensible approach?
Presenter: Ann Braden – gunsensevt@gmail.com
“The District of Vermont’s efforts to combat firearms violence in the state are shaped by two realities. First, federal law enforcement has a unique responsibility to combat the acquisition and possession of firearms by criminals in Vermont because the state has no laws prohibiting the possession of firearms by persons prohibited under federal law. Second, the most pervasive form of violent crime in the state results from domestic disputes.”
US Department of Justice (2001) – Gun violence reduction: National Integrated Firearms Violence Reduction Strategy http://www.justice.gov/archive/opd/AppendixA.htm#Appendix A
Commenting on the above quote, now a dozen years old, Ann Braden stated that not much has changed, except that while domestic violence is still a problem, suicide is now a problem with Vermont having the 12th highest suicide rate in the nation, the majority of which are carried out with a firearm.
Ann personally became involved after the incident at Newtown CT. Her mom lives in Newtown and she knows that community, reasoning that if that kind of gun violence could happen there, it could happen anywhere.
She began by asking whether the laws make sense and started learning about Vermont law and found not much of anything. There are some federal laws and Vermont has relied on them, but there are holes in those provisions as well. While there was some hope that there would be a change in State law, there was a strong reaction from the gun lobby and the State did not appear to be ready to have this conversation.
There is still the hope that we can discuss the subject in a rational way — to prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands. The fact that 1600 have signed on to the Gun Sense VT email list, representing 160 towns in Vermont shows that there is so much common ground on the issue.
The goal is to keep guns away from unsupervised children; convicted violent felons; domestic abusers; and those adjudicated mentally incompetent by court order. How can we better enforce the existing laws and fill in the gaps? What is proposed?
(1) Better background checks – currently, the Federal check only looks at criminal convictions. Mental health status and domestic protection orders need to be included so that there is complete information.
(2) Safe storage – attention to storage would significantly reduce the incidence of teen suicides. It is often stated that if someone wants to kill oneself, he will find a way. However, it is know that the majority of suicidal people only feel that suicidal impulse for a brief window (less than five minutes). Ninety percent of those who survive a suicide attempt go on to live a normal life. A delay in accessing a gun will get them through that window. Mental health support is also needed. Suicides with a firearm have an 85% success while taking pills are about 2%-15% successful. States that have greater accessibility to guns have increased rates of suicides.
(3) Bring State in line with Federal Law – Vermont is only one of two states that does not have a law prohibiting convicted violent felons from possessing a firearm. Local law enforcement defers such cases to Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms (ATF) and there aren’t that many ATF agents in the State. Though it still might happen, we don’t need to make it easy for felons to possess a firearm. The “guns for drugs” phenomenon makes it easy for crime to come into neighborhoods where there wasn’t a draw otherwise.
While no legislation came out of committee last session, this is an area where there is so much common ground and there needs to be a discussion on responsible gun use and that discussion ought to include pro-hunting and gun ownership folks.
We have done a great job with hunting laws, but not with general gun laws. This show we don’t really need to reinvent anything.
You an get involved using the Gun Sense VT website http://gunsensevt.org/ where you can sign up for an email list and sign a petition to Gov. Shumlin to support sensible gun laws.
A week or so ago, the Governor announced plans to try to find storage facilities for weapons seized by police pursuant to domestic violence protection orders. We need to be able to enforce laws already on the books. http://vtdigger.org/2013/10/03/governor-wants-facility-house-guns-seized-domestic-violence-suspects/
Discussion Comments, Questions, Insights:
A participant involved with a domestic violence prevention program underscored many of the concerns, particularly the need to store weapons seized pursuant to a court order.
Limited measures relating to trafficking, storage concerns, background checks, temporary seizure of weapons in domestic cases are more feasible than ones banning certain “high capacity” or “assault” weapons.
The idea of a digital signature on bullets is intriguing, but begs questions of affordability and implementation.
