Vermont’s Republican Governor Phil Scott allowed another pernicious anti-gun bill to become law on Tuesday. This time the targets are guns that some citizens are making at home using the latest computer and printer technology.
Without committing a crime or even being charged with one, these home gun-makers are now in violation of the law. Their remedy is to take their homemade firearms to a gun dealer to have them registered and serialized. They must also undergo a background check in order to get their own firearms back from the dealer — or else pay a fine or go to jail, or both.
Since 2018, Vermont increasingly has come under the influence of the liberal mindset that guns are dangerous and must be registered and eventually confiscated — all in the name of public safety, mind you — and the state now demands background checks for all private sales of firearms. It bans the sale of handgun magazines that hold more than 15 rounds. It bans the sale of rifle magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. It bans the possession of so-called bump stocks and braces often used by physically impaired individuals to improve control of a firearm while shooting. And of course it demands a waiting period before an owner may possess a firearm that he has purchased.
In addition, it has lined up with other states in passing “red flag” laws, otherwise known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders, or ERPOs. They also offend the Constitution, this time the Fourth Amendment.
But apparently that doesn’t matter to the governor. What does matter is that he covered his tracks as best he could, by letter. Not one word referenced the constitutions of Vermont or the United States, both of which guarantee the God-given right of sovereign citizens to keep and bear arms without infringement by the state.
This is how a RINO governor, knowing that a veto would be overridden by the Democratic supermajority in the legislative branch, wants to remain in their good graces:
Today I’m allowing S.209, An act relating to prohibiting unserialized firearms and unserialized firearms frames and receivers, to become law without my signature.
As a public safety measure, I agree firearms should be serialized, which is why I’m allowing this bill to become law despite some concerns about its practicality and impact.
Over the last decade, as anti-policing policies increased and criminal accountability has steadily decreased, violent crime has grown in Vermont. This is why I believe we should instead focus on measures that will reverse these trends over those, like S.209, that are unlikely to have any measurable impact on violent crime.
He agrees that enforcement of the measure is going to be a challenge. What gun dealer would accept the responsibility and the liability of registering and serializing a firearm that someone made at home? And what impact would it have on an individual with criminal intent? And how would the law be enforced? By going house to house, interviewing each citizen?
Scott ignored Constitutional issues and restraints, instead turning law-abiding citizens into criminals for the mere possession of a now-outlawed homemade firearm:
In addition to my concerns about this bill’s effectiveness, I would have preferred the Legislature not criminalize mere possession when there is no evidence of criminal intent.
His final kneeling to the anti-gun element controlling the state was nauseating:
Again, while my concerns on the practical impacts and enforceability keep me from signing this bill, I’m allowing it to go into law because I understand the fears behind access to untraceable firearms and respect the effort to tailor the scope and exceptions to limit impact for law abiding citizens.
This is precisely the type of law, and behavior, the founders of the American Republic labored so diligently to prevent. They demanded every legislator in the country take an oath of office in support of the U.S. Constitution. By writing and sending this letter, Governor Scott declared that he does not support the U.S. Constitution, or, for that matter, the constitution of the state of Vermont.
For that, he should be impeached. Instead, he is enjoying the accolades of the enemies of the Second Amendment.
Democratic state legislator Representative William Notte, representing Rutland City, was delighted to “close” another “loophole” in the law:
What we have found was, there was a loophole in the law which allowed someone to buy the parts for a gun, assemble it themselves, and bypass every regulation we have.
Additionally, as technology advances, it is now possible for someone with a 3D printer to essentially create a gun within 24 hours.
So we thought that in order to attempt to ensure the safety of Vermonters it made sense to regulate these guns as well.
It is well to remember that Vermont is notoriously represented in the U.S. Senate by two far-left Democrats who hold the U.S. Constitution in utter contempt. Senator Bernie Sanders sports a dismal rating of 26 out of 100 in the The New American’s Freedom Index, while his cohort, Peter Welch, has an even more treacherous rating of 22 out of 100.
Vermonters determined to continue exercising their freedoms regardless will likely do so, ignoring the potential for fines and imprisonment if they are found out.
Meanwhile, Vermont’s Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs won’t likely be challenging the new infringement in court any time soon. It already has its hands full and its available financial resources are already committed to challenging the state’s waiting-period law and magazine bans. Said president Chris Bradley:
We will let [those cases] play out before we challenge other unconstitutional laws.
It is shameful that Vermonters have to sue to obtain rights which should have never been infringed upon in the first place, and it is sad that Vermonters are paying the [state attorney general] to defend these unconstitutional infringements and then have to repay our legal fees when, not if, we win.
What’s even more shameful and sad is this Republican governor kowtowing to the anti-gun anti-Second Amendment interests instead of standing up to them.
