What good are 60 vacated homes
awaiting demolition in the high-noise zone bordering Burlington
International Airport? Good for training exercises involving local
police and fire teams, declares a resolution on the agenda of
tonight's South Burlington City Council meeting.
Not according to some airport neighbors and at least one city councilor who recall a training exercise last year that
included gunfire and grenade explosions. Several nearby residents
complained not only about the simulated shootouts but also about
state and local officials' failure to give advance notice that the
area was to become a tactical training ground for camo-clad personnel toting automatic weapons.
Police have responded 29
times in the past year to incidents on the single block of Spring
Street opposite the Integrated Arts Academy at H.O. Wheeler in Burlington's Old North End.
Principal Bobby Riley insists both the
school and the neighborhood are safe, but Jeff Sherman, a resident of
one of the units in the 69-85 block of Spring Street, describes
conditions there as "pretty bad." The sense of danger has
grown in the 12 years he's lived there, Sherman says.
In February 2011, a domestic assault spilled onto the street in front of the elementary school, whereupon a man fired a shot that didn't hurt anyone. The students were on vacation that week, but Wheeler went into lockdown to protect the staff inside.
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger reaffirmed on
Monday his support for banning assault weapons in the Queen City, and urged city councilors to take additional steps aimed at preventing gun violence.
"You are on strong legal ground to move
forward with an assault weapons resolution of some sort, and I support that,”
Weinberger told the three members of the council’s charter change committee. He
noted that similar initiatives by other municipalities have survived court
challenges.
But any attempt by Burlington to
regulate possession of firearms would require a change in the city’s charter
thus could not take effect unless approved by the state legislature. City Councilor Rachel
Siegel, the Ward 3 Progressive who chairs the charter-change committee, said it’s
unlikely the legislature would even consider such an initiative until 2015,
assuming it was first endorsed by the council and approved by Burlington voters in March 2014.
“More immediately,” Weinberger told the
committee, Burlington might be able to adopt another measure relating to access
to firearms.
He noted that in the aftermath of the
Newtown, Connecticut, mass murder of schoolchildren and educators, 24
communities around the country “have passed resolutions to encourage action to
fix the federal background-check system.” This screening process for
prospective gun buyers is “badly broken,” the mayor said. He added that Vermont
is one of 19 states rated as having done the least to submit data to the
National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Weinberger then handed out to committee
members a model resolution that urges action to strengthen federal background
checks.
“Burlington does have a stake in this,
and I’m very much in favor of it,” the mayor said.
Burlington should encourage other
towns and cities around the state to propose their own charter
changes related to firearms, the Vermont legislature's leading
gun-control advocate told a city council committee on Monday.
"The more towns you have
presenting charter changes on this, the more it will prod the
legislature to do something," said State Rep. Linda
Waite-Simpson (D-Essex Junction). She added that it will be more
difficult for the legislature to reject a charter change related to
gun control if other municipalities join Burlington in advocating
such regulations.
The city council's charter change
committee is hearing testimony related to a proposed ordinance that
would ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips in the
city. The full council voted 10-3 in favor of further considering a resolution containing
those restrictions that was offered in January by City Councilor Norm Blais (D-Ward 6).
He and the other two members of the
charter-change committee seemed receptive to Waite-Simpson's
suggestion. Councilor Tom Ayres (D-Ward 7) said it would be vital to
"try to have rational and respectful discussions" with
residents of the Northeast Kingdom, "where there's bound to be
opposition" to gun control of any sort.
Waite-Simpson (pictured) noted she has received
assurance from legislative leaders that the issue will be taken up in
local meetings after the current session ends. The hope is that
consensus can be reached on some aspects of gun control, she said.
Waite-Simpson's own set of proposed regulations never got to the
floor of the Vermont House despite the emotional upwelling that
followed a lone gunman's massacre of 26 first-graders and educators
in Newtown, Connecticut, late last year.
Many Vermonters' resistance to any
restrictions on guns remains unyielding, Waite-Simpson said. She
cited two examples of the state's status as an outlier.
They hail from a state with some of the most permissive gun laws in the nation, but on Wednesday Vermont's two U.S. senators embraced the strongest gun-control measures debated in a generation.
In an especially crushing blow to Leahy, the Senate even rejected a bipartisan measure he authored that would have cracked down on gun traffickers and straw purchasers. Cosponsored by Maine Republican Susan Collins and endorsed by the National Rifle Association, Leahy's amendment nevertheless fell two votes shy of the 60 necessary for passage. It had been expected to sail through on a voice vote.
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Leahy had been charged with ushering the various gun measures to the floor and securing passage of at least some of President Obama's priorities in the wake of December's deadly shootings in Newtown, Conn.
But to no avail.
Leahy did not immediately comment on the votes Wednesday. A spokesman said he would do so Thursday.
Here's what's happening in Vermont news and politics this week. Got a newsworthy event for next week's calendar? Email by Friday to submit.
Monday, April 15
At 10 a.m., Burlington bigwigs (mayor, police chief) and law enforcement will hold a press conference at the U.S. Attorney's office in Burlington on the "heroin epidemic," which has rather suddenly replaced prescription opiates as the scourge of Vermont.
That whole assault-weapons ban in Burlington thing? The city council's charter change committee takes it up today. At the very convenient time of 11:30 a.m. in city hall.
Vermont's health care reform is important — but damn confusing. Hear Mark Larson, director of the Office of Health Care Access, explain it live at 5:25 on Channel 17.
Shortly before the U.S. Senate voted to debate a polarizing gun-control bill Thursday morning, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) delivered an impassioned plea to his colleagues to "stand up and be counted."
In a 10-minute speech on the Senate floor, Leahy repeated that refrain over and over again, appearing as if he was seeking to shame his fellow senators into voting on the legislation, regardless of where they stood.
"Stand up and be counted! Stand up and be counted!" he said, nearly shouting. "Don't give speeches saying you're in favor of law enforcement, but we're going to take away the tools law enforcement needs. Stand up and be counted. Stand up and be counted."
Calling Republican efforts to stall debate an "ill-conceived filibuster," Leahy said, "Americans across this great country are looking to us for solutions and action, not filibustering or sloganeering. Americans are saying, 'Stand up and be counted.'"
Watch the full video here:
Not long after Leahy's speech, the Senate voted 68 to 31 in favor of taking up the legislation. The bill includes several provisions passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Leahy chairs, including a measure the Vermont senator wrote that cracks down on gun traffickers and "straw" purchasers.
The legislation received a major boost earlier this week when Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Patrick Toomey (R-Pa.) signed off on a bipartisan plan to extend background checks to unlicensed firearms dealers. The bill does not include more controversial proposals, such as a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition, though such measures will likely reappear in the form of amendments on the floor next week.
The others who voted in favor of debating the bill were Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), 49 other Democrats, 16 Republicans and another independent. Two Democrats and 29 Republicans opposed ending the filibuster.
March 20, 2013
Vermont and Arizona Named Best States for Gun Owners by Guns & Ammo Magazine
Vermont and Arizona don't have a whole lot in common. The Grand Canyon State has blazing hot deserts, we shoveled out our cars on the first day of spring. They're mostly red, we're deep blue. They've got scorpions, we've got moose. So what links our two states, apparent opposites geographically and politically? Gun rights.
Guns & Ammo magazine released its list of the best and worst states for gun owners last week, and Vermont tied with Arizona at the top of the heap. The magazine's graphic, at right, confusingly says Vermont is number 2 and places the state in the crosshairs (why shoot Vermont if it's awesome for guns?), but the Green Mountain State and the Grand Canyon State are level on points atop the list. Each came one point short of a perfect score.
Vermont's cities and towns will see a few newcomers taking office this week after Town Meeting Day. Here's to small-town democracy. It's also gun-control advocates' turn to rally at the Statehouse on Wednesday, and the week ends with St. Patrick's Day on Sunday. (Here's a reminder that you shouldn't drink green beer and you REALLY shouldn't drink Irish car bombs on Sunday.)
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