There was a huge turnout of pro-gun supporters at the Burlington City Council meeting over four gun issues before the council. Three of the measures passed. But the big ticket issue, a mandatory permit for concealed carry of firearms, failed in a 7-5 vote.
The three that passed were: no guns in bars or restaurants, the police being able to seize firearms at the scene of a reported crime of domestic violence and a mandatory firearm storage ordinance. But, the process of becoming law is far from over.
The gun control ordinance proposals still face more review in the city. If the three resolutions get passed by Burlington voters. It is then off to the Vermont Legislature where the issues will have to survive an intensive legislative process. For the shooting/outdoors community is going to vigorously defend the Vermont Sportsmen’s Bill of Rights.
The shooting/outdoors sporting community obviously gets was not willing to accept: that if the Vermont Sportsmen’s Bill of Rights gets pried open in Burlington, then all of the rights protected by it become targets in an open season of anti-freedoms attack.
But the city council could not have missed the fact that there were so many pro-gun people present that the city council ordered the upstairs balcony opened to accommodate the crowd. The crowd wore lots of gun/hunter oriented clothing and displayed hunter orange handbills with “NO to Burlington Gun Control” clearly visible and the crowd would wave the handbills in support of speakers making points they supported. It was a World Series of Gun Rights.
The Charter Change Committee had already pulled the semi-automatic firearms and magazine size restriction proposals out consideration by the full city council. As the pro-gun ranks continue to battle, the agenda of the gun control decreases. This is all very far from over.
More information here:
Burlington Residents Talk Gun Control