Hey everyone, so I guess you would have to be living on another planet this week not to notice the commotion around the Covid-19 scare. This has obviously dominated pretty much everything this week and has had an impact on us as well.
The good news is that due to the legislature shutting down this week and possibly longer, all “non-essential” legislation has been shelved indefinitely and that appears to include H.610. As Friday was crossover and the bill did not make it out of committee, it is presumably dead unless they change the rules or attach it to another piece of legislation in the future. Ever vigilant, we will be keeping close watch on what happens in the next few weeks and keep everyone up to speed.
The virus might have shut down this year’s gun control, but unfortunately, it shut down everything else as well. The Lamoille Valley Fish and Game Club Gun Show which was scheduled for next weekend has been cancelled and our monthly Gun Owners of Vermont meeting in Rutland was cancelled as a precautionary measure.
The town of Victory became the latest Vermont town to adopt a 2a/Article 16 sanctuary resolution bringing the total to 21 towns with resolutions and 2 with statements of support for the cause. An interesting anecdote is that we discovered the town of Georgia VT had actually passed their own resolution reaffirming the right to keep and bear arms way back in 1983, proving that this is not a new idea by any stretch. You can read more about that on the pinned post on this page. We are still getting interest in new towns and will be releasing some more resources on this project soon; hopefully we can resume progress once the virus scare passes.
On a more serious note, the events we are seeing around us are almost unprecedented. It bears noting that whenever something bad happens -and especially when the public gets scared- government has historically seized the opportunity to swoop in and “save us” by curtailing our freedoms. With as much uncertainty and unrest as we are seeing, we have the opportunity to be leaders in the model of volunteerism and self-governance. Let’s check on our neighbors and our elderly, make sure we all have what we need to get through this. Let friends who are out of work this week help friends whose job can’t stop for the emergency and vice versa. And above all else, let’s try not to be antagonistic toward the folks on the front lines like medical staff, emergency services personnel and the folks who work in the supply chain. Let’s be good stewards of our communities like we always are, and make sure that when the legislature comes back after all this, they don’t have any reason to come after us.
If we all do our part, we should be able to get through the ruckus unscathed, just in time to start getting ready for the election. Y’all be safe out there.
-Eric