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Vermont Legislature
Follow VPR's statehouse coverage, featuring Pete Hirschfeld and Bob Kinzel in our Statehouse Bureau in Montpelier.

Shumlin Signs Gun Bill Behind Closed Doors

Gov. Peter Shumlin privately signed new gun legislation Friday afternoon without any fanfare. His office announced the move in a statement.

The new law, which passed the Legislature as S.141, creates a new misdemeanor state-level crime for possession of firearms by people with certain criminal convictions. The law also requires the reporting of names to a federal database when people are found by a court to be in need of mental health treatment and are deemed to be danger to themselves or others.

Shumlin spent much of this legislative session resisting and new gun laws, saying Vermont’s current laws were sufficient. But a controversial element — expanded background laws for all gun sales — was stripped from an earlier version of the legislation. That was enough to secure his signature.

“Vermonters know that I feel that Vermont’s gun laws make sense for our state. We in Vermont have a culture of using guns to care for and manage our natural resources in a respectful way that has served us well,” the governor said in a statement. “The bill delivered to me today is a shadow of the legislation that I objected to at the beginning of the legislative session. It makes common sense changes, similar to the ones that I supported to prohibit guns on school grounds, and that is why I signed it.”

Gun rights groups that initially opposed the bill, including the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, dropped their objections after the legislation was scaled back.

Just hours earlier on Friday, Shumlin told the Vermont Press Bureau in an interview that his office had not yet received the bill and he had not thought about whether there would be a public signing ceremony. He declared his intention to sign the bill in an interview with the Vermont Press Bureau a week ago.

Shumlin’s office received the bill around 11 a.m. along with three other pieces of legislation awaiting the governor’s signature, according to staff. The office then sought out Rep. Sam Young, D-Glover, to be present for the signing because of the passionate speech he delivered on the House floor in favor of the bill.

Neither Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell, D-Windsor, an original sponsor of the legislation, nor any of the other original Senate sponsors, were present. Campbell said Friday he was disappointed in the way Shumlin treated the signing.

“I am very, very disappointed on behalf of myself and the other senators who worked very hard to pass that bill that he didn’t have the common decency to alert us that he was going to sign that bill, No. 1, and, No. 2, that he didn’t invite anyone from the Senate to be there,” Campbell said.

This story wasoriginally published by the Vermont Press Bureauand reprinted under a partnership with the bureau.

Neal is a a reporter for the Vermont Press Bureau. He also files reports for Vermont Public Radio.
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