Around New England

Legislators Looking At Gun Control in Gun-Friendly Vermont

February 21, 2018

The mass shooting in Florida and an apparent near-miss in Fair Haven, Vermont last week has some Vermont legislators considering new gun laws.

“We’ve put guns on the agenda for leadership meetings, caucuses, our meetings with the governor’s staff and Senate leadership,” Vermont House Speaker Mitzi Johnson, a Democrat, told Seven Days, a Vermont newspaper. “People are energized and disturbed by how close to home this was.”

Governor Phil Scott, a Republican, has resisted gun control, but he gave a press conference saying “We want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to keep them safe” — and Seven Days columnist John Walters writes that the “everything” Scott has in mind “included the possibility of new gun laws.”

Vermont is one of the most gun-friendly states in the nation. But the recent arrest of an 18-year-old man who police say planned to attack his former public high school in central Vermont has shaken public officials.


Read More