| Bernard - This message is a CALL TO ACTION on S.57 - An act relating to expanding municipal authority over the discharge of firearms - which seeks to alter 24 VSA 2291. Currently, Section (8) of 24 VSA 2291 gives a municipality the authority "To regulate or prohibit the use or discharge, but not possession, of firearms within the municipality or specified portions thereof, provided that an ordinance adopted under this subdivision shall be consistent with 2295 of this title and shall not prohibit, reduce, or limit discharge at any existing sport shooting range..." What they want to change is to drop the phrase: "reduce, or limit". Make no mistake: This bill has the potential to close every club range in Vermont by severely limiting the ability to shoot at a facility designed for that purpose. Back in 1987, the VTFSC worked hard to get 24 VSA 2295 passed, which is commonly referred to as the Sportsman's Bill of Rights, with this statute giving very limited authority to a municipality over firearms and ammunition, as well as activities such as hunting and fishing. In 1991, the VTFSC was again pivotal in getting 10 VSA 5227 passed, commonly referred to as the Range Protection Act, which essentially prevented people who move onto property that abuts a range from being able to argue that noise from the range bothers them. If anything, we want to ENCOURAGE people to use our sport shooting ranges, as the alternative is people shooting in places that may not be as safe. Right now, this bill has been assigned to the Senate Committee on Government Operations, but has not yet begun to move. Before it does start to move, and even after it starts to move, we need to SLAM that committee, as well as the Senate Pro Tem Baruth, about our extreme displeasure that such a bill is even being considered. We politely request that you take 2 minutes to send an email to the following people (you can just copy from the list and then paste into an email address line), with a subject line of "NO TO S.57", and any polite text you wish to include in the body of that email. rhardy@leg.state.vt.us; tvyhovsky@leg.state.vt.us; AClarkson@leg.state.vt.us; rwhite@leg.state.vt.us; rnorris@leg.state.vt.us; awatson@leg.state.vt.us; pbaruth@leg.state.vt.us Once you do that, contact 2 of your friends to have them do the same thing: We want to kill this before it even starts to move. Next week, send another email. In regards to other bills in play, the VTFSC maintains a listing of bill we are watching on our website, or you can see that list here. Our calendar ov events is also on the website, or can be seen here. Thank you for your continued support of the VTFSC and our member clubs. 
Best Regards, Vermont Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs
http://www.vtfsc.com/ | 
