More Action Needed

Please take the time to make your feelings known

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Bernard - Today I urge you to Take Action on two things: H.230 - presented as an anti-suicide bill Public Comment on Silvio Conte Refuge The Senate Committee continued hearing testimony on H.230 last week, with this bill scheduled for Mark Up tomorrow 4/26 at 9AM.  You can watch that here. The "Safe Storage" section has been renamed to be "Negligent Storage", and it no longer contains any penalty just for failing to store a firearm safely.  It will have consequences of a firearm is not stored properly and then something bad happens, but prosecutorial discretion can come into play, and we believe we can live with this change. It currently appears that the Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) pieces are being changed to adopt Clear & Convincing as the standard of evidence in temporary ERPO hearings.  This was a change which we suggested, but these laws still step on Due Process in Ex Parte hearings, and are therefore unconstitutional. The final piece is on a 72-hour Waiting Period, which will not stand up to any scrutiny under Bruen. We continue to oppose H.230, and ask you to Take Action using our new advocacy tool located here. Beyond taking action on H.230, we also ask that you Take Action regarding providing Public Comment on unwarranted regulations that have been proposed by US F&W regarding the issue of hunting with dogs on the Silvio Conte Refuge.  This is critically important! It will take you all of 4 minutes to take action on both topics, so please consider doing so - EVEN IF YOU HAVE ALREADY DONE SO - to voice your concerns with the appropriate people. Then forward this email to like-minded friends and family and urge them to Take Action as well. Thank you for reading; thank you for your continued support of the VTFSC and our member clubs; and please consider a donation to help us help you defend our rights. Best Regards, Vermont Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs http://www.vtfsc.com/ VT Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs · 454 S Main St, Northfield, VT 05663, United States This email was sent to sportsmanscluboffranklincounty.clubnews@blogger.com. To stop receiving emails, click here. You can also keep up with Vermont Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs on Facebook. Created with NationBuilder, software for leaders.

VTFSC Update on H.230

H.230 is in Senate Judiciary; testimony will continue into next week

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Bernard - Senate Judiciary continued hearing testimony on H.230 this week, with testimony taken on Wednesday 4/12 and Thursday 4/13. Wednesday they heard from Eric Davis, president of our our ally Gun Owners of Vermont, along with three other individuals who spoke for the bill (Alyssa Black (sponsor), Rebecca Hill (UVM Children's Medical Center) and Alison Shih (shill for Everytown for Gun Safety).  That testimony can be seen here.  As usual, Eric did an excellent job, making great points. At 10:25 Thursday there was 15 minutes of committee discussion, which focused almost completely on sections 1 (Findings) and 2 (Legislative Purpose), with the general feeling being that both will be dropped.  That was followed by testimony from Mike Ferrant (citizen), followed by Billy Clark (shill for Giffords Group).  That activity can be seen here and here. Rebecca Turner of the Defender General's Office will give testimony next Wednesday (4/19) at 10:00AM, followed by former Senator John Rodgers - both of whom will be firmly against this bill.  A "Mark Up" discussion is schedule for 10:45AM; there is NO mention in the agenda for a possible vote. At this point, it appears that the "Safe Storage" provision will be changed to NOT require that firearms be locked up, the title will likely change to "Negligent Storage", and there will be penalties if a firearm is left unsecured and is then used in a bad manner.  We can live with that. There was also discussion on Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPO), and it currently appears that the committee has taken our suggestion of raising the standard of evidence in a Temporary ERPO from Preponderance to Clear & Convincing, which is good.  Due Process problems remain however. There was some discussion about the Waiting Period section, but no definite direction - we however continue to maintain that a Waiting Period will be found to be unconstitutional, and we hope that section might be struck. The VTFSC remains opposed to this bill. There is no question that some version of H.230 WILL PASS, and if so we are working to be able to sustain a veto in the Senate, as the Governor has stated that he does not believe a waiting period will work and is therefore likely to veto. Your contacts into the committee and your respective Senators is making a difference, please consider forwarding this to like-minded friends and family. If you have not done so already, or even if you have, please use the new Take Action feature of the VTFSC website to contact the Senate about H.230. Thank you for reading; Thank you for your continued support of the VTFSC and our member clubs; and please consider a donation to help us help you defend our rights. Best Regards, Vermont Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs http://www.vtfsc.com/ VT Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs · 454 S Main St, Northfield, VT 05663, United States This email was sent to sportsmanscluboffranklincounty.clubnews@blogger.com. To stop receiving emails, click here. You can also keep up with Vermont Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs on Facebook. Created with NationBuilder, software for leaders.

VTFSC Legislative Update 4/7/2023

VTFSC Legislative Update on 4/7/2023

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Bernard - Thursday of this week, Senate Judiciary picked up H.230.  As is usual this began with a Legislative Walk-thru followed by testimony from Attorney General Charity Clark; this testimony can be seen at this link.  After a quick break, Chief Superior Judge Zonay then gave testimony, followed by the VTFSC and then State's Attorney Rory Thibault; that testimony can be seen at this link. Legislative Counsel basically refuses to give any legal opinion on constitutional issues of H.230, essentially saying 'We Don't Know". Both AG Clark and SA Thibault indicated full support for H.230 while Chief Superior Judge Zonay doesn't take sides. The VTFSC vigorously opposes H.230 as it is rife with constitutional problems, and you can read our testimony here. When H.230 was initially presented as an "anti-suicide" bill, the Waiting Period portion was billed as being useful to stop a person who was intent on suicide from going to a store, purchasing a firearm, and then immediately ending their lives with it.  Even though suicides are usually spontaneous acts, it is suggested that a Waiting Period would give a person in crisis time to reconsider their possible action(s). After we pointed out that there were only 2 such situations in Vermont in the past 10 years based on testimony in the House Committee on Health Care as compared to 440,881 firearm sales in Vermont across that same period of time, the bill was amended to suggest that a Waiting Period would also be useful for stopping Straw Purchases. Regarding this aspect, SA Thibault suggested that Vermont had an "epidemic" of firearms being purchased in Vermont but later being found in other states at a crime scene. That did not ring true to us, so we researched it and have found that, as a source of firearms to other states, we are THE SECOND LOWEST IN THE NATION.  We also discovered that Vermont has the BEST RECORD IN THE NATION as NOT appearing to have an "epidemic" Straw Purchase problem in all time categories but one, where we are SECOND BEST IN THE NATION. We took that research and turned it into a report, now forwarded to the Committee and SA Thibault, and you can see that report here. Testimony on H.230 will continue next Wednesday, 4/12, at 10:30. If you have not done so already, or even if you have, please use the new Take Action feature of the VTFSC website to contact the Senate about H.230. Thank you for reading; Thank you for your continued support of the VTFSC and our member clubs; and please consider a donation to help us help you defend our rights. Best Regards, Vermont Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs http://www.vtfsc.com/ VT Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs · 454 S Main St, Northfield, VT 05663, United States This email was sent to sportsmanscluboffranklincounty.clubnews@blogger.com. To stop receiving emails, click here. You can also keep up with Vermont Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs on Facebook. Created with NationBuilder, software for leaders.

Take Action on H.230

H.230 is now in the Senate - Time to TAKE ACTION!

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Bernard - We previously informed you about H.230: An act relating to implementing mechanisms to reduce suicide.  Despite having serious constitutional issues, the House passed this egregious bill, with Senate Judiciary taking this up Thursday 4/6 at 9AM. Our fight has therefore moved to the Senate/Senate Judiciary Committee, and we need to strongly tell them that passing unconstitutional bills is not in keeping with how the Vermont Legislature should conduct OUR business. To help advocates such as yourself - the VTFSC has invested in Advocacy Software that makes it painless to send a coherent message to not only the full Senate Judiciary Committee, but also to your own individual Senator(s). First, please go to this link.  This will take you to our Take Action Page. On that page you will see a box entitled H.230, with a Take Action button at the bottom left.  Click the Take Action button. You will be asked to enter your street address (please include town), and then your Zip Code; this information is used to look up your Senator(s).  Then click the GO button. As Legislators want to be able to know who is contacting them, enter the required Contact Information fields.  On the right side you will see a randomly selected pre-written Subject and Email Message.  You can change either or leave them as is; then click Send. Voila!  You've just contacted all 5 Committee members and your own Senator(s), each with individual emails. PLEASE:  We have made this EASY.  Share this email with your friends, and have THEM send emails using this tool.  Do it once this week, and then next week. We invested in this software to allow us all to be more effective, and that investment was made possible due to your support. Thank you for your continued support of the VTFSC and our member clubs; please consider a donation to help us help you defend our rights. Best Regards, Vermont Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs http://www.vtfsc.com/ VT Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs · 454 S Main St, Northfield, VT 05663, United States This email was sent to sportsmanscluboffranklincounty.clubnews@blogger.com. To stop receiving emails, click here. You can also keep up with Vermont Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs on Facebook. Created with NationBuilder, software for leaders.