The House Judiciary Committee has focused on public safety during the decade I have served as a representative. This year, the Committee has passed bills to address retail theft, trespass into motor vehicles, domestic and sexual violence, and the backlog of cases in our courts. The Committee is currently considering Senate bills that address juvenile justice, drug offenses, and bail and violations of conditions of release. We have also continued our sustained efforts to mitigate firearm violence in a manner that respects the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article 16 of the Vermont Constitution.

Last year, the legislature focused on implementing firearm policies that would reduce suicide. Act 45 required gun owners to securely store their firearms in circumstances where a child or person prohibited from possessing a firearm is likely to gain access to them. It also improved access to Vermont’s red-flag law, which allows a court to issue an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO). An ERPO is a civil order that temporarily prohibits certain individuals from purchasing, possessing, or receiving any dangerous weapons, including firearms, where those individuals pose a danger of injury to self (including suicide) or to others. Finally, Act 45 added a 72-hour waiting period for firearm purchases.

This year, the Senate Judiciary Committee turned its attention to privately-made firearms. Guns can be assembled from parts (often sold in a kit) or printed using a 3D printer. When such firearms lack a serial number, they are known as ghost guns. S.209 would prohibit the possession, transfer, and manufacturing of firearms without a serial number. Without a serial number, guns are untraceable, which can frustrate an investigation when they are used in the commission of a crime. Also, people can obtain ghost guns without undergoing the required background check, including individuals who are prohibited from possessing a firearm.

The text of the bill as it passed the Senate provided that possession, transfer, and manufacture of non-serialized firearms would lead to a criminal penalty. The House Judiciary Committee changed possession of non-serialized firearms to a civil infraction out of respect for the long-standing gun-smithing tradition in Vermont. We agreed with the Senate in having the transfer and manufacture of non-serialized firearms as criminal offenses.

Under the bill, if hobbyists want to build their own guns, they may still do so. They are then required to bring their guns to a federally-licensed firearms dealer to have a serial number added and to undergo a background check. 

The bill also includes a provision that would provide a sentencing enhancement if an offender carried a ghost gun when committing a violent crime. The offender would be subject to a penalty of up to five additional years in prison.

The ghost gun provisions do not violate the Second Amendment. They are constitutional under the Supreme Court’s test in NYSRPA v. Bruen. 

First, this bill does not implicate the plain text of the Second Amendment. It does not impair anyone’s right to keep or bear arms; it simply requires that such arms have serial numbers on them. Second, S.209 is consistent with the historical tradition of firearms regulation. Identifying marks on firearms have a long history, dating back to sixteenth-century England and colonial America. S.209 is likewise consistent with other longstanding prohibitions aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of those who are prohibited from possessing them under existing state and federal law.            

The House Judiciary Committee added a provision to S.209 that bans the carrying of firearms or other dangerous weapons in polling places. This ban is also constitutional under Supreme Court precedent. In Bruen, the Supreme Court specifically identified polling places among so-called “sensitive places,” which are locations where firearms may be prohibited. The current political climate warrants increased protections for poll workers and voters alike from potential violence and intimidation.