Waiting Periods Will Not Work
By Chris Bradley, President, Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs
As I understand it: The suggested need for a waiting period is as a way to help reduce impulsive acts done with firearms, specifically suicides or murders, with this being referred to as “reducing access to lethal means”.
Regarding suicide by firearm: According to the Vermont Department of Mental Health, in 2016 there were 1,141 suicide attempts. Of those, 1,070 or 94% were attempts using something other than a firearm. For those suicides where a firearm was used, the vast majority were done with a firearm that was already owned.
It is actually a pretty rare event when a person will go to a store, buy a firearm and then kill themselves with it.
Regarding the impulsive use of a firearm for murder, this is not a common event in Vermont either. Per the FBI: Vermont is consistently the first or second safest state in the nation when it comes to violent crime. Impulsively buying a firearm for immediate nefarious purposes is also a pretty rare event.
A waiting period will be ineffective for the simple reason that people plan. When someone decides to hop in their car, go to a store, fake any distress, buy a firearm and then go home and kill themselves with it: That’s a plan. No matter what time limit is imposed, if someone is determined they will simply plan around a waiting period.
There are other problems with a waiting period.
To begin: Just what is the balance between the concept of a waiting period and the unalienable right of self defense? According to the Judiciary Annual Statistical Report, there were 3,380 Relief From Abuse (RFA) filings in 2018, an increase of 8% over 2017. Temporary restraining orders were granted for 2,636 cases. Final orders were granted for 1,589.
There can be no question that there are Vermonters who are in fear of violence as it is clear there are thousands. Likewise there should be no question that Vermonters have a right to self defense.
It is not unrealistic to believe that some of those Vermonters under the threat of violence may choose to immediately obtain the means for their defense. Beyond those Vermonters is any Vermonter who understands that the defensive use of firearms is a common occurrence and who also wish to immediately prepare themselves.
How tragic will it be when a known victim is killed by a known aggressor while the victim was in a waiting period? These stories exist now, just not in Vermont.
What of the situation where the purchaser already owns a firearm? There were 41,000 firearm transfers in Vermont for 2018, one of which we now hope was preventable. If the intent of a waiting period is to reduce access to lethal means, what is accomplished when a Vermonter already owns lethal means?
While establishing a waiting period might, possibly, maybe help reduce what are already rare events, waiting periods will prove ineffective. Beyond that, since waiting periods will not address 94% of overall suicide attempts, and will not address when lethal means are already owned: It seems clear we need a solution that is better focused on the overall problem.
Establishing a waiting period will put Vermonters at risk who are under the threat of violence by denying them the ability to defend themselves in a timely manner; it will inconvenience tens of thousands of Vermonters annually in lost time and money to make a redundant trip; and it will financially hurt sporting organizations, businesses, and towns that host sportsman’s shows, banquets and auctions. It also invites yet another court challenge.
The benefits of a waiting period are questionable – the negatives are real.
I respectfully ask the Legislature to vote down any waiting period on possessing a firearm.
Our Perpetual Enslavement
By Emma Helen Bauer, Director of Vermont Youth for GunSense
As I sat down to the first night Passover Seder I attended on campus, I was offered a sheet with four recommended discussion questions. One question stood out to my friends and me: what enslaves you? We laughed over it at the time, at the sometimes-dark Jewish humor of the discussion of how oppressed our ancestors were that always comes up with Passover. Yet, this is a worthwhile question to pose. We sit down yearly to remember the slavery our Jewish ancestors escaped millennia ago. But after another white supremacist with a deadly weapon has perpetrated another hate crime in Poway, California, we must all reflect on what enslaves us now, as a Jewish community and as a country.
I can’t get over the terrible symmetry of this event. Exactly six months after 11 were murdered at a celebration of new life in Pittsburgh, one was murdered and three were injured at a service memorializing the dead at the close of Passover. From birth to death, our community is still terrorized, with little to no action happening in our communities and legislatures to end the cycle of gun violence that enslaves us. After 50 Muslims were murdered in New Zealand, their prime minister immediately banned the weapons used—the response we should all be taking as white supremacy puts marginalized communities at risk here in America.
What is it about our country that enslaves us in this cycle of violence? I have been working in the gun violence prevention movement for more than a year now, and I still do not have the answer. Why are we so enslaved by the idea of weapons of war as a method of self-defense? How can we let so many die without a national response to end the cycle? We pray every year for peace and freedom, yet year after year the plague of gun violence takes more lives. The president tweets that he supports our right to life, but also calls Nazis and white supremacists marching in the streets “fine people.” His pockets are so lined with money from the NRA that he will not consider taking weapons away from those who will take our lives. While freedom of religion and the Second Amendment may both be in our Constitution, our Congress and the gun lobby are prioritizing one, regardless of the deadly consequences. It is time to end our country’s perpetual enslavement that puts every single one of us in danger.