Question for you:

If socialism is "anti-gun": explain why Vermont's most prominent politician happens to be a

SOCIALIST?????

Everybody knows that Vermont has historically had the weakest gun laws in the US.

So, please--explain away?  Where are the gun grabs?  Where are the genocides?

Like Vermont?

Think of all those wonderful gun laws, such as concealed carry without a permit.

The face of Socialism in America

Do you think of Socialists?

You'd better.

There's a reason Sen. Bernie Sanders is listed as an Independent--He's a socialist!

Sanders is a self-described democratic socialist and has praised Scandinavian-style social democracy.

So, the next time you want to tie gun control to socialism--think of Sen. Bernie Sanders from Vermont!

I hope like hell he runs for president since I'm really disappointed with Obama--he nationalised fuck all.

And the really scary thing--I think I'm not the only person who would want to see him become President.

Hey, Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch: you can give us guns, but you can't be sure where we'll point them.


See also:

• Could A Socialist Senator Become A National Brand? : NPR
• What Do the Koch Brothers Want? - Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont

Gun Paradise Vermont is Moving Towards Stricter Gun Control Laws

Dozens of gun rights advocates spoke out against the gun control charter changes at Burlington's city council meeting Oct. 21.

VPR

Burlington is moving forward with a trio of gun control measures with wide backing from the mayor, city councilors and the city’s police chief.

On Monday night, the city council passed three of four proposed charter changes. The three propose to give police power to seize guns when there is reasonable suspicion of domestic violence, ban firearms from institutions where liquor is served, and require all unattended guns to be securely locked.

Another proposed charter change called for a permitting system for the concealed carry of firearms. Both Mayor Miro Weinberger and Police Chief Michael Schirling voiced opposition to that plan.

The proposed changes now have to pass city-wide vote before they’re presented to the state legislature. If Burlington voters and state legislators approve the change, the city may begin to enforce them.

Vermont Governor Wants Abusers' Guns Stored

boston dot com

Law enforcement officials should be able to charge for storage of firearms belonging to people subject to protection from abuse orders, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin said Thursday.

Those subject to relief-from-abuse orders usually are required not to possess firearms, which Shumlin called an important safeguard when emotions are running high, and the legislation Shumlin is backing would lighten the burden on authorities trying to make sure those weapons are secure.

‘‘The goal is to give law enforcement and professional (gun) dealers the means to take control of the storage of firearms while protection orders are in effect, instead of letting abusers hand them over to a friend or family member or, worse, hold on to them,’’ the governor said.

Under the legislation, sheriffs would be allowed to charge a fee for the storage of weapons and could sell them if the fee were not paid. A $75,000 fund would be set up to support building and maintaining storage facilities, with the aim that the fund would be replenished by the fees.

Shumlin said current gun laws —Vermont is among the most favorable states in the country toward gun ownership rights — would not change. What would change would be the ability of law enforcement to take and store firearms when a judge issues an order that a domestic violence perpetrator not possess weapons.

Tronsgard-Scott said national research showed that the ‘‘presence of a gun in domestic violence situations increases the risk of homicide for women by 500 percent.’’

Fatal Shooting in Manchester Not the First Incident of its Kind for State Trooper

The Concord Monitor reports about more madness in Vermont further to Laci's excellent post.

The 45-year-old woman who died Monday in Manchester following a chaotic police chase was killed by a decorated state trooper with eight years of service who has taken part in two other officer-involved shootings in the past three years, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the incident.

Though state officials have yet to publicly identify the shooter, others have confirmed it was Trooper Chad Lavoie of Troop B who opened fire on Wendy Lawrence shortly before 7 p.m.

Lawrence, who had been on the run after fleeing the scene of a traffic stop on Interstate 89 in Bow, was transported to a nearby hospital and was later pronounced dead. An autopsy revealed she had been struck four times, including once fatally in the chest.

Lavoie was one of five officers who shot and killed an armed suspect in Pelham on Oct. 22, 2011. The 21-year-old victim in that case had been on the run from Massachusetts, where he was wanted for physical assault, according to a state investigation into the incident. After being rammed by a police cruiser on Hobbs Road, the suspect exited his vehicle, held a handgun to his head and began pleading with several officers to shoot him. They told him to put the weapon down. He refused.

Lavoie and the other officers opened fire on the man after he turned the gun on some of them and began approaching, the investigation found. Lavoie later told authorities he thought he’d shot at the suspect five or six times.

The attorney general’s office concluded in a report later that year that the officers’ actions had been justified, stating they “reasonably believed that they or others were in danger of death or serious bodily injury.”

So much for peaceful Vermont

Nothing like a road rage incident gone overboard to change a peaceful state to a war zone. 

In this case, the chain of events began with a dispute between Matthew Webster and his wife, then escalated after Webster ran a red light and nearly collided with Anna Alger's car. Alger pursued and then confronted Webster, who responded by killing her.

I guess that's what you get if you don't dial 911.

On the other hand, who carries a gun in a civilised society?

Matthew webster did: a Ruger 9 mm semiautomatic handgun and a Keltec .380 pistol, along with three magazines, including the emptied one, and five loose bullets, according to court papers.

Anyway, Webster told investigators that Alger charged "like a six-point buck coming over a hill" and fired a shot at her thinking that would stop her.

He emptied the magazine on her when it didn't.

Anyway, a witness described the incident this way:

I saw the man and the woman standing outside of their cars and they seemed to be arguing. He started toward her and she put her hands up and said something along the lines of 'No, don't.' I had been driving by at this time, and when I went past, I heard a shot.
When I looked back she was on the ground and he had taken off. So extremely scary, especially with my two kids in the car.

Maybe this is the point where we reveal that Webster is being treated for depression and chronic anxiety among "so many other things,"  Not to mention that he has also admitted abusing prescription medication including oxycodone and methadone in the past and Klonopin, a medicine to treat anxiety.   Medical experts say that possible side-effects of Klonopin include mood or behavior changes, depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

But, we can't have cops second guessing who should be able to carry a gun, should we?

More here

Vermont Man Who Served One Year for Accidentally Killing his Friend Ordered to Pay Restitution

Local news reports

A man who served exactly one year in prison for the accidental shooting death of a friend in 2010 was ordered Friday to pay $20 a month toward the restitution of more than $6,700 for his friend’s funeral expenses.

In May 2012, Nicholas Bell, 25, of Manchester, pleaded no contest to a felony charge of manslaughter and misdemeanor charges of simple assault with a weapon and reckless endangerment.


Bell and a friend, Jeffrey Charbonneau, 24, of Manchester, had spent the night before Thanksgiving at the home of a mutual friend. On Nov. 25, 2010, Bell took what he believed to be a pellet gun from the bedroom wall and shot it at Charbonneau to wake him up.

However, Bell had picked up a loaded .22-caliber rifle. The bullet hit Charbonneau in the chest and he died before rescue workers could reach the Manchester home where Bell and Charbonneau were staying.

Bell said Friday that he had gone to the Newport jail on June 20, 2012, and was released on June 20 this year.

He also said that “morally and legally” he would like to make restitution, which totals more than $8,600, to the Charbonneau family but said he has no ability to pay right now. 

The restitution order is based on expenses incurred by the family because of Jeffrey Charbonneau’s death and include $6,720 for Jeffrey Charbonneau’s funeral and about $1,360 for Jeffrey’s sister, Kelly, to come from Colorado for the funeral. A request was also made for about $600 in wages lost by Richard Charbonneau, Jeffrey’s father, in part, when he was called away from work to identify his son’s body.

Lawful Gun Owner Commits Murder-Suicide in Vermont

Peachem shooting takes place in Vermont

Credits: WPTZ.com 

 

The Examiner

A Peachem shooting is trending on the Internet this afternoon, and early evidence seems to show the shooting may have stemmed from a lover’s quarrel — or lack of it. According to the report, a New Hampshire man appeared this week at the home of his ex-wife, proceeded to shoot her husband, then killed himself in a murder-suicide case

Lawful Gun Owner in Vermont Goes Bad

Boston.com reports

State police and Border Patrol agents were called to a party in Charleston about 1 a.m. Sunday regarding a shooting.

When police arrived, a crowd pushed 24-year-old Lee Sykes of Charleston against a trooper’s cruiser, telling police he had shot another Charleston man, Eric Baker, during a fight.

Officials say Baker was taken to North Country Hospital by his wife with a gunshot wound to the hip.  Sykes was also treated for injuries to his face and hand from the fight and from the crowd that went to Baker’s aid.

Sykes is being held on $25,000 bail at the Northern State Correctional Facility on a charge of aggravated assault. 

This is in gun friendly Vermont where according to the gun-rights folks this kind of thing just doesn't happen.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Drunken Vermont Gun Owner gets a Slap on the Wrist - Keeps Guns

Local news reports

A drunk and disorderly 54-year-old man was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon after members of the Vermont State Police were dispatched to a home along Peggy’s Lane for a report of numerous gun shots and a man threatening violence towards a neighbor. 

Police responded to the area at about 4:20 p.m., where Roger E. Decato, of West Townshend, continued to fire rounds of ammunition outside of his home.

One neighbor said she’s been hearing loud gunshots coming from the direction of Decato’s home for nearly six weeks.

Decato was processed at the Brattleboro Barracks and transported to Southern State Correctional Facility where he was ordered held until sober. 

Police also cited Decato for disorderly conduct, reckless endangerment and possession of marijuana.

We don't have to guess if this guy had a concealed carry permit. In the great state of Vermont, they enjoy Constitutional Carry, any one who owns a gun can carry concealed.  And it doesn't matter how unfit they are.

When they arrest one of them for misbehaving, they get to sleep it off and then get a slap on the wrist.  The one thing they don't do is take the guns away.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Accidental Shooting in Gun-Paradise Vermont - No Charges

Local news reports

Police say 22-year-old Brendan Barber was seriously injured Friday afternoon when a he was shot through the pelvis. He was flown by helicopter to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire.

Officials say police were called at about 3:30 p.m. to a city street where they found Barber lying on the ground.

Police told the Rutland Herald ( ) that Barber initially said he was shot by someone in a passing car.

Investigators said they later determined that the shooting was accidental, but didn't explain how the shooting took place.

Vermont Proposed Legislation - Pay for Not Owning a Gun

via Second Amendment, Shooting and Firearms Blog

Vermont State Rep. Fred Maslack has read the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as Vermont’s own Constitution very carefully, and his strict interpretation of these documents is popping some eyeballs in New England and elsewhere.

Maslack recently proposed a bill to register “non-gun-owners”and require them to pay a $500 fee to the state. Thus Vermont would become the first state to require a permit for the luxury of going about unarmed and assess a fee of $500 for the privilege of not owning a gun.

Maslack read the “militia” phrase of the Second Amendment as not only the right of the individual citizen to bear arms, but as a clear mandate to do so.

This bizarre nonsense must be a wild bargaining trick. If they propose such outlandish things as this, we'll be happy with the status quo.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Vermont Man Busted Dealing Guns and Pot

The Brattleboro Reformer reports on how the lax gun laws and attitudes in Vermont aided one man in violating federal law.

A 25-year-old Brattleboro man was charged in a federal court in Connecticut Thursday with one count of dealing in firearms without a license, three counts of interstate transfer of firearms and four counts of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

Kyle Farace was arrested in Brattleboro on Aug. 9.

"This involved a number of controlled purchases where an undercover agent bought marijuana and firearms," said Jonathan Freimann, Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

Freimann said Farace conducted what are called "straw purchases" of firearms, in which he bought the guns in his name with the intent of selling them to a third person.

Vermont is always touted as the perfect gun paradise, very little crime and very few gun restrictions. What goes unseen is the spillover effect all this "freedom" has on the neighboring states. Guns bought in Vermont end up in Hartford, Boston and New York City. And all the while, gun-rights advocates will hold up the Green Mountain State as proof that guns are good and gun control is bad.

What's your opinion? Do you think Vermont's comparatively low crime rate proves anything? You know, the same folks who say it does, also say Chicago and D.C. prove that gun control doesn't work. To me it seems both arguments are false.

Until we have a comprehensive gun-control program administered federally and one which contains a number of restrictions not yet attempted, we'll never know. The mish-mash of easily circumvented laws we have now are not nearly sufficient to bring the gun violence down to a respectable level.

What's respectable, well just look at the other developed countries of the world and see the laughing stock the U.S. has become in the area of unnecessary gun deaths.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Vermont Again!

The Burlington Free Press reports on the continuing spate of violent gun activity in that most paradisiacal of states.

A Bristol couple were arrested on criminal charges following a drug-related drive-by shooting of a car in Hinesburg early Wednesday, Vermont State Police said.

A car driven by Shawn Holbrook, 34, of Hinesburg was shot at near Vermont 116 and Mechanicsville Road at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, police said. They said two bullet holes were discovered in the driver's side door. Troopers from the Williston barracks were able to determine the location of the shooting and recovered evidence.

I guess they were right about me, I have to admit these Vermont stories make me very happy. It's a type of schadenfreude, I suppose, or maybe it's just the more basic, "I told you so. Guns are bad news. There are no exceptions."

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Trouble in Gun Paradise Vermont

The Bennington Banner reports on the most convoluted story you've erver read. Here are a couple of excerpts, but I'll let you try to sort it out.

Bolivar A. Roura, 31, of Cedar Rock Road, was charged with a misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment and released on the condition that he not have contact with Joseph Thompson.

According to an affidavit by Trooper Travis Hess of the Vermont State Police, on July 27 at 7 p.m., he responded to East Arlington Road to a report of a male pointing a gun at someone. Hess wrote that the male with the gun was seen heading east on East Arlington Road in a white car.

Griffis also pleaded not guilty Monday to violating conditions of release. Griffis has an aggravated domestic assault charge pending against him. One of his conditions is that he not consume alcohol. According to another police affidavit, Griffis told Manchester police that he'd consumed between four and five beers that day.

I'm not entirely sure who's who, but the raw elements are interesting. You've got a guy allegedly pointing a gun at another during an argument. You've got drinking and carrying guns in the permit-free gun paradise of Vermont. You've got domestic violence guys who, I suppose, are allowed to continue carrying as long as they don't drink. And, of course, you've got plenty of people saying it was all a big misunderstanding and there was really nothing to it.

What's your opinion? Is Vermont really the gun paradise it's cracked up to be?

Please leave a comment.

Vermont Manslaughter Trial

Google reports on the manslaughter trial in Vermont.

John Reiss, English Professor Emeritus was sitting down to eat dinner in his suburban Essex home when a rifle bullet tore through a window and hit him in the chest, killing him on the spot.

Police didn't have to look far to figure out what had happened. At the house next door, four men were taking target practice with rifles and a shotgun in a backyard shooting range, the sound of gunfire still heard by police arriving at Reiss' home in response to a frantic 911 call from his wife.

Because the four had been taking turns shooting the weapons, prosecutors concede they don't know who fired the fatal shot.

But they charged two of the men with involuntary manslaughter, and the trial got under way Tuesday for one of them — Joseph McCarthy, a 40-year-old tool operator at IBM who had set up the shooting range in his backyard, about 750 feet from Reiss' house.

Prosecutors say McCarthy, who had passed a hunter safety course 10 days before, should have known the risk posed by the shooting party and should be held criminally liable for Reiss' death. If convicted, he could get 15 years in prison.

Isn't it possible to blame this accident on the lax gun attitudes in Vermont? And by extension, wouldn't it be possible to blame all gun rights supporters who tout Vermont as the paragon of gun-totin' liberty?

I say yes. And you're only defense is a shabby one, that it happens infrequently enough that it's worth it.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Laci Speaks to Mike W.

Mike W. must have said something to Laci about Vermont. I vaguely remember it. But in responding, in between the name calling which everyone knows I don't condone, Laci points out some interesting things about the Green Mountain State.

From the Vermont State Police:

“Please be aware that Vermont does not at this time require or issue gun permits. Some Vermont towns and cities do have local ordinances, so if you are planning on visiting, it would be wise to contact the local police chief to find information pertaining to local information.”

What does that mean? Is it that the citizens of certain cities have chosen to ban guns? Why is the NRA letting them get away with that? Why don't the local gun owners stand up for their rights?

Or, maybe it's not that severe. Maybe they just have laws against open carry or have decided they don't want people carrying concealed in their town. But that would be a terrible infringement against the rights of those who disagree, even if they're in the minority.

Does it all mean that Vermont is not the gun paradise it's often described as?

What do you think? Please leave a comment.