GOP Vermont gov inks a historic curb on guns

VERMONT HAS enacted the first significant gun restrictions in the state’s history.

Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed a package of bills Wednesday that raise the age to buy firearms, ban high-capacity magazines and make it easier to take guns from people who pose a threat.

The recently passed bills also require background checks for most private gun sales and ban rapid-fire devices known as bump stocks.

It’s a remarkable turnaround for the largely rural state that traditionally has refused to impose restrictions on gun ownership.

Standing on the Statehouse steps, Scott signed the three bills into law before a crowd of gun rights activists and supporters of gun control.

“This is not the time to do what’s easy, it’s time to do what’s right,” Scott said.

“This is one of those moments as a state when we have the opportunity to do things differently.”

Scott, a gun owner, had urged the Legislature to pass gun restrictions in the aftermath of what police called a narrowly averted school shooting in Fair Haven by a teenager.

He said the incident proved to him that Vermont isn’t immune from the school violence that has plagued other parts of the country.

An arrest in the February Fair Haven case came the day after a high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14 that left 17 people dead.