Vermont Citizens March Against New Gun Laws

Vermont Governor Phil Scott, a Republican, has pledged to sign three new gun control bills into law this week, all of which would make it harder for people to purchase firearms and make it easier for law enforcement to take guns away from lawful owners. In response to the impending laws, however, pro-gun activists have taken to the streets in South Burlington to tell the governor and the state legislature to take a look at the Second Amendment and then take a hike.

The first bill to hit Scott’s desk this week will make it easier for police to confiscate guns from anyone who is considered a risk to themselves or others. The second will allow law enforcement to take guns away from anyone who has been arrested or cited on domestic violence charges. The third will raise the lawful gun purchasing age to 21 in the state of Vermont and expand background checks. It will also ban bump stocks and high capacity magazines.

“Those bills won’t be able to protect us,” a woman named Naomi Snelling told the local news affiliate. “I know how to protect myself and other people, and I know the lines of when I need to draw that.”

Snelling was one of hundreds of protesters who took to the streets this weekend to protest the new gun laws. According to WVNY, most people were content to hold signs expressing their displeasure, but “others open carried AR-15s across their chest to make a point.”

The march was organized by Christopher Covey, who said he never saw himself as the type of person to protest against gun control. Covey, however, said he was troubled by the increasingly-hostile actions taken by the Vermont government.

“We’re trying to get people to understand us and understand why we want our right to bear arms,” he said.

Normally these big protest marches are the domain of the left, but we might have to start changing that if we want to hold on to our rights. These marches – as we’ve seen so many times – are a powerful weapon in the hands of the liberal media because they make it seem like there is so much more support for a cause than there might actually be in reality. On the flipside, the right’s relative reluctance to protest gives the opposite impression – that the passion and desire to see change (or, in this case, NO change) isn’t actually out there. But when you do see us come alive (the 2008 Tea Party rallies, the Trump rallies), it gets a whole lot of attention. That can move the needle.

And when it comes to gun rights – in Vermont and everywhere else – we need to start playing some offense.