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Legislators are considering a bill that would largely prohibit the possession, transfer or manufacture of firearms without serial numbers, including what are known as ghost guns, which supporters of the proposal say are an increasing issue in Vermont.
Ghost guns are firearms built at home using kits that come with all the parts needed for a gun. The unassembled parts aren’t considered guns by federal law, aren’t subject to the same regulations and therefore have no serial number.
Vermont has no law regulating such ready-made kits. However, as gun violence gains increasing attention in the state, gun control advocates believe passing the bill will help lower violence rates, said Conor Casey, the director of Gun Sense Vermont, one of the organizations backing the bill.
“If you’re able to sort of order the parts piece by piece, certainly it’s not going to have a serial number, and if those firearms get in the wrong hands, it could make it very difficult for law enforcement to track who committed the crime,” Casey said.
Sen. Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, one of the bill’s lead sponsors, said the proposal aims to prevent people from easily distributing untraceable guns to bad actors. “All of these things have — at root — the desire to prevent mass shootings and prevent the normal kinds of deaths by guns like homicide and suicide,” said Baruth, who also serves as president pro tempore.
But some gun rights advocates aren’t convinced the bill would change much about gun crime in Vermont.
“I don’t care what law you pass. Criminals will always be able to get guns if they can 3D print them,” said Chris Bradley, director of the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen Clubs, who agreed the use of ghost guns in crimes is a problem. “So where exactly in the course of events are you going to catch somebody with one of these things?”
The bill, S.209, would require all firearms to have serial numbers and impose penalties for any person carrying a firearm without a serial number, outside of several exceptions.
A first-time violator would face at most a year’s imprisonment and up to a $500 fine; a second offense raises the prison time to up to two years and the fine to up to $1,000. Three or more offenses could lead to a sentence of up to 19 years and a fine of up to $2,000. The bill additionally would require proceedings against people ages 14 to 21 who are charged with human trafficking, trafficking regulated drugs, carrying a firearm during a felony or aggravated stalking be placed in the criminal court system.
The bill would also create a process for federally licensed firearms dealers to print serial numbers on firearms, frames and receivers without them.
Vermont saw a record number of gunshot fatalities in 2022, according to a story published this past December by Vermont Public. The public media outlet has analyzed gunshot deaths in the state since 2011 and seen a general rise since that time. In 2022, the most recent year of data analyzed, homicides made up a larger portion of the total than suicides for the first time since 2019. Seventy-three percent of gun deaths in Vermont in 2022 were ruled suicides, while 41% were labeled homicides, according to federal data the news outlet analyzed.
Casey’s group, Gun Sense Vermont, says Vermont has the highest rate of gun deaths in New England.
“Burlington went from probably about two firearm incidents a year to I think 30-plus the last year there,” Casey said. “So you need to give law enforcement all the tools they can to prosecute these crimes and make sure people are held accountable. So this (bill) is just one more tool in the box in that case.”
But Bradley said the bill puts unnecessary rules in place that only law-abiding citizens will follow. Groups like his also say law enforcement would be unable to see whether a gun has a serial number unless it was involved in a crime, he said, because the numbers are so small.