The term "sanctuary city" is often used to indicate a city or town that limits its cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. But in a small but growing number of Vermont towns, there's another sanctuary movement taking place: resolutions to make their community a "second amendment sanctuary," a symbolic rebuff of any federal or state laws that would put limits on one's right to bear arms.
Eric Davis of Northfield, the new president of Gun Owners of Vermont, explained why he and other Second Amendment advocates are working to pass what he admits are mostly symbolic resolutions in towns across Vermont.
"What we're asking you to do is pass this resolution as sort of a symbolic thing to help us get the attention of the folks in Montpelier who don't otherwise seem to be willing to listen to us," Davis told a meeting of the Barre Town Selectboard on Jan. 21.
"We've been fighting this fight for a long time, and they keep coming back year after year with more restrictions and more gun control ... and it never stops," he said.
"We feel like we're not being listened to and we feel like we're being treated a little bit like criminals, and like we're some sort of problem here, and we don't think we are."
Seven Days reporter Derek Brouwer joins Vermont Edition to talk about his reporting on Vermont's "Second Amendment sanctuaries" and how the issue could be raised in more towns on Town Meeting Day.
Broadcast live on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020 at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
