Immediate items of Interest:

> Public Hearing on S.169, House Judiciary

April 2nd, 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM, Statehouse
Information on this hearing cane be seen here.
The Press Release can be seen here.
Talking Points will be available shortly.

> Court Case on Mag Ban

On Wednesday, March 20th, Judge Mary Teachout ruled on the State's Motion to Dismiss and the Plaintiff's (US) Motion for Summary Judgement. Both motions were dismissed, which means We Go To Trial! Please refer to the Timeline of Activities to see all that has gone on with the Court Case so far, or you can read Judge Teachout's reply to the motions here.

This is GREAT NEWS! While we would have preferred a Motion for Summary Judgement, our legal team can now delve deeply into the Constitutional aspects of this ban, and we remain extremely confident on the final outcome.

> Status of Firearm Bills in Play

Today, on the morning of March 21, Senate Judiciary again took up several proposed amendments to the newly create Committee bill, S.169, that were brought forward by Senator John Rodgers. After discussion among the Committee members, only a minor correction of the proposed amendment governing magazines for law enforcement was approved.

S.169 was then discussed on the Senate floor this afternoon, where it passed on a vote of 20-10. Beyond insuring the out-of-state competitors could continue to come to Vermont with high-capacity magazines for the purposes of participating in shooting competition, the bill establishes a 24-hour waiting period (which starts when the NICS check is done) on JUST the purchase of a handgun (long guns can still be sold w/o a waiting period).

This bill now moves to the House and then onto House Judiciary where we expect it will be taken up almost immediately.

You can look at the bill as introduced here: final version is not yet published.

> THANK YOU!!!

The VTFSC wishes to extend it's thanks to all the Sportsmen and Sportswomen who made the time to attend the hearing in Randolph on Tuesday 3/12. Your testimony was extremely powerful, and not only did we turn out in numbers that vastly overshadowed the opposition, we also dominated the testimony. Your attendance, and your words made a difference on S.22, and we cannot Thank You enough. We hope you enjoy those stickers, t-shirts and American Flags!

Be aware that we are expecting another Hearing, this time from House Judiciary (believe it or not) when they pick up whatever

leaves the Senate from the Committee Bills passed out of Senate Judiciary on 3/15.