House Judiciary reviews S.109 changes including firearm-surrender working group, victim notification and guardianship study

The House Judiciary Committee met to review proposed amendments to S.109, the annual miscellaneous judiciary procedure bill. Eric Fitzpatrick of the Office of Legislative Council summarized the draft changes and said “the proposal is to make a couple of changes and add a few new sections.” Committee members and witnesses discussed proposals ranging from a firearm-surrender compliance study to changes in victim notification, guardianship jurisdiction, and definitions for measuring recidivism.

The committee heard first about the Firearm Surrender Order Compliance Working Group. The draft trims the working group’s membership from 16 to eight members and creates a separate list of parties the group must consult rather than seat on the group itself. The working group was requested by the Vermont Network Against Domestic Violence; its charge is to develop a uniform process for enforcing court orders that require surrender and storage of firearms under existing Vermont law. Eric Fitzpatrick told the committee the change is meant to “streamline” membership and make the group more manageable. Committee members discussed whether to shift some organizations from the consult list onto the working group; the Vermont Federation of Sportsman’s Clubs appears on the consult list in the draft, and the Department of Public Safety requested removal from membership because it said it does not oversee firearms-storage programs.

Committee members and witnesses emphasized the working group would be studying process and coordination only, not changing the underlying legal authority for firearm seizure under relief-from-abuse orders, emergency protection orders or other statutes that permit law…