Senate committee reviews Burlington charter amendment narrowing firearm ban to inside licensed premises

The Senate Committee on Government Operations on April 15 considered Amendment 2.1 to S.131, the Burlington charter change that would bar firearms inside premises licensed to serve alcoholic beverages. Legislative counsel Eric Fitzpatrick told the committee the draft narrows a constitutionally vague provision the city originally passed and adds a mental-state element to limit criminal liability.

The amendment would replace language that, as originally written by the city, “appeared to prohibit the possession of firearms, by anybody on any property that was owned by a place that was licensed to serve alcoholic beverages, whether or not that property was inside the establishment, in the parking lot next door, upstairs, in another building that the establishment might own in another part of town,” Fitzpatrick said. The revised text would apply to persons who “knowingly” possess a firearm inside premises licensed to serve alcoholic beverages, and it limits the prohibition to the licensed premises rather than all property owned by a licensee.

The change, Fitzpatrick and other counsel said, was motivated by…