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 constitutional concerns: the original charter language risked vagueness under due-process principles and risked running afoul of current Second Amendment jurisprudence. Fitzpatrick referenced the U.S. Supreme Court’s test in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. v. Bruen and the Second Circuit’s Antonelli v. James decision, saying that, under present precedent in the Second Circuit, courts have upheld prohibitions on firearm possession in certain “sensitive places,” including places that serve alcohol when the prohibition is limited to the premises.

Mayor Emma Mulvaney Stanek testified in support of the amendment and urged the committee to advance Burlington’s charter change. “Firearms and alcohol are a terrible combination,” Mayor Mulvaney Stanek said, citing a fatal shooting last summer on Church Street near Red Square and noting broad voter support: the measure passed the city ballot with about 86% of the vote at the most recent town meeting day and had previously passed with about 68% in 2014.

Jessica Brown, Burlington city attorney, said the charter language retains a civil-penalty and forfeiture provision that, she said, was originally intended to create “a noncriminal option” for incidents that may not require arrest. Legislative counsel told the committee that forfeiture language can raise constitutional questions and proportionality concerns and that the committee may wish to consider those issues further.

Tucker Anderson, legislative counsel, walked the committee through the licensing details the amendment would affect. He said Vermont law recognizes multiple classes of alcoholic-beverage licenses (referred to in the discussion as first, second, third and fourth class licenses) and a wide array of permits — ranging from dining cars and boats to festival permits, limited-event permits and outside-serving permits. The amendment as drafted carves out several exceptions and aims to align the prohibition with the specific licensed “premises” covered by Title 7 permits so enforcement is limited to the area the municipality authorizes for on-premises consumption.

Committee members and witnesses raised several unresolved drafting questions. They asked for clearer drafting on who counts as an “owner or operator” for the exemption that would permit certain people to possess firearms on licensed premises (discussion turned to whether that should be the liquor-license holder, a property owner or the on-duty manager). Counsel also agreed to clarify the precise current names for festival or special-event permits used in Title 7 and to confirm how municipal outside-serving permits identify an outdoor premises. Legislative counsel and Burlington’s attorneys said they would continue to refine the text with those clarifications.

No formal committee vote or final action on S.131 was recorded in the transcript. The committee heard testimony and detailed drafting discussion and slated further technical work and possible revisions before any vote.

The committee’s discussion highlighted the legal trade-offs the legislature faces when reviewing a municipal charter change on firearms: balancing Burlington voters’ stated policy preference with the need to draft clear, constitutionally defensible statutory language that limits prohibitions to defined licensed premises and incorporates appropriate mental-state and enforcement provisions.