Senate Judiciary hears walkthrough of H 606 to make firearm theft felony, expand enforcement for prohibited possessors and add machine-gun parity

Eric Patrick, counsel to the committee, opened with a section-by-section walkthrough of House Bill 606, which he said combines several discrete firearm procedures into four main changes.

Patrick said the bill's first section would "make it a 10-year felony if the property stolen is a firearm of any value," removing the usual $900 monetary threshold that distinguishes misdemeanor from felony theft for property. He told the committee the draft uses the federal definition of "firearm," which generally excludes antiques and muzzle-loaders.

The second section addresses the statutory category of "prohibited persons" who may not possess firearms because of prior convictions. Patrick explained the bill preserves Vermont's existing list of violent convictions but raises penalties for second or subsequent violations: while the offense is now a two-year misdemeanor, the bill would increase penalties for repeat offenders to a higher felony-level term in the draft.

Section three was the most technical, Patrick said, because it ties state enforcement to a subset of doctrines already recognized under federal law. He quoted the federal statute, noting that "under 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(4) any person who has been 'adjudicated as a mental defective or committed to a mental institution' is prohibited from possessing firearms under federal law." He described how…