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Came across this and the BS radar went off.
“This commentary is by Allie Breyer of Montpelier, and a volunteer for Moms Demand Action Vermont.“
Then Covid hit, and everything changed. The pandemic fueled a rise in anger and stress — expressed through aggressive behavior and domestic violence. We witnessed this in real time with a neighbor on our street.
Our neighbor had long struggled with substance misuse and aggressive behavior issues, according to his family — and these issues were amplified during the pandemic. His behavior deteriorated over the course of the following year.
Our dream turned into a nightmare. Frequently, and into the late hours of the night, the neighbor would shoot his assault weapons, the booms reverberating across the valley. We heard screaming from his house regularly. Our relationship with the man’s family, which had previously been amicable, quickly deteriorated. Our valley — our home — sounded like we were living in a war zone.
During this tumultuous time, we learned this man was a felon and not allowed to own guns. Yet, despite pleading with local police, they said they couldn’t remove his weapons. This is because Vermont laws do not align with federal law that prohibits convicted felons from owning firearms — Vermont law applies only to convicted violent felons. Local law enforcement can’t enforce the federal law and must refer cases to the federal authorities (and frequently those federal authorities do not have the resources to prosecute these cases unless they are coupled with other crimes). We were stuck in this muddy middle ground.
Her town’s ordinance:
Sec. 11-500. USE OF ARMS.
No person shall discharge or fire or cause to be discharged, or fired, any revolver, pistol, rifle, shotgun, air rifle, BB gun, or other similar firearm or weapon within the limits of the city of Montpelier.
This prohibition shall not apply to the use of firearms or weapons by any duly constituted police officer or other public official when such use is reasonably necessary in the performance of his duties as such officer or official; nor shall it apply to the use of shotgun, air rifle, or BB gun, by a hunter in the active pursuit of game, except that such shotgun shall not be used with ammunition containing a single slug, pellet or missile in any one cartridge or shell, nor shall either shotgun or air rifle be discharged within a distance of 200 yards from any building and shooting within 100 yards of an accepted street or highway, and provided further that this ordinance shall not prevent the discharge of firearms on any properly constructed firing range or in the conduct of a contest, shoot, meet, or game when reasonable precautions are taken for the protection of the public safety; nor shall it prevent the use of firearms for the disposal of vermin when permission for such use has been first obtained from the Chief of Police of the City of Montpelier.
Gonna say this story (a violent substance
abusing felon shooting off his “assault weapons” in the middle of the night in a reckless manner, and cops getting called on a known felon shooting off guns recklessly and cops are like “sorry Ms. Moms Demand Lady, nothing we can do about the guy causing potential domestic violence while he’s drunk/high and shooting off his guns in the middle of the night waking up the neighborhood”) is very, as the kids would say, “sus”. Without calling it a lie, this just seems too much of a perfect situation to gaslight in order to promote legislation. Surly a state government employee who is a “professional“ neoliberal activist in her spare time would never lie/exaggerate to achieve her goal....
UPDATE: David Codrea linked the public incident reports. Happy digging trying to find the “frequent“ incidents she describes.
Yeah, not buying her story in the way she told it. I wonder if the police department in her town might have some context about number and type of calls for service to that neighbor, and her description of their unwillingness to do anything. When the story exactly fits the narrative the person wants to sell it's a little too convenient.