A bill intended to reduce suicides cleared the House Health Care Committee on Wednesday and is now headed to Judiciary Committee, where it may be viewed through a different lens: gun control.

The health care committee approved the bill, H.230, by a vote of 7-3, with all Democrats supporting an amended version and all Republicans opposing it.

“I’m from a rural area. They take their gun ownership very strongly up there,” said Allen “Penny” Demar, R-Enosburg Falls, explaining his “no” vote in committee on Wednesday. “I’m going to go with the people back home. I think a lot of honest citizens are going to get harmed out of this.”

The bill would require locked firearm storage in homes that children frequent and a 72-hour waiting period after a firearm purchase. It also would give “a family or household member” the ability to file a petition with the court to remove firearms from someone deemed to be an “extreme risk” to them and others.

In 2019, Gov. Phil Scott vetoed a bill mandating a 24-hour waiting period, and House Democrats did not have the votes to override. They may now, but the legal landscape has also changed because of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The health care committee considered a 48-hour waiting period, but decided that reducing the time would not gain any support from legislators opposed to the bill. “If 48 hours was going to bring us all to a consensus, I would gladly accept that,” said Rep. Brian Cina, P/D Burlington. “But I’ve heard from people that there is nothing that will work, so I don’t see any reason to go down to 48, personally.”

Work began on the bill earlier this month with testimony from family members affected by suicide and with a broad review of Vermont and national statistics related to death by suicide. The committee then focused on firearms as a particularly lethal method, anticipating that policies directed at other methods would go into a different bill yet to be discussed, H.283.

Vermont’s rate of death by suicide per 100,000 residents was 20.3 in 2021, around 45% higher than the national rate of 14 per 100,000. According to the Vermont Department of Health, 52% of all completed suicides that year were by firearm.

“Although there are many other methods for committing suicide, firearms are unique in their ability to create instantaneous and irreversible outcomes,” the legislative purpose section of the gun-related bill reads. “Nearly every other commonly used method for suicide has a high survivability rate.” That statement relies on studies of national death records and non-fatal hospitalizations that conclude that suicide attempts by firearm are almost 90% completed.

The storage section would require that firearms be locked away or rendered inoperable by a safety device and kept separately from ammunition in “premises” where children or someone prohibited from possessing a firearm might be able to access them. It creates a fine of $100 for a violation and fines of $1,000 and $5,000 when the firearm is used in the commission of a crime or to cause death or injury, respectively.

The health care committee focused almost entirely on the suicide prevention aspects of the bill. Although the bill could make a pitstop on the House floor, health care committee chair Lori Houghton, D-Essex Junction, said she would ask that it be transferred to the judiciary committee.

If you are in crisis or need help for someone else, dial 988 for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or text VT to 741741 for the Crisis Text Line.

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