The Select Board will be taking public comment on the draft resolution of the "Right of Bolton Town Residents to Keep and Bear Arms" on Monday, June 2, 2014, 5:15 p.m. at the Bolton Town Office.

This draft resolution is the result of a majority vote at 2014 Town Meeting, and has not yet been adopted. The Select Board wanted to provide a forum for public comment prior to any motion to adopt the resolution.

Town of Bolton, Vermont
Resolution
Right of Bolton Town Residents to
Keep and Bear Arms

Whereas, the Select Board of the Town of Bolton was directed, by majority vote of those present and voting at the Town Meeting held on March 3, 2014, to consider the “Preserving Every American’s Constitutional Heritage” petition submitted by 84 registered town voters, which states that: “Every law-abiding American possesses an inalienable right to bear arms for self-defense, against enemies foreign and domestic, for the protection and preservation of our freedoms against tyranny. No law which reduces this Constitutional Guarantee to a mere hunting right, or which in any other manner infringes on this fundamental freedom, will be enacted”; and

Whereas, the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides that: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed"; and

Whereas, the United States Supreme Court in recent years has twice upheld the Second Amendment as applying to an individual's right to keep and bear arms in District of Columbia v. Heller, 128 S. Ct. 2783 (2008), and McDonald v. City of Chicago, 130 S. Ct. 3020 (2010); and

Whereas, Article 16 of the Constitution of the State of Vermont provides: “That the people have a right to bear arms for the defense of themselves and the State – and as standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military should be kept under strict subordination to and governed by the civil power”; and

Whereas, under Vermont law (24 V.S.A § 2295): “Except as provided by law, no town city or incorporated village, by ordinance, resolution or other enactment, shall directly regulate hunting, fishing and trapping, or the possession, ownership, transportation, transfer, sale purchase, carrying, licensing or registration of traps, firearms, ammunition or components of firearms or ammunition”; now therefore

Be it resolved by the Select Board of the Town of Bolton that:

1. The Select Board has considered the petition as submitted; that
2. The Select Board supports the right of the people of this Town to keep and bear arms as guaranteed under the United States Constitution, the Vermont Constitution and the laws of this State; and that
3. The Select Board shall not enact any bylaw, ordinance, resolution or other enactment that infringes on the fundamental right of the people of this Town to keep and bear arms.

This resolution is effective upon the date of adoption.

Dated at Bolton, Vermont this ____ day of _______________ June, 2014.

___________________________________ ___________________________________
Ron Lafreniere, Chair Josh Arneson, Vice Chair
___________________________________ ___________________________________
Gene Armstrong Jen Dudley-Gaillard
___________________________________
Sharon Murray

Town of Bolton, Select Board

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