In the wake of the Florida school shooting and the subsequent Fair Haven, Vermont incident, we went back and listened to VPR’s “Gunshots” series from August 2017, in which journalist Taylor Dobbs, along with Jane Lindholm and Sam Gale Rosen, did a “deep dive” into 6 years of gun deaths here in the Green Mountains to find patterns and collect testimony from Vermonters and their relationships with guns.

It is a remarkable piece of journalistic work, combing first person testimony from Vermonters on all sides of the issue with hard data. 

Among Dobbs’ findings:

420 firearm deaths in Vermont between 2011 and 2016. (370 traffic deaths, by comparison)

47 of those deaths were homicides.

373 of those deaths were suicides. (89%)

339 of the suicides were committed by white males.

114 of the suicides were committed by US war veterans or US soldiers on active duty.

Even more powerful are the personal testimonies from Vermonters.

What does it all mean?

One conclusion – perhaps if we want real “gun control,” we should start with the Pentagon.

Meanwhile, Vermont’s entire Democratic party legislative leadership are now united on tighter “background check” regulations, and Republican governor Phil Scott has “changed completely’ on the issue over the past 3 days.

Give a listen.

And free Vermont!