MONTPELIER, Vt. — The Vermont House has voted to expand federal background checks to private sales of firearms and to ban high-capacity magazines and devices known as “bump stocks” that allow semi-automatic guns to function like automatic guns.
Vermont Public Radio reports that after a daylong debate on Friday, the House was still discussing other provisions of the gun restriction legislation, including whether to raise the legal gun-buying age to 21.
Members decided earlier in the day on Friday to vote on each of the bill’s provisions separately.
Gun sales to family members would be exempt from the background checks.
Gun rights groups wanted a public hearing on the bill but House Speaker Mitzi Johnson says there already have been public hearings on the issue at the Statehouse.