Oh joy, a newcomer arrives in 2019 and proceeds to write a tome (on their substack) describing a place they barely understand, from an ivory tower academia burg; thinking they got a handle on what drives folk both to and from this place they've just landed in.

And the conclusion? More libertarianism! You're painful ignorance if makes it obvious that don't know rural, don't know surviving off the land, or what makes Vermont tick. You assert hippy infestation and conservation mated to stubborn agriculture resistance to change is bad blood in need of a transfusion.

The issues being faced are little different than those in other States, specially all of northern New England. Covid and 2020 changed everything; making what's bad worse. Income inequity has made things worse. Corruption's made things worse. Crappy for-profit healthcare making many 1 serious emergency away from bankruptcy, paying our dentist's kids college tuition w/our cavities for lack of good insurance...

But no, you look to Jim Douglas as someone worth quoting; that's a laugh (at your expense).

The reason people (like you?) move here is because conservation is what has kept billboards from dotting the pastoral landscape. Communalism is what gives everyone a voice; even if it gets ignored by the 'town fathers'. Vermonters are kind, but not nice. Spend a year around Enosburg or the hamlets of the mountains, then tell us what you've learned; instead of acting like you're Warren telling the people of Roxbury what their problems are. What do you know about agriculture; farming and forestry, the working landscape? What do you know about wearing many hats to pay the bills?

You favor the same 'open for business' modal that's left other places with toxic waste dumps left to clean at the taxpayer's expense?

IMO you should keep your opinions to yourself and let the Vermonters who've been here for decades and know its workings intimately hash out fixing its problems. Instead of trying to make it look like where ever TF you came from.

VT was exceptional, outside the developed parts; a state of mind.

Sadly, the new normal is changing all that.

> Vermont was gentrified to begin with.

Only mostly the gold towns. Greenwich North.

Though, back in a day, the stat was that VT had more retired generals and witness relocates than any other State.

Your smug condescension is only outdone by your shit reddit karma. Vermonters are by and large poor. Just the stats on 1st gen to go to college should be an eye-opener. Or the need for student assistance, mentoring. Vermonters survive by wearing many hats.

Newcomers over the past 5 decades have not displaced natives to the degree happening now. Your blatant insensitivity calls you out for the butthole you are.

This is happening throughout all of northern new england. People from elsewhere selling their suburban squat in PA/NJ/ FL/MA/... for 600-700K and buying up these parts at prices no regular Vermonter can afford. Welcome to the free market.

What made this place special was the fact that (apart from gold towns) it was quaint but mostly to visit, not to live here. Farm consolidation, McMansion development, .... this pastoral paradise is at risk of vanishing.

Telework and CV19 changed all that forever. Taxes gone up, COL is stupid expensive, services hard to come by....

After 30yrs here in one spot, wife-n-me saw the writing on the wall, sold the homestead and moved to Maine. Same problems there but marginally more affordable.

If you're young enough, ride it out, the relocates will go stir crazy and move out and the boomers will die off, leaving a more affordable market. Provided those fleeing the christo-fascist, climate-changed deep south don't overrun our border :)

"cities" - your elsewhere is showing

Yes, my point is both; that more gun control is pointless, both in State and between States. That facts do not align with feels, and that the fundamental issue is not guns at all, which are the symptom of the disease, not the cause.

Legalizing drugs would be a start, universal health care too. But the elephant in the room is wealth disparity. If you live in the US and are in the lower 20% income bracket you do not even register on the distribution map, thanks to the 1%.

And, even if you're lucky to be in the 40-60% income bracket, even if you have (employer) health insurance, you're likely 1 medical emergency away from bankruptcy!

https://youtu.be/QPKKQnijnsM

So, why so many guns? Well, the billionaires are building their bunkers, the filthy rich are building their fortresses, while the rest of us, we proles, visit r/preppers (don't visit r/collapse) because it doesn't take tea leaves to know somethings amiss in River City.

Your 2mo old, 0 karma account and your condescension aside, your ignorance is astonishing. Gun control laws on the table in other (liberal) States combined with the current ATF ruling on braces that's clear as mud is a clear indicator of how wrong you are. Sadly so.

Millions of people who legally and rightfully purchased firearms and who are abiding and no contributing factor to GV are, in fact, at risk of having to surrender them. You cannot overlook that truth, even if you want to preach public safety being the 'greater good'. Which in and of itself is debatable.

Go Sheesh youself.

lower in this thread are comments on drug use, addiction, legalizing drugs....

This is so relevant to GV that few seem to grok. Broken systems, corruption in our kakistocracy, and lack of health care aside; people are hurting. They are on prescription drugs, street drugs; anything to lessen their pains.

The 'working class' has been in a downward spiral since Regan. Play "follow the $" and realize hard drugs will never be legalized (cuz 'just say no'!) Let billionaires decide our future and realize universal health care will likely never happen (no job - no care, little worker bee). Most people are one serious health emergency away from bankruptcy.

Whether the issue is suicide/despair, or gang shootings (over drugs), GV is a symptom of our problems, not the cause. The cause(s) are escalating in a nation founded on violence. Police will not protect you and are barely able to solve crimes after the fact. That reality setting in is what's driving people to take responsibility for their own safety whether their perceived risk is real or not.

Welp, ya convinced me! Thanks for that adult POV kimosabe :)

> California has the strictest restrictions, and their rates of gun violence are among the lowest in the country.

Yet said restrictions failed to prevent those shootings that are the rally cry for more gun control

> Rural Wyoming has the third highest.

Likely due to the influx of CA re-locates to WY :) Or maybe cowboys just like plinking at flatlanders! Oh noes, could happen here! /s

Yes. Sadly there's too much ill gotten gain at stake for that to ever happen.

Money is what's preventing it more than it being a bad idea.

Man, I so wish people in charge would get that message!

Legalize all drugs, eliminate the criminality from the addiction and treat it as the health problem it is.

Make opium (smoke it) and coca (chew it) available at medicinal/rec head shops and track it like pot.

Pay off-duty cops to deliver heroin to serious junkies; free and conditional to getting weekly counseling.

Sounds crazy, I know; but anything that breaks the cycle of addiction->crime and lightens the burden on the courts/police has to stop making too much sense!

(Or, ... follow the $)

Those countries w/out GV, or much violence in general, have much stronger social safety nets. Our country was F'in built on guns and violence (and drugs). The same "I come first" attitude that permits billionaires to decide our future.

Inner city GV (+addictions) is a reflection of 100yrs of repression that's only recently (40yrs) spread into burbs and hinterland. A "War on Guns" is going to resemble our "War on Drugs"; reinforcing and militarizing the police State.

> Things change. Deal with it.

There a 100m gun legal gun owners. They passed BG checks and they abide. Some hunt, some target shoot, some need them on their job, some are vets.... whatever. For decades now, they've been told "we're not coming for your guns". Yet, here we are; IL and similar are trying to pass some of the most restrictive gun laws that make owning a modern firearm (and obtaining the permits where obliged) nearly impossible. Like banning semi-automatic guns, cosmetics like their furniture ... ; despite the overwhelming evidence that it has no bearing on GV. Are firearms (part of) the problem? Sure, illegal guns, some loopholes in need of fixing maybe. But THE problem? Far from it.

Fix the income disparity, fix healthcare, fix the social safety net, then let's talk guns. One fact is indisputable: police and law enforcement will not protect you; they 'solve' crime not prevent it. Your safety is your responsibility; period.

Your feeling that 2A is outdated, that it costs you YOUR freedom, only shows your displaced trust in our broken systems; all its corruption notwithstanding.

We are a violent people, as a nation; what we do best are guns and drugs. Except up until recently they been generally aimed at points outside our borders (since we basically exterminated the natives). Trying to remove peoples' rightfully obtained guns is not the answer. Specially when those advocating controls have no interest in knowing the subject matter enough to discuss it.

More like (billionaire) Bloomberg funding Mom's demand.... as a front for disarming the public.

Just like coke flooding into LA ghettos (Iran-Contra), for one example, GV today is the crows coming home to roost. It's how the filthy rich keep people divided and down. No-knock warrants, Eminent Domain, Civil asset forfeiture, de-facto slavery alive and doing well in private prisons....

Something's gotta give. Disarming the public is where it usually starts.

Show me on the doll where the police beat you senseless

which makes my point. Both that rural States don't need the same laws as populous ones and that even still, those stricter laws don't prevent GV.

Its not my concern whether to justify to you as responsible or not and its not your place to judge who are idiots, not.

Your attitude speaks volumes to your being very opinionated while understanding very little. "Deranged", "afraid" ... guns to not make up my identity; its just a small part of my everyday life.

I will not surrender a (legal) given right based on your perception of me, firearms in general, or whether society is more or less deranged than times past.

Deal with it; fix the societal issues that are causing the violence. Maybe learn more about guns; lots of people who otherwise would never own them are (r/liberalgunowners r/pinkpistols )

VT,NH,ME all are as lenient as you can get; being Constitutional Carry States. The amount of GV in Northern NE is minimal at best.

CA has the tightest restrictions in the nation regarding permits and types of firearms allowed; which didn't prevent a GD thing insofar as recent headlines. Same can be said for NY as well.

Go figure. Maybe its less the guns and more the social fabric that binds us.

Your choice of words, "far too many of you", "overcompensating", "living in a constant state of fear" ... clearly illustrates your opinion on firearms and those who own and use them. Your ignorance is showing through your condescension.

I, personally, don't make a habit of carrying; concealed or otherwise. But I do on occasion, and I also don't judge those who do; specially if I don't know their circumstances. Maybe it's a victim of DV, maybe a cop or security person, maybe .... WTF knows...

What I do know is that, like me, they likely take firearms as serious as cancer, train very regularly, follow the 4 rules like gospel, and will be the first to say "I'm retreating so I don't have to shoot and kill you" in the event of a confrontation.

Everyone I know who CC's is like that; very comfortable around firearms for the tool it is. I'm sure there are exceptions who match your bias but rare (or gangsta).

Because .... its Vermont (or NH, or ME); gun laws are loose because most all people are sensible. The statistics confirm that even if it has your panties all in a bunch.

> We live in a very very safe society ...

Pretty much says is all. A Constitutional Carry State in which gun violence is a rounding error. And, FWIW, you have no clue as to how many VT'ers are concealed carrying (or have vehicle guns) because nobody advertises it. Its a lot more than you would think, specially in rural parts.

Just because you may not agree is not cause for your judging others POV WRT exercising a constitutional right.

Yea, I'm of a mixed opinion on the subject.

Worst part is: the corridor likely isn't going to get shut down.

MNW is going to look like Clinton Co, NY; with 100's of windmills sprouting up like shrooms in the next few years; energy headed to MA that needs the corridor to get there.

Larry just wanted to get Chris Pohlhaus' attention, and a hit on the 'like' button from Tom Kawczynski, and a shoutout from Kyle Fitzsimons.

His Maine First PAC must be running low on funds!

I lived in Lamoille county for 30 years. I'm a hardcore leftist and at the Garfield range nobody gives me s*** cuz they're all working class folk and we love talking guns!

Vermont is prettier than maine cuz it preserves that pastoral look. All the nooks and crannies on dirt roads. But I love it here in Maine and the oceans a bonus!

politics aside, Hicks the sticks would be in good company from any of those States:)