Admittedly, I haven’t been aware that there are no state laws which require gubernatorial candidates to be a certain age, but that’s how an eighth grader is officially running for that office in Vermont.
13-year-old Ethan Sonneborn declared his candidacy last year, but it wasn’t until last week that it made headlines in popular media outlets. Why? Because of a single policy issue that Sonneborn voiced support for: gun control.
According to the Daily Caller, Sonneborn told CNN that the gun control debate following the Parkland shootings provides him with a “good opportunity to make change.”
“There’s always been a sense of, ‘We don’t talk about that in politics.’ That’s what I wanted to change,” Sonneborn explained to CNN. “I wish it didn’t take a tragedy for us to become involved in a national dialogue about how we move forward, but we can’t go back in time and make it that Parkland didn’t happen. And while we’re in this moment, I think it’s a good opportunity to make change.”
The junior high student might come from a liberal state where gun control is extremely popular in some sectors, but he recognizes that people in rural Vermont still like to hunt.
“It’s a culture that I respect,” he told CNN. “But if it’s making the decision between letting my friends have a good time at a firing range and them possibly being involved in a school shooting, I’m choosing legislation to protect them from that school shooting.”
Vermont has extremely lax gun laws, despite being such a liberal state. In fact, in 2009 the pro-gun control “Brady Campaign” ranked Vermont’s gun laws the worst in the nation, claiming that they put children at risk.
The minimum age to purchase a handgun or rifle in Vermont is only 16. The state allows for concealed carry at that age too – with no permit.
About a third of the population in Vermont owns a firearm.
And what are the consequences of these policies?
Vermont is the safest state in the country with a violent crime rate of 118 incidents per 100,000 state residents. In 2012, the state only had two gun murders, and the number hasn’t fluctuated all too much since then either.
So why do they need gun control? Who knows.
Shouldn’t Vermont be an example of why we don’t need stronger gun laws? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
