 I was handed a document containing charges against an 18-year-old shooting here in Vermont. Just two days earlier, I witnessed the atrocity in Parkland, Florida, 17 innocent people, 14 children, and three teachers dead. As I read 13 page affidavit, I was alarmed to learn just how close we came to the same tragic fate the people of Parkland faced. The details were shocking as a young man had been planning this shooting undetected for months. Dad, what I would describe as a kill list, and had researched the high school's calendar to know the best time to carry out his plan, which he detailed in a diary entitled The Journal of an Active Shooter. His goal was to have more kills than the Virginia Tech shooting. As a reminder, Virginia Tech had 32 deaths, 32 innocent victims who were murdered. As I process this information, I was shocked. Just 24 hours before, even in the aftermath of Bath of Parkland, I thought as the safest state in the nation, Vermont was immune to this type of violence. As I've said many times throughout my political life, public safety is the top priority of any government. Responsibility I take very seriously as governor. Sitting there in the grace of God, did we avert the horrific outcome. This potential shooter followed through overnight. We would have gone from one of the safest states in the country to among the deadliest. For a split second, I felt relieved. We had a close call, but just like the ones we all experience in our own lives, like a near miss on the highway, we say to ourselves, I'll never do that again. This is one of those moments where as a state, we have the opportunity to do things differently. As we came to a tragedy like Florida, force me to do some soul searching. I've hunted and fished my entire life. I've got a safe full of guns, including the one I got when I was 13. As a state senator, lieutenant governor, and governor, I never felt the need to change our gun laws here in Vermont. I believe that we are such a small tight knit state that we were different and somehow insulated from the violence the rest of the world is seeing that I was wrong. And that's not always easy to admit. I support the Second Amendment myself. We truly doing everything we can to make our kids and our community safe. Because if we're at a point where our kids are afraid to go to school and parents are afraid to put them on a bus, or police don't have the tools they need to protect victims of violence, or families can't step in to prevent a loved one from taking out their own life, then who will we become? Answers to those critical questions force me to reconsider and after deep reflection change some of my own views. A conversation about how to better identify and treat mental health needs and root causes of violence. Determine, determine why so many kids slip through the cracks and have an open dialogue about gun safety, including access to guns by those who shouldn't have them. One week after the young man's arrest in Fairhaven, eight days after the shooting in Parkland, I presented an action plan outlining steps to enhance school and community safety. At my direction, state police and local law enforcement completed a safety assessment of all our schools and will report their findings within the week. The legislature is working with me to allocate a security grant so we can immediately invade our mental health system and expand our outreach support of the media in facilitating a see something say something campaign and for legislation to protect those who do and I'll sign an executive order to create a violence prevention task force. This group will include a wide range of perspectives and experts in the areas of public safety, education, security, gun rights, health and mental health and more. It's charged and it's charge will be to identify strategies to help prevent violence in communities and schools. This is not the time to hit the brakes because this critical work must continue for legislative action on gun safety reforms that from my standpoint are reasonable and do not have fringe upon Second Amendment rights. It brings me to why we're here today. I know these discussions have been difficult, emotional and complex barriers that frequently lead to an action. But this is not the time to do what's easy. It's the time to do what's right. Every school, every mom and dad, every victim of violence in any form to know today, we stand together as we take steps towards making our communities safer for all of us to 21 will provide for monitors with a life saving tool to help reduce gun tragedies such as suicides and murders with age 422 will give victims of domestic violence who've endured unthinkable abuses added protections and a greater sense of security. Both of these new laws had unanimous support from both sides of the aisle as consensus among sportsmen and victims groups. They will keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have them, which is why I thought it was so important for the legislature to move forward on these issues and I want to thank everyone for their work. Additionally, we're also here to sign S 55 safety reforms that will help protect and strengthen our communities. The message of each of these bills I also acknowledge some of you do not understand your frustration. I want you to hear these facts loud and clear. 55 includes gun safety provisions relating to background checks, bump stocks, magazine capacity and safety requirements for those purchasing guns under the age of 21. Legislation, this legislation extends their existing background check process to private sales with exception for sales between family members, a reasonable extension of existing law to close a so-called parking lot loophole. What it does not do, what it does not do is take away your guns, period. To purchase them before October 1st, you can keep them. 55 does not change possession laws. Our youth can still take part in hunting and recreational shooting just like they do today. 55 changes the age to purchase firearms from 18 to 21. 18 year olds can still purchase a gun if they're a member of law enforcement or the military or have completed a firearm safety course as approved by the commissioner of fish and wildlife. Just like the NRA course I took when I was 12, it was clearly clear. I believe these measures will make a difference. Each and every one of them is consistent with both the United States and Vermont constitutions. It documents an oath I take legislation with limit Vermonters rights. I wouldn't be signing it. A combination of laws guarantee we will never see a mass shooting or other acts of violence. And as I said before, this discussion is not and cannot be just about guns. Our nation is struggling through a mental health crisis that threatens our future and affects our young people in disproportionate and heartbreaking ways. Today in America, one in five people under the age of 26 struggle with a mental illness or disorder while another 10 million of our youth will go untreated or undiagnosed. And sadly, sadly in our country, the second leading cause of death among people age 10 to 24 is suicide. As well, we see the effects of an opioid epidemic that knows no boundaries. It doesn't discriminate between rich or poor, young or old, black or white. For more than a decade, we've watched as the abuse of prescription drugs and heroin have eroded our communities, stolen once bright futures and ripped lives apart as overdose deaths rise across the state. We must continue to work together to address these public health issues, but that still won't be enough. As a society, we should all reflect, all reflect on how we treat one another in the example that we're sending for our kids. Because I believe our violence issue is fueled by our anger issue. Too many of our fellow citizens on both sides of every issue, not just on guns, have given up on listening, designed to no longer consider other opinions, viewpoints or perspectives. National dialogue has been reduced to angry, hateful social media posts that you can either like or not, with no room for conversation or respect or disagreement. And where facts and details no longer seem to matter. We need to believe that the way we talk to each other, the way we treat each other and the rise of violence are exclusive to one another. Do we honestly think that the erosion of civility and respect of others in some way is unrelated to this type of violence and disregard for human lives we're seeing? As governor, as a Vermonter, as an American and as a dad, I'm not willing to accept any of this. We've got to do better. The idea that consensus and compromises somehow unacceptable, that one side is always totally right or all wrong, that we can't debate the issues and find common ground or agree to disagree respectfully. And that the growing divide is a dark place where the embers of hate and bigotry and blame can grow. These things are what's hurting our nation. This is not a new trend. It's not related to any one issue or one party. Yet in my opinion, we've reached an unacceptable and potentially dangerous point where our debates and activism have turned intensely and unduly personal, sometimes downright hateful. We can't forget, we can't forget our children are watching how we engage with one another. It begs the question, begs the question, what are they seeing? What kind of role models are we? Online insults, slurs and angry exchanges between people who have never met are far too common. Many say things online, they never say face to face. On cable news, so-called experts yell at each other, totally unwilling to acknowledge the viewpoint of others, much less learn from it. We as adults, we as adults are failing to teach our children how to handle important, often complex conversations, even how to treat people with whom you disagree, understanding all points of view and treating others the way you want to be treated. I know there are thousands of Vermonters who feel the same way I do, need to rise above it, treat each other better even when we disagree. If we can reduce the polarization we're seeing across the country, we can diminish some of the anger at the root of some of the larger challenges. And this must be part of our ongoing pursuit to reduce violence and make our communities safer. Now, I recognize how hard it is for some to understand my change of heart on our gun laws, let alone become the same conclusions I've reached. And that many who voted for me are disappointed and angry. I understand, I understand I may lose support of the decision to sign these bills today, but those are consequences I'm prepared to live with. If we had not even tried to reduce the possibility of a tragedy here in Vermont, like Parkland or Virginia Tech, Aurora, Las Vegas, Orlando, Sandy Hook, Dallas, or Charleston, if we didn't try to reduce suicide and the pain felt by the families left behind, or if we didn't try to prevent another death from domestic violence and another child growing up without a mom, that would be hard to live with. That's why today we choose action over inaction, doing something over doing nothing. Always be more of work to do, but today we choose to try over the speaker of the house, Missy Johnson. To the heartbreaking reality that we are not immune to the gun violence we've watched unfold, unchecked in schools, churches, theaters, and communities around the country. The affidavit referenced by the governor shook me to my core as well, and when I read it, I completely understood why he opened the door to a very different conversation than what we've had in the past. Signed today strike an important balance between individual liberties guaranteed by the constitution and the necessary laws of protection that create a safe and just society. And that tension between liberty and justice, or as we say in Vermont between freedom and unity, was at the very core of this discussion. Many Vermonters that spoke up both in and out of the state house spoke to the core of that tension of democracy, but I have no doubt that we all share the wish to reduce gun violence. We all want safe schools. Everyone who shared their thoughts, engaged in democracy, and exercised their right to free speech, is grateful that we live in a country where we can exercise our right to free speech, where you can freely criticize the legislature, the governor, the president. And that's critical in an open democracy who for years have highlighted the need for reasonable common sense changes to gun laws. Like to thank the House Majority Leader Jill Kruinsky and the House Judiciary Chair Maxine Grad and compassionate patients while Vermonters along with their elected officials struggled with a difficult and necessary conversation. And so for the 80 Vermonters who lost their lives over two decades due to domestic violence disputes turned deadly. For the 420 Vermont families over five years who lost a loved one to a gunshot wound, and for the many students who have clearly, passionately, and respectfully articulated how their high school experience is overshadowed by safety concerns in a way that I never knew in school. I am proud to have these bills become law and I thank everyone, everyone for being here today to express your viewpoints and to make this happen. We ask the pro tem of the Senate Tim Ash to come up. Thank you, Governor Scott. First, I want to say I've appreciated very much that on the issue of gun safety, every single conversation we've had has been straight, every action conducted in good faith. Thank you so much, Governor Scott. Speaker Johnson, I feel the exact same way in terms of our work with the House on these three bills. So thank you to you and your team. You know, it has been the highlight of my adult life to serve as president of the Vermont Senate. It's been the highlight not because I have some fancy title or because I frequently have a firsthand view of history in the making. It's been the highlight of my adult life because of the people I served with. The 30 members of the Vermont Senate have spent the past several months debating each other, fact finding, and soul searching. We've been trying to determine each for ourselves what we should do to make people safe from harm in this state. Not every member of the Senate voted for all three of these bills, and yet I believe that every member of the Senate can sleep easy at night, knowing that they did what in their best judgment, promoted public safety and met our obligations to uphold the U.S. and Vermont constitutions. Any of those senators are here today and I'm honored to serve with them and grateful that no matter the issue, controversial or not, we work together with generosity and respect. Two of those senators require a special mention. First is Dick Sears. Senator Sears, in my opinion, is the reason S-221 is being signed into law today. While the issue of gun-related suicide receives little public focus, it's been the cause of 89 percent of gun deaths in the last five years. Preventing suicides and extreme risks to others is at the heart of S-221, and I'm grateful Senator Sears has been so persistently advocating for this critical safety measure. Thank you, Senator Sears. Second, I'd like to mention Phil Baruth. Senator Baruth's advocacy for universal background checks has been in evidence for years. These at times have been isolated and publicly attacked by those who oppose this measure, which remains at the center of S-55. But he has not wavered even when he risked his own political standing. Phil, you can sure be stubborn, but in this case, your determination is a foundation stone of this bill. Thank you. Finally, I'd like to return to what this day is really about, and that's the people of Vermont in keeping them safe. My colleagues in the Senate have heard from victims of domestic violence whose abusers use firearms to exert control over them. We pass these bills for you. Heard from constituents whose families have been rocked by suicides. We've heard from the pediatricians and trauma surgeons who treat victims of self-inflicted and other gun violence. We pass these bills for you, and we heard from teachers and students and parents who deserve to feel safe when they walk through a classroom door. We pass these bills for you. History will render the verdict on these bills, but I believe very strongly, like the historic marker commemorating equality for same-sex couples just to our left, we will look back at the passage of these three bills as perhaps uncontroversial, but with deep appreciation for the lives saved and for the rights preserved. Thank you very much.