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Not long ago Republican Phil Scott was one of the most popular governors in America, poised for a comfortable re-election in November. Then, after a possible school shooting was discovered by police in Vermont, he decided to support sweeping gun-control legislation - and has reaped a political whirlwind.
The Vermont governor stands at a lectern in front of the state capitol building in Montpelier on a grey, blustery April day earlier this year. His wife and various politicians, officials and dignitaries stand behind him. Before him, a motley crowd. Some are cheering; others are angry - and loud.
He's talking about gun control, a subject that touches raw nerves across the US, even in serene, bucolic Vermont. Perhaps especially in Vermont.
"On February 16," he begins to a crescendo of jeers, "I was in my office preparing for the day ahead, when everything changed.[1]"
He relates how he received an affidavit that morning detailing the arrest of 18-year-old Jack Sawyer, who law enforcement officials said was in the midst of plotting a mass shooting at a high school in Fair Haven, a small town in the western part of the state.
A friend of Sawyer's had informed police of his plans - and how he praised the attack at a high school in Parkland, Florida, that claimed the lives of 17 students and teachers just days earlier.
"That's fantastic," he texted her. "I 100 percent support it." He called the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre - which shocked the American public and prompted teen-led anti-gun protests across the nation - "natural selection
