During his term in 2000 Maslack proposed House Bill 760 to register "non-gun-owners" and require them to pay a $500 fee to the state. Thus Vermont would have become the first state to require a permit for going about unarmed and assess a fee of $500 for the privilege of not owning a gun. This might look bad at first, because it would seem to be registration of gun owners by process of elimination. But there is another factor to consider: You can buy a gun for less than $500, and avoid the tax. In this way no one would have to "register"  or pay the tax. They could fulfill the duty required by the second amendment at a lower cost.
.

Maslack read the "militia" phrase of the Second Amendment as not only affirming the right of the individual citizen to bear arms, but as a clear mandate to do so. He believes that universal gun ownership was advocated by the Framers of the Constitution as an antidote to a "monopoly of force" by the government as well as criminals.

Vermont already boasts a high rate of gun ownership along with the least
restrictive laws of any state .. At that time the only state that allows a
citizen to carry a concealed firearm without a permit. Now Alaska has joined them. This combination of plenty of guns and few laws regulating them has resulted in a crime rate that is the third lowest in the nation.

"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,
but too early to shoot the bastards."