Liberal is a very hard word to apply to Vermont. There are no concealed carry laws in Vermont. Pretty much only the courts have metal detectors. Last I checked, not even the statehouse in Montpelier has metal detectors. People have guns, lots of people hunt, and some are even crazy about guns. But gun murders are very rare here. There have been two sensational murders in my area, and one was with an axe, and the other a hunting knife. If you can believe that. So, “liberal towards guns” would be a misuse of the term liberal, at least in its common usage. I don’t know what the correct one-liner description would be about guns here. Maybe just that gun murder is rare, people hunt with them, and if they’re mad they’re gonna come get you with a knife instead!
It’s the first thing you said: Vermonters, both liberals and conservatives, are fierce advocates of individual rights. Not even so much the Tea Party version of that story. It’s a very Vermont story. When civil unions were passed, there was, of course, a huge homophobic outrage with all the Take Back Vermont signs and crap in the media. But, the story has so much more texture than that, because many of the rightmost elements saw the entire issue as an individual rights to self determination issue, and got on board for people to at first legally become bound to whomever they choose, and then, later on, to marry that person, no matter whom. It was a beautiful thing to live through that time here.
Vermont isn’t some shangri-la. There are no jobs here, the cost of living is high and life is hard. Especially in winter. Plus there’s literally nothing to do. Pretty much nothing “urban” unless you’re up in Burlington. The saying is “we make our own fun.” Which is totally true. I build stone walls, mow the lawn, bbq small animals and write computer programs for fun. It’s not heaven, and I don’t idealize it. SOMETIMES, we get the police to behave. But recently, another man was tased to death in his own home in my town. And the police were found to have done nothing wrong. So, take this whole thing with a big block of salt. Vermont might be a little ahead. We are talking tortoise to box turtle, though.
