By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
A bill that would have banned the sale of so-called “assault weapons” in Colorado was derailed Thursday when a trio of Democrat lawmakers reportedly “joined with Republican colleagues” to block the measure, following what the Denver Post described as “hours of heated public testimony.”
But according to a report from PBS, “Colorado’s Democratic-controlled Legislature was split on the issue, underscoring the state’s purple roots, tensions between urban and rural constituents, and an ongoing push-and-pull between progressive and moderate Democrats that has defined this year’s legislative session.”
However, it’s not all good news for gun rights activists in the Centennial State. PBS noted lawmakers already passed “a number of less ambitious gun control bills” including a stricter “red flag” law and raising the minimum age for buying a gun to 21, while adding a three-day waiting period for delivery. They also passed a bill to “empower victims of gun violence to lodge civil suits against the gun industry.”
While Colorado was stopping its gun ban legislation, Washington lawmakers were passing one in that state. TGM reported the passage of SHB 1240, though Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee did not immediately sign it.
PBS did note this about the Colorado bills: “Those bills are expected to be signed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, more closely aligning Colorado gun law with the liberal strongholds of California, New York and Washington state.”
But Polis and his anti-gun Democrat colleagues in the Legislature are apparently missing the fact that gun control laws do not impede criminal behavior. Quoted by the Associated Press in a story appearing in the Denver Post Friday, Jaclyn Schildkraut, executive director of the Rockefeller Institute of Government’s Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium observed, “Here’s the reality: If somebody is determined to commit mass violence, they’re going to.”
While she added, “And it’s our role as society to try and put up obstacles and barriers to make that more difficult,” Second Amendment advocates will be battling to make sure those obstacles do not infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens.
The PBS story quoted Colorado State Rep. Marc Snyder, one of the Democrats voting against the gun ban, who promised his constituents “that I had no interest in taking guns away from law-abiding citizens. And the, bill I believe, does.”
No doubt Colorado anti-gunners will be back with another gun ban effort.
