The Colorado legislature considered several gun-related bills this week and last, including repeals to last year’s background check legislation that expanded checks to private sales and online sales, as well as the limits on magazine capacity to 15 rounds (doesn’t go far enough in my opinion, 10 is a better standard).
Each of those failed in committee on party line votes. The Democrats didn't back peddle on the legislation they passed only a few months ago while GOPers claim that a leftist government is not listening to the will of the people. We will learn in November the true will of Colorado voters, when you know, they actually vote.
Some interesting tidbits came out of the testimony for the background check repeal attempt. Victor Head, who started the recall drive against Angela Giron in Pueblo for supporting gun safety legislation, admitted to the legislative committee that he told Pueblo voters that the legislation would make it illegal to transfer (loan) a gun to a relative, however, that’s not true:
According to Head's own testimony, he obtained at least some of those petition signatures by lying to the signers. … Not only did Mr. Head admit to giving out false information in order to obtain recall petition signatures against Giron, he exposes the underlying senselessness of the whole effort. You see, folks, Sen. Angela Giron was the sponsor of a key amendment to HB13-1229, #L.028, which created the exemption in the law for family members. That is, the very issue Head claims to be upset about.
http://coloradopols.com/...
In fact, Giron amended the legislation to specifically ensure this would not happen:
Giron amended the background legislation to exempt gun owners who give weapons to family members and to let them lend weapons to friends for up to 72 hours. "Based on what I heard from constituents, I made the background-check legislation friendlier to gun owners," she said.
http://www.gopusa.com/...
But you know the old saying, “A lie travels half way around the world before the truth has a chance to catch up.” And so it went with many Pueblo citizens who signed a petition drive and voted against Giron most likely with an erroneous impression.
Arm the Teachers
The Colorado Judiciary committee also considered a bill that would allow schools to arm teachers. There was a lot of testimony against “HB14-1157 Arm the Teachers” including testimony from many high school students who spoke out against it. This bill also failed along a party line vote.
For those keeping score at home, that is 3 conservative gun bills that have not been made it out of committee.
The GOP offered an amendment to the Arm the Teachers bill that would have extended the opportunity afforded to public schools to hire armed resources officers to charter schools, but that did not persuade any Democrats to support it. In fact, they seemed to view the amendment as more of a Trojan Horse designed to move the bill to the full house and a floor debate where the GOP could string out the issue and accuse Democrats of being soft on school shootings for not arming teachers.
Not a bad strategy by the GOP, whom certainly were aware of a poll taken last week that seemed to show support for arming teachers – 50% in favor and 45% opposed. The poll questioning was a little dubious, however, in that it asked people if they supported arming teachers and school officials, which could very well be interpreted by a poll participant as a resource office.
Read more about this poll here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Democrats suggested a better way to pass such an amendment would be to reintroduce it as a bill rather than as part of a piece of legislation titled “Arm the Teachers” which they all agreed was badly written and intended policy.
You can learn more about the Colorado legislature and the gun legislation before it in 2014, as well as current polling on the issues, at Colorado CeaseFire:
http://www.coloradoceasefire.org/
Another organization that is doing good work on this issue in Colorado is Americans for Principled Leadership, which is an advocacy group founded by John Morse, the former state Senate Majority leader from Colorado Springs who was recalled by a very slim margin in a gun industry lobby supported recall election last year:
http://afpl.us/
https://www.facebook.com/...
Finally, in Castle Rock, Colorado, in January, a town council vote of 4-3 to overturn an open carry ban in public buildings and parks has been met by a number of upset citizens in this conservative town that voted heavily for Mitt Romney in 2012. Many citizens were upset enough to start a signature drive to put the issue to a referendum vote that would stop the repeal.
Read more about the repeal vote here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
The signature drive has started with gatherers at the local recreation center and the post office yesterday and today. More about this effort here:
http://norepealcastlerock.com/