DENVER | Colorado’s gun control debate got going Monday in the Legislature in fitting fashion for a matter so divisive.
More than 100 gun control supporters rallied on the Capitol steps for tougher gun legislation as Republicans inside argued that schools would be safer if it was legal for employees to carry concealed weapons.
Welcome to Colorado’s gun debate.
Some people would like to see Colorado ban assault weapons, limit ammunition and expand background checks as ways to reduce gun violence.
“I don’t think it’s difficult to ask that we have universal background checks, that we take these weapons of war off the streets,” Dave Hoover, uncle of Aurora theater shooting victim AJ Boik, said at the rally.
The proposals were expected to be made by House Democratic Rep. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat and an outspoken supporter of gun control.
“Military-style assault weapons are not needed in our neighborhoods. They need to be on the battlefield,” said Fields, whose son was shot and killed in 2005. “I am sick and tired of the bloodshed.”
Republicans were pitching a different path to safety, arguing for a proposal to allow school employees to carry concealed weapons. But the GOP bill faced long odds in a Democratic-controlled Senate committee.
Another Republican gun bill that would require armed security in businesses that don’t allow patrons to carry concealed weapons faced similar odds later in the week.
Senate President John Morse, a Democrat and former police chief, told reporters he’s conflicted about which gun measures could work. Morse has said he supports an assault-weapons ban, but he told reporters he is still searching for the right approach to curb gun violence.
“I don’t see a magical solution,” Morse said.
Morse did dismiss GOP efforts so far.
“When you add guns, you’re going to add shootings,” Morse said.
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Kristen Wyatt is on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/APkristenwyatt .
A person steals guns, (WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW), shoots and kills his own mother (WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW), transports these guns loaded (WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW), brings guns onto school property (WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW), breaks into the school (WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW), discharges the weapons within city limits (WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW), murders 26 people (WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW), and commits suicide (WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW).
And there are people in this country that somehow think passing ANOTHER LAW
banning guns would protect us from someone like this. If you haven’t noticed, people like this are not concerned about breaking laws – they only care about fulfilling their own twisted agenda.
The only people that a gun ban law would impact are the LAW ABIDING CITIZENS, which will only serve to cripple the ability to protect ourselves
Phil is right! Get your head out of the sand, people! Why not enforce present laws and make stronger penalties for law breakers who use weapons rather than make life harder for law abiding gun owners. I know many eastern slope people hunt and go target shooting and are competitive shooters. Man-up and let us stand together!
The NRA’s Blood Money
Where is our “tipping point” for change? When do we say “enough?” The NRA says “more guns” is the answer. If more guns made us saver, we would be the safest nation in the world. Instead our homicide rates for persons age 15 to 24 is 14 times that of other industrial nations. Blumberg News predicts that in 2 years, more
people will die from guns than motor vehicle accidents. 85 Americans are shot to death every day. 53 of them are suicides, more and more by “suicide by cop,” or by murder-suicide to send a message of rage. 31,328 Americans died from guns in 2010 alone. It is like having 10 “9-11s” every year. Am I hysterical to ask, why our
response to gun violence isn’t 10 times that of the response to 9-11?
The NRA is a master of sales and lobbying for gun makers. The NRA spreads a virus of paranoia and delusional, self-defensive violence, of its own making, for huge profits. Each gun tragedy results in selling more tools used only for more murders, suicides, and accidental deaths. 20 children and 6 staff are gunned down in Connecticut, and 2 million more guns are sold. Now four more citizens in Aurora have been killed by another “mad” person with guns, and gun sales will rise even more. If spirituality is the “presumption of goodness in the world,” then the NRA is its opposite. We, as a community, want our fellow citizens to L-I-V-E. The NRA wants E-V-I-L.
Now is the time for action, not despair. Now is the time to hold gun-makers liable for the damages done by their products. The tobacco industry paid billions in medical costs. BP paid billions for the Gulf Disaster. Toyota paid over a billion for
accelerator problems. Let’s be like “The Runaway Jury” and hold the NRA and gun-makers, liable for their damages. Possession of assault weapons and high capacity gun clips, like rocket launchers, pipe bombs, anthrax, and nuclear devices, should
be illegal. These are tools of war and mass killings, not toys for anyone’s
pleasure or rages.
People can do stupid things when they are angry, depressed, or just immature. It is important to set the conditions for responsible behavior. Guns can take a momentary impulse of despair, rage or carelessness, and make it into a permanent horrible tragedy. For this madness to stop, we must try everything to limit access to guns. We also need to increase access to mental health services, which should cost as much as getting a background check for a gun buyer – nothing.