Griswold and Hickenlooper vow action on gun violence ahead of Colorado November vote

AURORA | Colorado attorney general candidate Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Sen. John Hickenlooper vowed to take more action to address gun violence and further regulate firearms at an Aurora panel discussion Friday.

Joined by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Griswold, Hickenlooper, Colorado Rep. Monica Duran and Bianka Emerson, president of Colorado Black Women for Political Action, spoke about efforts to tackle gun violence at the federal, state and community level.

Democrats Griswold and Hickenlooper, who are both on the November ballot, railed against efforts from the federal government to repeal state gun laws, as well as called out federal immigration enforcement for making communities feel unsafe. 

Griswold committed to protecting and strengthening state gun laws, saying taking on the National Rifle Association and other gun lobbyists would be her top priority as attorney general, if elected. Griswold also called out the Trump administration for suing Colorado over its large-capacity magazine ban.

“As AG, I’m going to stand up to them. I’ve been taking on MAGA and Trump for the last seven years and I’m just getting started,” Griswold said. 

Griswold said she would support efforts at the state legislature to pass a more comprehensive assault weapon ban, adding election officials “should not be in the business of thoughts and prayers, they should be in the business of action.”

“You sit down with survivors of mass shootings, and if you’re not motivated to pass gun laws after that, then there’s something wrong with you,” she said. “We have to do more for people so they don’t become survivors in the first place.”

Duran touted the gun legislation the state legislature has passed, including gun storage bills, raising the legal age to buy a gun to 21, implementing an excise tax on gun sales to fund victim services and banning large-capacity magazines. She committed to closing any gun law loopholes and expanding the assault weapons ban. 

Emerson urged the elected officials to partner with community groups and listen to families most impacted.

“We need (elected officials) to show up, not just during election season, not after we hear about atrocities, like what happened a week ago at (Ultra Lounge),” Emerson said. “We need to invest in our programs and our communities.”

When thinking about public safety, Griswold said she also considers the violence being perpetrated during federal immigration efforts. She vowed to hold federal agents who break Colorado law accountable.

“The Trump administration is using ICE as a tool to terrorize cities and Americans into compliance, but it’s not working and we have to stand strong,” she said. “I’ll make sure that if there are the travesties we’ve seen in Minnesota, Texas and across the country, where crimes are being committed and people are losing their lives, that we actually see a fair and transparent investigation.”

Hickenlooper also had harsh words for ICE officers, saying enforcement has turned “inherently un-American.”

“Our communities are being ripped apart by these soulless thugs who come in and are anonymous,” he said. “They’re in a mask, they have no name tags, no body cameras — all the things that pretty much every modern police department utilizes — and they’re pulling people out of their cars and beating them and shooting them on the street.”

Hickenlooper encouraged the room to vote in the November elections, which he said are matters of “life and death.”

“If we allow Republicans to keep the House and we don’t flip the Senate, our lives and our neighbor’s lives are going to get significantly worse,” he said.

Giffords is co-founder of the national gun violence prevention organization GIFFORDS, which was created after she survived an assassination attempt in 2011 while elected to represent an Arizona congressional district.