As to whom Colorado residents should trust about whether the state’s new gun laws are good or evil, who are you going to believe — county sheriffs or your lying eyes?
Fifty-four of the state’s 64 elected sheriffs raised the ante last week in the gun-rights war by filing a lawsuit against the state in hopes of preventing it from enforcing two new gun laws passed by state lawmakers earlier this year.
In the wake of the Aurora theater massacre and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, state Democrats pushed through bills they believe can work to prevent the seemingly endless slaughter of innocents at the hands of a murderer with a gun.
Here and in Washington, gun-rights extremists insist that any legislative limitations involving firearms are unforgivable, excruciating and unconstitutional infringements on the Second Amendment. To make their case, several of these rogue sheriffs announced earlier this year they won’t enforce Colorado’s new laws because they don’t like them or think they won’t be effective in keeping people from shooting each other.
It’s bad news for them and for state residents. These sheriffs act as if Colorado residents are as naive as they are in thinking these are the first or only state or federal regulations imposed on firearms — or that these laws are extreme or egregious. There are scores of regulations and limitations on firearms, going back to the beginning of the Second Amendment. How firearms are sold, stowed, created, distributed and where they are allowed fill up endless law books in Colorado and across the country. Are we to believe that if one of these rogue county sheriffs takes a dislike to laws preventing people from carrying guns into courthouses, that they’ll sue to stop those or just not enforce them? What other laws do these sheriffs believe are needless or inconvenient and therefore should be disregarded by deputies?
If anything is unconstitutional, it’s peace officers disregarding the separation of powers and taking on the power of the legislature or the courts.
Here’s what’s so confusing to most of the public, who’s more interested in real public safety rather than the grandstanding politics of elected politicians who sport badges? What the public knows is that these sheriffs are often not trained cops, but just state residents without felony records who never even had to take any law enforcement training at all — until a few years ago. These days, those elected as sheriffs must take a two-week course in handling their agencies and prisoners. In contrast to this group of gun-rights activists is the police chiefs of agencies all over the state. Their Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police endorsed these two new gun laws, saying they can help protect the public from gun violence.
We’re backing trained, experienced and non-political police officers from Aurora and all over the state as to who knows best how to keep the public safe. Police in Aurora, Denver and all over Colorado understand that it makes no sense to require background checks for some gun purchases and not others. Colorado’s new law rectifies that while at the same time allowing for common-sense exceptions for “emergency” and family transfers of ownership. State lawmakers went out of their way to accommodate concerns about how to implement these changes.
Having been ground zero for the worst that gun violence can be, we applauded police and lawmakers in helping enact new, meaningful gun control measures that may not by themselves prevent another Aurora massacre, but as part of a comprehensive reordering that will make a real difference in lives saved.
Another clueless article by the staff at the Sentinel. Policeone survey of 15000 police officers found that 95% of them believe that a magazine ban of 10 rounds or more would have no effect on reducing crime. Only 17.9% of them would enforce more restrictive gun laws if they were sheriff or chief.
The sheriffs are upholding the law. They are upholding the highest law of the land. The US Constitution. It supersedes any other laws written. Suppose politicians passed a law that required all homes to be searched by police for public safety without cause or warrant, should police just do that and let the courts sort it out later? The answer is absolutely no.
It is a police officers sworn oath to defend the constitution. That includes violating direct orders or laws that may go against the constitution. It also includes taking legal action against those who would try and impose such laws. It is more than then their oath though, it is their moral obligation to uphold the constitution to protect a free society.
Of all weekends, this paper should be acutely aware of the sacrifices made for freedom. If you think WE THE PEOPLE will quietly follow unconstitutional laws that greatly infringe on our ability to protect our freedoms, you are sorely mistaken. Many of us risked our lives to in defense of the moral obligations our founding fathers laid down in the constitution Violating a few shamefully written laws to uphold our oaths is a relatively small sacrifice.
Who is “Aurora Sentinel?” Why didn’t the author include their name? Sounds like a coward!!
When are you people going to give up? None of these laws that have been passed would have prevented any of the shootings that these laws were passed in response to. Law makers of this state have yet to even talk about meaningful crime prevention such as enhancing school counseling departments and making access to mental health care easily available. Simply passing a law limiting the size of a magazine does not prevent a single person from shooting anyone, access to effective counselors will.
Way to research before spewing your uneducated crap.
Do you know that, after July 1, if I go to a range with another law-abiding gun owner and allow him to shoot one of mine, we have both committed crimes? Same thing if I have a misfire and ask the Range Master for help; he would be committing a crime to help me make the gun safe. Brilliant!
Do you know that there are no “manufacture dates” on magazines? Or, how about the fact that ANY magazine with a removable plate (used for cleaning) is “modifyable” and will be illegal to purchase/sell after July 1.
No law-abiding gun owner wants guns in the hands of maniacs, but the message the Sheriffs are trying to communicate is that there are better ways than these illogical, knee-jerk laws. They also tried to communicate this at the Capitol and were not allowed. What choice were they left?
I’ll bet $1 you didn’t reach out to any of these Sheriffs and get their side, did you? Nice work!
So, these “rogue Sheriffs” you describe are doing the right thing and have my support.
You, on the other hand…..
Cowardly AND ignorant author won’t even give his name. These laws aren’t difficult to enforce, they are 100% impossible to enforce. Idiots…
Pssst, Aurora Sentinel, you mean 62 elected Sheriffs, correct? There are two Sheriffs in Colorado whom are not elected, but rather appointed: Denver and Broomfield. And just like appointed police chiefs, they simply do as they are told, and say what they are told to say.
Scary thought…. is the writer of this trash article an employee of this “news” organization?
This editor is a flippin moron. Police don’t know best how to keep anyone safe…just ask the victims of the Aurora shooting…moron.
An article for the sheeple by the sheeple. Go back to Cali and stop trying to impose your will on people who just don’t want you here.
If I buy a 50 bullet magazine on June 1 it is legal. If I buy the same size magazine on July 1 it is illegal. How in the world is a law enforcement officer supposed to know which is which?
If I am a good shot I can kill someone with one bullet. I don’t need a magazine with ten rounds.
If I have never been in trouble with the law, never been under medical care for mental instability, and have never done anything else that would bring me to the attention of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, I can legally buy a gun and the appropriate magazine to go with it. In fact, I can buy several guns and several magazines. Now I am ready for my shoot-em up at the local theater.
Dear Aurora Sentinel, if you cannot see the flaws in these two laws, then you have a problem you need to deal with before you start labeling sheriffs as rogue. In addition, If I may quote from the dictionary:
rogue as an adjective
1. having an abnormally savage or unpredictable disposition
2. no longer obedient, belonging, or accepted and hence not controllable or answerable
I may be mistaken; but none of the 54 sheriffs struck me as abnormally savage or having an unpredictable disposition. They are also still obedient. They will obey the law to the best of their abilities. They just happen to think it is not workable and are therefore using their constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of speech. And in this country you are allowed to file a lawsuit. So they are behaving in an accepted manner. Because most sheriffs in Colorado are elected they are also answerable to their constituency.
As my brother would have said, “Put that in your pipe and smoke it.”
As a resident of Aurora, I will be informing all who advertise in the Sentinel and tell them i will never use their services until they remove their business from this Rag. Add some argument and some real journalism. This is uninformed trash for the sheeple by the elite.
What a joke !! This guy has no clue, but is going to tell us he does !! When things go bad where you gonna run? If you had a degree in journalism it should be taken away!! Know your facts before you speak !
Who is going to pay the transfer fee to the state when the police leave their guns with the armorer at their department?
Oh yeah, Rhonda forgot about that. Oh well, I am sure the departments won’t get an FFL and run the checks themselves. So if the cops don’t do it, why would anyone? Hmm!
you guys are brainless yellow journalism rag
What a terrible opinion piece! Sheriff’s in Colorado, with few exceptions, come from a wealth of law enforcement experience. They are elected by the public, and thus represent the public. Unlike the CACP, the county sheriff’s are not political appointees put in place by mayors. I applaud the county sheriff’s for standing up against a set of laws that will not increase public safety, but will turn numerous law abiding citizens into violators with the swish of a pen.
I’m so surprise that people who profess to be intelligent can come up with such garbage.. Haven’t you READ the bills..?? Have you consider the existing Laws that were modified..?? Have you determine the demographics to determine useful legislation. Have you done your homework,..??
Doesn’t look like it.. Looks like you traded sex for false information.. whore..!!!
The Aurora, Colorado was and IS ground zero for some of the worst gun violence in the state of Colorado. The Aurora Sentinel and the editorial staff should investigate the facts, THEN, editorialize their position. I totally support the efforts of the sheriffs and others who use common sense in creating laws and enforce laws. Aurora Sentinel get back in the hole you came out of….
Oh wow, how misguided and one sided this article/editorial was. You fail to mention that the Sheriff’s are elected by the people and that the Police Chiefs are appointed by politicians that often have an agenda. Police Chiefs do not answer to the electorate directly. Secondly, had the Sentinel done a little research, they would have learned that the Sheriff’s also stated as a primary reason for not enforcing the laws was that there was no way to tell a magazine manufactured legally and in legal possession from a magazine that was manufactured legally and in illegal possession. If citizens are innocent until proven guilty the Sheriff departments would have had an impossible task wasting time and money their departments do not have.
The counter headline to the Op Ed should be Sentinel shoots self in foot before pulling their foot from their mouth.
I will label myself as THE Aurora Sentinel since I live here and cannot believe this piece of trash article. If the person who wrote this article had any real experience with firearms they would then be able to talk intelligently about the laws. Instead, they propagate fear and discontentment, saying they speak on behalf of all of the people when in fact they do not. The gun legislation was pure politics and the laws that might have had a real impact to protect the citizens of our good state (i.e. the mental health bill!) were dismissed out of hand. This article is offensive to me and my family. I am now boycotting the Aurora Sentinel as THE Aurora Sentinel because I care about my family, neighbors and friends in Aurora.
Is the Sentinel staff daft? None of the laws enacted by any of the states would have prevented these horrible events. Now you want to blame the sheriff’s? Is the Sentinel on Bloomberg’s payroll?
Wow! Now I know that in most of the state’s counties, I can choose which laws I want to obey or not, knowing that these Sheriffs WILL NOT enforce the laws THEY HAVE SWORN TO UPHOLD. It would be pretty hypocritical of them to arrest me for what I choose not to obey if they can pick and choose which laws to enforce.
The Sheriffs have every right to sue to change the laws, but that does not free them from enforcing ALL the laws until they are changed by the courts or the legislature (or the people). Why isn’t our Republican Secretary of State holding these public officials accountable? Yes, they ARE rogue sheriffs, and they should be recalled for dereliction of duty.
Izzy,
I think you have a problem if you follow that idea. Be sure to retain a lawyer to come bail you out. Sheriffs gave full notice, and also explained why they did not have resources or ability to enforce those laws. If President can pick and choose which laws he will follow, and which he will order his Attorney General not to enforce, why would you expect sheriffs to blindly accept impossible enforcement. When you get Federal Government to enforce the border security, enforce immigration laws on the books for decades, investigate Fast and Furious, Benghazi, and the IRS breaking the law, then come back and give your solutions to gun laws. We have lost business and companies with these laws, with other states now having gun shows, hunting, camping, and other outdoor activities. Moved to Utah or Texas where state does not try t micromanage businesses.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE LIBERAL MAGGOTS AT THIS NEWSPAPER TELLING EVERYONE THEY KNOW MORE THAN THE OPINION OF OVER 15,000 OFFICERS….THIS IS WHAT LIBERAL MAGGOTS DO….THEY THINK THEY KNOW IT ALL…/….PLEASE STOP DOING BUSINESS WITH THIS LYING NEWSPAPER.