EDITOR: Editor Dave Perry’s Dec. 2 column, ”‘That’s the way it is in this town’ – A child’s guide to gun control in Aurora” is a very powerful editorial.

But in Colorado, we actually have passed a number of strong gun bills here in Colorado:

• Universal Background Checks, Large Capacity Magazine Ban,

• ERPO (red flag), Violent Misdemeanor Prohibition, Closed Charleston Loophole,

• Removed Preemptive statute, domestic violence relinquishment, safe storage, etc.

There are many more we could do that would address gun violence:  Licensing, registration, minimum age for long guns, waiting periods, assault weapons ban, remove the gun industry immunity, etc.  We have a list of about 20 changes we would like to see.

Although we at Colorado Ceasefire have been working on the legislative end of things for 21 years, there do need to be more avenues on reducing gun violence.

In Aurora, since Oct. 22, there have been more than 22 youth involved in shootings, either as shooters or victims.  Three died.

A big question is:  Where are the kids getting the guns?  In Michigan it was from the home.  What about the deceased 17-year-old who had the shootout with the former Greenwood Village cop?

He was too young to purchase either a long gun or handgun.

He was too young to possess a handgun. I heard the father interviewed on Channel 7. I wondered why the first question out of his mouth wasn’t, “Where did my kid get a gun?”

Also, it would help if we had more support from sheriffs on enforcing the laws, especially the large capacity magazine ban.  They are still being sold at some gun stores, even though illegal.

— Eileen McCarron, Colorado Ceasefire Legislative Action, via letters@SentinelColorado.com

5 replies on “LETTER: Perry’s ‘child’s guide to gun control’ makes a point, but more legislation is on the way”

  1. Colorado Ceasefire, like Brady, is an organization that knows what will decrease gun violence. These and other similar groups are the ones that should be tapped for implementable solutions to this ongoing epidemic of gun violence. We do not need another political commission or study group. Let’s just do what we know works!

  3. Since Dave Perry has been part of the liberal wave disabling the police, I find it ironic that he wants them to enforce things like the large capacity magazine ban. Remember, we don’t want the police to contact people for minor things that may result in violence. The police cannot afford to confront people with the vague use of force guidelines and punitive measures in the police reform bill that Perry, the media, and the legislature trumpet as progressive. So, please, don’t expect the police to risk their careers, homes, and freedom to enforce your favorite laws while you won’t begin to address the problems with vague reforms that you created.

    1. As someone who worked in law enforcement for many years, I can tell you just how wrong this is. And the cost of allowing law enforcement free rein.

      So can the family of Elijah McClain. McClain was minding his own business when Aurora cops stopped him for walking home. They had no reasonable suspicion or probable cause to detain McClain. They had no lawful authority to put hands on him, let alone “subdue” him and have him injected with ketamine, which led to his death. That’s why we don’t allow cops to stop and detain people who are doing nothing.

      Police training for years has taught cops to believe that the entire population is composed of evil civilians who hate them and want to kill them. They are taught that any civilian within 21 feet of them who has a knife, though not threatening anyone with it, represents an immediate threat to the extent that they are justified in killing him on the spot. McClain didn’t even have a knife, and they felt justified in assaulting him. And then lying about it.

      Before the advent of widespread civilian use of video, this was standard behavior for a lot of cops. Now we know better. I’ve known lots of good cops, the kind I’d take a bullet for. But even a lot of them will not expose the brutal behavior of other cops. It is vital that we rethink our entire approach to policing.

      1. Factually, there are a number of incorrect things in your comments. I also have spent many years in law enforcement. Law enforcement has suffered from politically correct, weak, and unethical leadership for a long time. Those in charge have ignored    lack of training and bad behavior for as long as I can remember. I pulled officers off of suspects long before it was popular. In the Elijah McClain case, the officers were responding to a citizen’s call of a suspicious person in an area that was known to have serious crimes. An APD officer was killed stopping a suspected robber a few blocks from where Elijah was stopped. The police don’t have the right to stop people for doing nothing. They must have reasonable suspicion or probable cause. There is some subjective evaluation in all of that. I have reviewed the videotape and the subsequent investigations pushed by the City and Attorney General. There are untruths and emotional statements that lack any real basis in the followup investigations. The initial investigation cleared the officers for good reason. No one really knows why Elijah died. He knew he had not done anything. The reasonable thing to do is to cooperate and be on your way in a few minutes. There was no brutality in the Elijah McClain case. People have died in struggles with the police for many years. In many cases, there were no blows, no chokes and nothing excessive. There was a name for it. It was called Sudden In Custody Death. Medical science cannot fully explain it.The officers did not tell the fire personnel to inject ketamine. They did not lie about what happened. There is much room for improvement in law enforcement. Our legislature does not know enough to make those improvements. What they have done is create vague guidelines that have paralyzed the police. .

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