World Courant
DENVER — Colorado’s Democratic-controlled Home on Sunday handed a invoice that will ban the sale and switch of semiautomatic firearms, a significant step for the laws after roughly the identical invoice was rapidly defeated by Democrats final yr.
The invoice, which handed by a vote of 35-27, is now headed to the Democratic-led Senate. If it passes there, it may deliver Colorado into line with 10 different states — together with California, New York and Illinois — which have bans on semiautomatic weapons.
However even in a state affected by a few of the nation’s worst mass shootings, such laws faces headwinds.
Colorado’s political historical past is purple and solely just lately shifted to blue. The invoice’s probabilities of success within the Senate are decrease than within the Home of Representatives, the place Democrats have a 46-19 majority and a bigger far-left flank. Gov. Jared Polis, additionally a Democrat, has indicated he’s cautious of such a ban.
An identical invoice died in committee final yr, with some Democratic lawmakers expressing considerations concerning the scope of a ban and guarantees they made to their constituents to stop the federal government from overreaching on the rights of most gun homeowners.
Final yr, Democrats handed and Polis signed 4 much less complete gun management payments. These embody elevating the age for buying a gun from 18 to 21; establishing a three-day ready interval between the acquisition and receipt of a weapon; strengthening the state’s purple flag legislation; and rolling again some authorized protections for the firearms trade, leaving it uncovered to lawsuits from victims of gun violence.
These legal guidelines have been signed months after 5 folks have been murdered at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs final yr. The state will quickly mark the twenty fifth anniversary of the 1999 Columbine Excessive College taking pictures that left 13 folks lifeless. Different mass shootings in Colorado embody 12 folks killed at an Aurora movie show in 2012 and 10 folks killed in a Boulder grocery store in 2021.
“That is the state the place the fashionable period of mass shootings started with Columbine,” stated Democratic Rep. Javier Mabrey, urging fellow lawmakers to affix different states banning semiautomatic weapons.
Republicans criticized the laws as a significant violation of the Second Modification to the U.S. Structure. They argued that psychological sickness and individuals who do not worth life — not weapons — are the issues that have to be addressed. Individuals with malicious intent can use different weapons, akin to knives, to hurt others, they argued.
The Democrats responded that semi-automatic weapons can do way more injury in a short while.
“In Aurora, when the shooter walked into that theater and opened hearth,” Mabrey stated, “and shot a room full of individuals in lower than 90 seconds. You’ll be able to’t do this with a knife, you may’t do this with a knife.”
Semi-automatic firearms ban passes Colorado’s Home and heads to the Senate
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