Colorado Anti-Gun Follies

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gun control

credit: twoglobalcitizens.wordpress.com

Back in September of 2013, I wrote an article titled “Gun Control: Colorado and The Long View,” that explored the long term strategies of the gun controllers, as well as the short-term backlash against Colorado Democrats that enacted a Leftist wish list of gun control laws in that state.  Two, including the state senate president were recalled, something unprecedented in Colorado political history, and more recently, a third politician/gun-grabber resigned rather than face reelection pursued by her record of insanely abusive anti-gun commentary.

It’s time to revisit gun control in the mile-high state, which is, for the moment, a mass of seeming contradictions.  Both houses of the legislature are controlled by Democrats, yet Coloradans lean right and the majority of its citizens seem to be conservative, yet only in some significant ways, those ways being somewhat difficult to discern through all of the marijuana smoke.  In any case, the battles are far from over and may foretell trends in other parts of the country.

New legislation, via Fox News:  

Republican House Leader Rep. Brian DelGrosso said… Republicans plan to introduce a bill to repeal the 15-round limit on ammunition magazines. He said Republicans will likely also revisit expanded background checks, but did not provide specifics on possible legislation.

The restrictions that took effect July 1 led to the recall ouster of two Democratic state senators.
Republicans will have a difficult time overturning the laws, though. Democrats control the House by a wide margin and have a one-vote lead in the Senate…

Another proposed ballot measure would completely overturn the gun restrictions passed by Democrats in 2013 and mandate that any future measures limiting gun rights be decided only by voters, according to The Denver Post.

These are not the only upcoming gun-related issues.  Gun control proponents are determined to repeal concealed carry on college campuses, a law that has, like concealed carry everywhere, caused no difficulties whatever:

Meanwhile, a group of gun control supporters in Colorado received permission Thursday to start gathering signatures for a ballot measure to ban concealed weapons on public college campuses.

A campus ban was among the gun ideas Democrats advanced last year. Colorado and Utah are the only states that allow concealed weapons on public college and university campuses. Colorado’s highest court sided with gun activists in 2010 and ordered all campuses to allow concealed weapons.

The state Legislature considered changing the law, and a bill cleared the Democratic House. But the measure was shelved in the Democratic Senate after Democratic Sen. Evie Hudak challenged a rape victim who testified that she should have had a gun to protect herself.

Hudak resigned in November rather than face a recall campaign certain to feature that exchange.

Colorado Tax Revenues Take Flight.  Fox News reports:  

One of the largest producers of gun magazines in the U.S. is leaving Colorado because of its new gun laws and moving its operations to Texas and Wyoming.

Magpul Industries, based in Erie, Colorado, announced Thursday that it was moving its production, distribution and shipping operations to Cheyenne and its headquarters to Texas, making good on a vow it made to leave Colorado during last year’s heated gun control debate.

In 2013, the company took out a newspaper ad stating it would leave should the state pass a ban on high-capacity magazines and add-ons for semi-automatic rifles…

The company says its corporate headquarters will likely be in north-central Texas but an exact location hasn’t been determined yet.

For the non-existent benefit of gun control laws that will do nothing to suppress crime or enhance safety, Colorado has lost a substantial number of good jobs and millions in tax revenue, but on the other hand, they’ve gained hundreds of thousands of overt pot smokers.

Gun Sales Boom For Christmas, via Hot Air:  

Coloradoans, apparently, like their guns. The great state of New New York (AKA: Colorado) is on track to break the previous record of total gun sales in the state… At least, that’s according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. By year end, Colorado will have conducted tens of thousands more background checks for gun purchases than ever before in state history.

Some of the up-tick in firearm purchases could be contributed to gun enthusiasts’ desire to buy up firearms before legislators and a certain governor (ahem*Hickenlooper*ahem) choose to outlaw the practice. Advocates of recent gun control laws, however, are suggesting the increase in background checks are a result of “universal background checks’; and are therefore proof that the new laws are keeping Coloradoans safer.

‘Dozens of criminals would be walking around with a gun right now if not for the new law,’ said Rep. Rhonda Fields, a Colorado legislator with no apparent capacity to digest the meaning of the word ‘criminal’. Because, ya know, dozens of criminals tried to purchase a firearm from drug dealers, gun runners, and fellow gang members – only to find out that they were unable to pass the required background check. ‘Oh well,’ they said to themselves when their fellow criminal reported the unfortunate denial from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. “I guess I’ll just go back to being an unarmed, and passive, member of society.’

Colorado is one of the big states to talk about when it comes to Second Amendment rights. This could be because of the new gun rights restrictions they passed, the elected officials who were recalled because of it or those who turned tail and ran rather than face the wrath of liberty minded voters. Or maybe because it’s just so darned fun to say ‘Hickenlooper.’ But no matter the reason, as Schaus points out, they still have more than their fair share of politicos who seem to be clueless about the realities on the ground.

‘The bottom line is, background checks work,’ said Democrat State Rep. Mike Foote, one of the bill’s sponsors. ‘It keeps guns out of the hands of felons and domestic violence offenders.’ Well, sure… It keeps guns out of the hands of anyone who bothers to hassle with following the law. It does nothing to prohibit illegal sales among criminals with criminal intent.

Also, thanks to the new Colorado law, anyone that gave a firearm to a relative or friend for Christmas without including a state-mandated background check through a federal firearms licensee accidently turned the gift giver and receiver into instant criminals.  Merry Christmas!  That’ll help reduce crime.

Gun Controllers Playing Fair?  Riiiight.  Charles C. Cooke at National Review has interesting—and distressing—information about the recent Colorado electoral battles:  

In Colorado, efforts to recall a third anti-gun politician ended this morning with the news that Senator Evie Hudak, who represents the communities of Arvada and Westminster, will resign. Hudak apparently decided that the election, which if lost could have flipped control of the state’s senate, was not worth the risk.

Hudak is one of many who backed Colorado’s hated new gun restrictions, but she is especially disliked among Second Amendment advocates for having callously dismissed the testimony of a rape survivor during a legislative hearing. The full details of that event – and the wider debate around women and firearms – are here.

Having been roundly beaten last time, the gun-control movement changed its tactics for this fight. For September’s recalls, anti-gun advocates managed to outspend their opposition by 8-1. They lost anyway. In September, they brought in heavy hitters from the Obama campaign and beyond, waging a professional campaign against rank amateurs whose campaigns were widely regarded as a waste of time. They lost anyway. In September, they had reams of positive national news coverage. They lost anyway.

When Democrats are losing, they always address their failings honorably and do their best to play fair.  Bawahahahahahah!

As we speak, we have multiple cars monitoring us at our offices and filming us from the parking lot,’ Mike McAlpine, who headed up the recall effort, told me yesterday. ‘This is not a one-off event. We hold sign-and-drive events on the sidewalks near to busy intersections, and we hold signs inviting people to pull over and sign the petition. Our opponents have taken to blocking us: as cars pull in, they run up to the driver’s side door and physically stand next to the door so that the person inside cannot open the door and come outside.’

Elsewhere, opponents have formed human chains in order to block anyone who wants to sign. ‘They yell at the person while they’re at the table trying to sign, or blow an airhorn in their ear,’ McAlpine added. ‘There have been a half-dozen examples of that. In addition, when we go out to knock on doors and present the petition, they will follow us down the sidewalk and scream and yell.’ Recently, McAlpine told me, protesters encircled a young black man who was collecting signatures. ‘They yelled at him, ‘you killed Trayvon! You killed Trayvon!’

The anti-recall groups also took to distributing flyers accusing those collecting signatures of being sex offenders:

‘I have three cars following me at all times,’ McAlpine continued. ‘We have tails in most of our locations, and the police will not address this. We’ve shared the statute with the police. We think this is stalking and intimidation.

Just another example of Democrats respecting and upholding the Constitution and the Democratic process.

Colorado Governor: I just Want To Be Left Alone.  Via USA Today:  

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper suggests national gun-control groups stay away from a looming recall battle that could switch control of the state Senate to the GOP. The groups poured money into an unsuccessful defense of two state lawmakers recalled over their gun votes earlier this year.

‘Colorado is a state that people like to be themselves and solve their own problems,’ the Democratic governor said in an interview with Capital Download, USA TODAY’s weekly video newsmaker series. ‘They don’t really like outside organizations meddling in their affairs, and maybe the NRA gets a pass on that.’

‘But (it is) probably not a bad idea” for gun-control groups, such as the one established by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to curb their efforts if gun-rights activists collect enough signatures to force a recall vote on state Sen. Evie Hudak, a two-term Democrat from a suburban district north of Denver, he said.

If Republicans succeed in gaining her seat, Democrats would lose their 18-17 edge in the state Senate.

Hudak resigned, which allowed Hickenlooper to appoint her successor for the remainder of her term rather than losing the seat to a Republican.  Hickenlooper was at least somewhat rational, but he still holds obvious gun-grabbing desires.

Hickenlooper acknowledges the difficulties of passing federal gun laws even after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., last December and other tragedies. ‘We have this tradition of the Second Amendment and people’s rights to self-defense and a certain suspicion that the government can’t be trusted,” he said. “That’s going to make it very difficult. I think any progress in terms of even universal background checks will be slow.

One can only hope so Governor.  One can only hope so.