Colorado's semiautomatic gun ban bill moves forward in state Senate
Colorado's lawmakers in the state Senate advanced a bill to ban the sale and manufacture of some semiautomatic weapons. Debate on the bill extended past midnight into Friday morning.
The bill would ban the sale of semiautomatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns unless people complete a training course through Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The amendment to include the course came during more than six hours of debate.
The CPW course would focus on gun safety. Some Democrats are worried Gov. Jared Polis would veto the bill and tacked on the amendment to the bill in hopes of it becoming law.
The bill would ban the manufacture and sale of many firearms that use detachable magazines and could be the most significant tightening of gun laws in Colorado history. Democrats want to toughen current gun laws to make magazines used in semiautomatic weapons to be non-removable, slowing the reloading process.
State Senator Chris Kolker, a Democrat representing Arapahoe and Jefferson counties said, "Now I don't know very many people out there who need to quickly re-load, outside of the military, outside of law enforcement. It's those that are doing harm. All the hunters I know don't need more than 15 bullets."
Currently, Colorado's law bans magazines larger than 15 rounds.
Republican Senator Byron Pelton said, "This will actually create a black market, for people to go into the black market to buy these rifles and then the other thing this will do is put these gun stores out of business. The small mom and pops across the state will go out of business because this is the most popular weapon that they sell in their gun stores."
State Senator Pelton represents Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Weld and Yuma Counties.
Democratic Senator Tom Sullivan of Centennial said, "These magazines, like this are still being sold. They are sold right here in our neighborhoods. They were sold in Arvada when the Boulder grocery store shooter went and bought a couple so he could take them into the King Soopers and start his day of carnage."
"It only disarms the law-abiding citizens who follow the rules," Republican Senator Janice Rich from Grand Junction said. "Criminals do not follow gun laws."
The bill still needs a final vote in the Senate. That could happen next week before it moves to the state House. If approved by Polis, the bill would go into effect this September.
