Lawmakers in Denver have sent Senate Bill 25-003 “A Bill for an Act concerning prohibited activity involving semiautomatic firearms, and, in connection therewith, prohibiting the manufacture, distribution, transfer, sale, and purchase of specified semiautomatic firearms and classifying a device that increases the rate of fire of a semiautomatic firearm as a dangerous weapon” to Colorado’s governor.
This is possibly the most sweeping gun ban in the U.S. Not only does it ban the usual evil black rifles, it encompasses any semiautomatic firearm with a detachable magazine, especially if it falls outside of specified capacity limits.
Of course, any of the prohibited firearms currently owned aren’t included except an owner can’t transfer them to anyone, even a family member, except by bequest.
One feature of the bill is a special exemption for citizens obtaining a special permit from the county sheriff after jumping through the usual training hoops, adding Colorado to the states with “permit-to-purchase” laws.
As might be expected, there are the usual exemptions for law enforcement officers who can’t be limited to the same types of guns deemed suitable for personal defense by a citizen. Colorado legislators do’t seem to care that the typical response time for a high-priority call in a city like Colorado Springs is up to 14 minutes as of 2023. In Denver, it can take up to two minutes for a 911 to be answered. Heaven help you is you need an emergency response in more remote locations, such as Ouray.
Colorado legislators are addicted to gun control laws. It doesn’t matter whether or not they actually work, which is good because they clearly haven’t. The politicians even repealed the state’s preemption law, so any city can thumb its nose at state laws, or the Second Amendment in general, and adopt any cockamamie ordinance it wants.
Colorado is a poster child for the failure of the most fashionable gun control laws. Its “gun violence” rate (suicides + murders) rose 38% over the ten-year span from 2014 to 2023. The relatively low increase is due to the fact 78% of the gun violence deaths are suicides, which is actually a reasonably common occurrence in the Western states.
The chart below shows just how badly gun control has failed in Colorado. An 87% increase in all homicides and a 133% increase in firearm-related homicides dwarf the changes in national rates.
Just like a drug addict, Colorado lawmakers seem to be looking for a bigger,, better hit. But because of this hunt for a gun control “high” the state isn’t addressing the real factors in the mortality rates. Like their counterparts in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington state, they not only can’t see beyond the guns, they can’t imagine cracking down on anyone but gun owners.
Unfortunately, the road to recovery has to begin with the people of Colorado. Somehow, somebody has to reach them with the fact they have been worshipping not a golden idol, but a gold-plated idol. And we all know what a difficult job that is.
