For the first time in Colorado history, House Democrats passed a bill Sunday to ban the sale, purchase and transfer of so-called assault weapons in the state, setting the measure on a collision course with the state Senate.
House Bill 1292 passed on a 35-27 vote, two votes past the threshold needed to pass. All of the supporters were Democrats, though nine Democrats joined with House Republicans in opposition.
Under the measure, which received initial House approval Friday, “assault weapons” are defined as certain high-powered, semi-automatic rifles and pistols that have fixed, large-capacity magazines or have the ability to accept detachable magazines, along with various other characteristics and types of high-powered firearms.
The bill does not ban the possession of the weapons. Under a change made Friday, an individual who illegally sells one of the covered firearms would face a $750 penalty. Gun shops that broke the law would risk losing the state licenses that lawmakers are trying to implement under a separate bill being considered this session, House Bill 1353. A third bill sets aside money to improve state investigations of illegal sales and other gun crimes.
The measure, backed by Denver Democratic Reps. Tim Hernández and Elisabeth Epps, now heads to the state Senate, where it faces an uncertain path forward amid opposition from some Democrats and skepticism from Gov. Jared Polis. But a year after a similar bill died at the first hurdle, even clearing the House is a landmark moment for a policy that some Colorado Democrats have long viewed as a time-consuming distraction from other, more meaningful reform.
Its passage is also a further sign of Colorado Democrats’ broader embrace of gun reform, 11 years after a high-capacity magazine ban triggered electoral recalls and left lasting scars on Democratic policymakers.
House Democrats pitched the ban as a preventative response to the mass shootings that have become a routine and grim feature of American life, marring Colorado’s schools, grocery stores, movie theaters, nightclubs and public spaces. Several legislators represent areas that have become infamous for their own massacre over the past decade. Rep. Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat, said she had students in the Aurora movie theater during the 2012 shooting. One of them was shot.
She rejected Republican arguments that more guns lead to crime prevention.
“The answer can’t be, ‘I need to pack my gun so when someone shoots me at church, I can shoot them back,’ ” Bacon said. “The answer can’t be, ‘When I go to the grocery store, I need to have my gun, so I can shoot them.’ That is not prevention. That is reaction.”
House Republicans uniformly opposed the bill. Democratic leadership limited floor debate to five hours Friday in a bid to curtail Republican filibustering. Some Republican lawmakers wore rifle pins on their lapels, and two pledged that they or their constituents would not comply with the ban should it become law. Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, the pro-gun rights group, has already pledged to file a lawsuit if the bill passes.
In a preview of the lawsuits to come, several Republicans said the bill violates the Second Amendment. (A federal court in Illinois affirmed that state’s sale and purchase ban, upon which the Colorado bill is based; that ruling has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court). They argued that the bill wouldn’t dent gun violence because few people die in mass shootings compared to the daily violence often perpetuated with handguns.
Rep. Ryan Armagost, a Berthoud Republican, referred to mass shootings as “clickbait.” Others referred to the frequent pro-gun talking point that mental health issues, not access to firearms, was the true cause of America’s mass shooting epidemic.
“No matter what you outlaw, no matter what we take away from citizens, criminals — people that hate — will always find a way to do their evil deeds,” said Parker Rep. Anthony Hartsook. “Nothing has stopped them since the beginning of time.”
Despite Democrats’ majority in the House, the bill’s passage was not assured, and its backers were still confirming and expanding support as late as Saturday night, partially because a few supportive legislators were absent Sunday.
The bill’s sponsors and supporters in the Capitol have also repeatedly sidestepped potential pitfalls. The measure was amended in committee to remove its hefty civil penalties, rerouting the bill away from a potentially perilous vote in the House Finance Committee and sending it instead to the full House.
Then, on Friday, a group of Democrats joined with House Republicans to amend the bill to include a study of what causes mass shootings. Because that change would’ve required state money to fund it, the bill was vulnerable to being rerouted back to committee, delaying further action and setting it up for a potentially fatal vote. The bill’s supporters hurried to shore up support to remove the amendment, which they successfully did before the House broke Friday night.
That set up Sunday’s final vote, which came six days before the 25th anniversary of the 1999 Columbine shooting that marked the beginning of the recent era of mass shootings. Shortly before the vote, Hernández talked about the students and staff killed in that shooting. He grew emotional when he described teacher Dave Sanders, who died in the shooting.
“I ask us to commit, colleagues, to never forgetting, as begged by community members, family members and children themselves over 25 years and every year since,” he said. “I ask you to never forget about Kyle (Velasquez), about Isaiah (Shoels), about Cassie (Bernall), and about a teacher named Dave.”
Next steps
A ban on certain semi-automatic firearms has failed to get traction in the Capitol before, amid concerns from lawmakers that the policy wouldn’t be as impactful as other gun reforms and that the backlash would be too strong.
That skepticism endures, complicating the bill’s path to law. Polis’ support is also far from certain: He recently told the Colorado Sun that he’s “long been skeptical of discussions around ‘this kind of equipment versus that kind of equipment.’ ”
Before the bill can get to Polis, though, it must now find a way through the state Senate. The chamber is overwhelmingly Democrat, too, but it generally has tacked a more moderate path compared to the House. Democrat Sen. Tom Sullivan, the Senate’s point person for gun reform and the father of an Aurora theater shooting victim, is a known and influential opponent to the policy, and the bill lacked a Senate sponsor until earlier this month.
That changed when Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat, agreed to take up the bill in the upper chamber. Gonzales is the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a likely committee assignment for the bill with a bare 3-2 Democratic majority, and she’s also the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate.
The bill will next be introduce into the Senate and assigned to a committee. Should it clear that first hurdle, it will then head to the full Senate for the first of two more votes. The legislative session ends May 8.
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