April 22, 2013 09:24 AM UTC

Remaining Gun Safety Bills Win Anticlimactic House Passage

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: FOX 31's Eli Stokols reports on the quiet third-reading passage of the bills this morning:

Senate Bill 195, which requires some in-person training for concealed carry permit-holders, passed on a bipartisan 40-24 vote and now heads to Gov. John Hickenlooper’s desk.

The other, Senate Bill 197, restricts firearms for domestic violence offenders; it passed 36-28 but, because it was amended, must return to the Senate before it heads to the governor.

The entire House Republican caucus voted against the bill, which is just what Democrats wanted — a vote they can use in next year’s election mailers to argue that Republicans are so intractably opposed to gun control measures that they won’t even vote to take them away from violent domestic abusers…

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Under-reported in the crush of news about other legislation, AP reports via the Pueblo Chieftain:

Stronger prohibitions on gun ownership by domestic abusers and required in-person training for concealed-carry permits advanced in the Colorado House on Friday.

The Democrat-sponsored measures received initial approval on an unrecorded voice vote are opposed by Republicans, but did not garner as much heated debate as other gun legislation Democrats have already passed, including expanded background checks and limiting the size of ammunition magazines…

House Bills 1224 and 1229, limiting magazine capacity to 15 rounds and requiring standard background checks on most sales of guns in Colorado, have already been signed into law, along with House Bill 1228 restoring a small fee for background checks. These were the bills most fiercely opposed by Republicans, though the bills that passed Friday, Senate Bills 195 and 197 barring online-only concealed carry instruction and restricting gun possession for persons who commit domestic violence, certainly have come in for their share of (frequently outlandish) criticism. Even though Senate Bill 195, for example, has been characterized as "reasonable" by gun-rights proponents seeking leverage against other bills they opposed more, at least some Republican legislators didn't hesitate to speak up against it Friday.

‘‘Where in the Constitution does it say you have to have online training or any training [Pols emphasis] to exercise your Second Amendment rights?’’ said Rep. Perry Buck, a Republican who spoke against the bill.

Senate Bill 197, which restricts firearm possession for persons who commit domestic violence, likewise saw at least some amount of unsuccessful Republican opposition Friday. AP reports on Rep. Chris Holbert's case against the bill, which centered on the possibility of "vindictive actions" by one party in a relationship to deprive the other of their firearms "without due process." In fact, as this story notes, the bill only affects persons under an active restraining order, or convicted of domestic violence. In most cases, these persons are already disallowed from possessing guns, and the bill is more about establishing clear procedure.

In both cases, these are bills that are much tougher for Republicans to message against, or even misrepresent–and as you can see above, and see also in the lack of overall controversy over passage of these bills Friday, whatever attempt to keep the outrage stoked fell flat last week. Along with the half-hearted recall petition campaigns underway, the emotion and energy that so characterized the opposition to these bills seems to be dwindling.