Holy Hypocrisy, Randy Baumgardner!

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by: Colorado Pols

Randy Baumgardner.

As the Colorado Independent's John Tomasic reports:

It was a 30-year-old High Standard nine-shot nickel-plated revolver with imitation pearl handles and it was lying on a shelf in the front hallway closet at state Senator Randy Baumgardner’s house in Hot Sulfur Springs. And then it was gone.

In the report he made to the Grand County Sheriff’s office, Baumgardner said he suspected no burglar came and took the gun. It was more likely someone who knew it was just sitting there in the closet, like maybe his stepson, 24-year-old Michael Gramm, who had recently taken a job in Texas. [Pols emphasis] Baumgardner didn’t want to make trouble for his stepson. He just wanted to make sure the fact the gun was missing was recorded and that, if it ever turned up, he might get it back.

The police report is dated 2012.

How is this relevant today, you ask? Well…

Baumgardner today will be testifying in favor of a bill he has introduced to expand exceptions to a law passed last year that requires background checks for non-purchase gun transfers. The law now says that immediate family members don’t have to get background checks to trade firearms. Baumgardner wants the law to include step-relatives as part of the family members exempted from background checks.

Now folks, we're not making a judgment about this particular bill, which some readers might reasonably support. But it's tough to imagine a worse story to come out about the sponsor of a bill to ease restrictions on gun transfers to step-relatives than his own weird police contact over the possibility his own stepson had stolen his gun. After all, isn't the whole premise of Sen. Randy Baumgardner's Senate Bill 14-090 that you can trust your step-relatives?

Baumgardner's bill was likely to die anyway, but this ought to give it a rousing send-off.

16 thoughts on “Holy Hypocrisy, Randy Baumgardner!”

Andrew Carnegie says:

February 14, 2014 at 1:24 pm

He is only 2 points behind Udall.

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1. ClubTwitty says:
  
  February 14, 2014 at 1:28 pm
  
  Send him money, he needs it.
  
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  1. Andrew Carnegie says:
    
    February 14, 2014 at 1:31 pm
    
    He has raised something like 5K. Makes Stephens campaign look like pros.
    
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    1. Diogenesdemar says:
      
      February 14, 2014 at 5:45 pm
      
      You are so all over the place A.C. — are those shakes delirium tremens or idiopathic?
      
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Progressicat says:

February 14, 2014 at 1:38 pm

It might not have been stolen; has he checked in his mustache?

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jaytee says:

February 14, 2014 at 2:57 pm

I think I know why Randy didn't want to formally accuse his son-in-law of taking the gun. Check out those stats on the police report: The kid is 6 foot 10 inches tall! Lol.

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1. divad says:
  
  February 14, 2014 at 3:19 pm
  
  6'10" and 160. He's got to really stand out in a crowd.
  
  I thought I was tall and skinny.
  
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  1. Duke Cox says:
    
    February 14, 2014 at 6:53 pm
    
    Wow, that would be a mighty gaunt frame. Must not be very healthy. Meth, maybe?
    
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    1. divad says:
      
      February 15, 2014 at 8:36 am
      
      Could be Marfan's or any number of organic causes.
      
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  2. davebarnes says:
    
    February 14, 2014 at 8:30 pm
    
    Does he have the strength to lift the revolver?
    
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DavidThi808 says:

February 14, 2014 at 5:54 pm

This strikes me as he's worried the kid might use it in a crime and doesn't want that to cause him any liability. That's understandable. But in that case you would expect him to argue against extending the exception to in-laws.

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1. Davie says:
  
  February 14, 2014 at 6:15 pm
  
  You're half right, David. Now that Randy has covered his Baumgardner, as far as what is done with his or anyone else's gun, well it's Que Sera, Sera!
  
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2. Ralphie says:
  
  February 14, 2014 at 6:43 pm
  
  It strikes me as "he gave the kid the gun, now he's reporting it stolen just to cover his ass."
  
  Just my opinion, of course.
  
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jpadraic says:

February 15, 2014 at 4:55 pm

"Son, only a pimp in a Louisiana whore house carries pearl handled revolvers, these are ivory." Gen. George S. Patton, upon being asked by an American reporter where he got his "pearl" handled revolvers.

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1. The realist says:
  
  February 15, 2014 at 8:25 pm
  
  So, who carries a gun with "imitation pearl grips" . . . an imitation pimp who can't decide if he lives in Jackson or Grand County, and thinks he's going to be a U.S. Senator from Colorado?
  
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mamajama55 says:

February 16, 2014 at 7:06 pm

It's the right to bear arms, not the right to be a dumbass. Sign the Code of gun responsibility.

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