January 09, 2023 11:13 AM UTC

Another Republican Loses His Guns At The Capitol

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post’s Saja Hindi reports, and it wouldn’t be a session of the Colorado General Assembly without at least one of these so hopefully our statistical wad is now shot:

Two guns were stolen from Colorado Representative-elect Ron Weinberg’s vehicle while it was parked overnight at the Colorado Capitol.

Weinberg, the Loveland Republican chosen by a vacancy committee in November, had stayed a couple of days in Denver for legislative training and parked his work truck in his designated parking spot at the state Capitol building. When he was leaving Friday morning, he noticed his car had been ransacked and multiple items were taken out of it…

Rep.-elect Ron Weinberg’s two guns were reportedly equipped with trigger locks but haphazardly stored–one in his vehicle’s center console and one “behind the seat.” Those two guns are now living a life of crime for the sole reason that Weinberg brought them to the Colorado Capitol. With Weinberg’s guns now on the street, it appears the consequences of schlepping firearms around in your can’t-really-be-secured vehicle are dawning on him:

He said he hasn’t been able to sleep, and “I just couldn’t imagine ever hearing that something that belongs to me could do ill will to anybody. [Pols emphasis] It hurts me sincerely.”

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, Weinberg said, as he tries to figure out what to do with his business and start his new role at the Capitol, and normally, he doesn’t leave guns in his vehicle. But Weinberg had gone shooting with his 7-year-old son to teach him gun safety at a range, he said, and “it was an oversight.”

Inside the People’s House, as readers know, Republican lawmakers have a history of fumbling and mislaying their personal weapons, which they are allowed to carry due to a loophole in the law despite the presence of armed State Patrol in the building and a ban on concealed guns owned by the public. ex-Rep. Jared Wright set the standard in 2014 when he left his loaded weapon unattended in a House conference room. Last year, Rep. Richard Holtorf’s gun flopped out of his pants while Holtorf was bounding up a flight of stairs. Between those incidents in 2017, yet another GOP Rep. Lori Saine was caught with a gun she “forgot” was in her purse at a Denver International Airport security checkpoint.

The party of gun rights’ inability to retain safe custody of their own firearms has been making a punchine of Colorado Republican legislators for years, but in this case it’s worse because these dangerous weapons have a real danger now of being used to commit a crime. Right after getting busted with her gun at DIA, Rep. Saine kicked off the next legislative session with fresh bills to weaken Colorado gun laws–bills that were never going to pass, but did manage to capture Rep. Saine’s jaw-dropping hypocrisy for the permanent record.

The lesson is always the same: if you don’t want bad things to happen with your guns, LEAVE THEM AT HOME.