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April 04, 2023 11:38 AM UTC

Ten Years After "Gunapalooza," Dems Make It Look Easy

  • 6 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Former Colorado Senators John Morse and Angela Giron, both of who were recalled in 2013 over gun violence legislation.

As Colorado Public Radio’s Bente Birkeland reports, the Democratic majority in the Colorado General Assembly is on the cusp of passing the most substantial package of gun safety reform laws, since at least 2019’s “red flag” law, and rivaling the landmark 2013 legislative session that saw the passage of Colorado’s universal background checks and magazine limit:

On Monday, the Colorado legislature gave its final approval to two Democratic gun bills, the first measures to pass from a package of stricter gun laws lawmakers have proposed this session. Their next stop is Gov. Jared Polis’ desk.

The two bills will:

Also close to passage is a measure to make it easier to sue firearm manufacturers for liability; that bill is headed to a conference committee to work out differences between the House and Senate versions.

A fourth bill, requiring a three-day waiting period to buy a gun, is still pending in the House but is also expected to clear the legislature relatively soon.

Former Sen. Evie Hudak (D-Arvada), who resigned in 2013 under threat of a recall over gun safety legislation.

Following student walkouts in response to the shooting at Denver’s East High School of an administrator by a student with a so-called “ghost gun,” a new bill banning such weapons is expected to be introduced soon. The fate of one final piece of gun safety legislation, an assault weapons ban bill with substantially less Democratic support, is expected to be decided in the coming days once the current debate over the state budget is concluded.

Despite the promise by Rocky Mountain Gun Owners’ Taylor “Fuzzy Dudley” Rhodes to turn the Colorado State Capitol into a “circus” in opposition to these bills, the overall muted and ineffectual–when not simply offensive–GOP opposition to this year’s slate of gun safety bills is a tremendous change from ten years ago:

Unlike earlier forays into gun policy, which resulted in significant electoral backlash (a package of 2013 reforms led to historic recalls and contributed to Republicans taking back control of the state Senate), Colorado Democrats have not suffered political damage from the more recent bills they’ve passed.

After the successful 2013 recalls, Republicans regained narrow control of the Colorado Senate in 2014 before the party’s big slide toward the abyss that begin in 2018. Regaining the Senate majority in 2019, undeterred Democrats immediately moved forward with the state’s successful “red flag” law. The failure of recalls initiated in 2019 against a number of Democratic legislators and Gov. Jared Polis, including the failed recall attempt against now-Sen. Tom Sullivan in direct retaliation for the passage of the “red flag” law, effectively broke the spell lingering from the 2013 session. The “wave of fear” local conservative activist Jon Caldara heralded in 2013 was over.

Despite the short-term losses and political turmoil that Democrats in Colorado endured by boldly taking action against gun violence ten years ago, subsequent victories and the overall national shift in the debate over gun policy toward stronger gun safety laws have demonstrated that even in a Western state steeped in gun culture, reform is not only possible but politically prosperous.

Their success is both courage and patience rewarded.

Comments

6 thoughts on “Ten Years After “Gunapalooza,” Dems Make It Look Easy

  1. Speaking of Jon Caldara, it’s been a while since I’ve seen any mention of him in the media. Note that I don’t read or listen to local far right wing stuff. Be interesting to hear his reaction to the decline of the local GOP. As for Dems “making it look easy,” you got a lot of help from Donald Trump and Lauren Boebert, among others.

  2. This was the start of the Last Hurrah for the Colorado GOP.

    They were successful in a couple of recalls in 2013. That foretold the big year they had in 2014 ("big year" being a relative term).

    Cory Gardner and his famous smile won out over the dour Mark Udall.

    Bob Beauprez came a lot closer to being elected governor in 2014 than he did in 2006.

    The GOP under-ticket swept the other constitutional offices. Mike Coffman held onto his seat.

    Then 2016 struck and all has been downhill ever since.

    1. For another side of the story, this writer for National Review called it a "dubious ruling":

      Dangerousness is a legal determination, not a medical one, and there is nothing anywhere in the Constitution that empowers medical or scientific expert opinions before the government may act. It is doubtful that a court conducting the sort of serious originalist analysis required by the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision would make constitutionality of a red-flag law under the Second Amendment turn on whether the proof of dangerousness is presented by a member of the psychiatric profession, given that psychiatry didn’t even exist in 1791.

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