January 14, 2025 03:02 PM UTC

Gun Rights Groups Losing Their Damn Minds Over New Magazine Limit Bill

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• by: Colorado Pols

Gun rights groups in Colorado are absolutely freaking out over legislation (SB25-003) that is intended to put some teeth into an extended magazine ban passed in Colorado in 2013 that is rarely enforced.

The “sky is falling” reaction is the same sort of over-the-top attack that we have come to expect from groups like the “no compromise” gun rights organization Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO). Ian Escalante, Executive Director of RMGO, typified the ridiculousness in a recent RMGO video posted on ‘X’:

ESCALANTE: “This week, the Colorado General Assembly pulled no punches with our Second Amendment rights, and they introduced THE most extreme gun control bill we have seen in U.S. history. It’s so bad that we have dubbed it, “The Second Amendment Abolition Act.”

Holy hyperbole, Batman!

Senate Bill 24-003 is the single most extreme gun control bill in the history of America? Seriously?

Of course not.

As Seth Klamann reported for The Denver Post in early January, that is absolutely not what is happening here:

The new bill spearheaded by Democrats is aimed at building upon existing gun laws by prohibiting the sale, manufacture or purchase of semiautomatic weapons that use detachable magazines…

…Detachable magazines feed ammunition into the gun and can be swapped out when empty. The measure would also ban rapid-fire trigger activators and bump stocks, which are components that increase the fire rate of semiautomatic rifles and were infamously used in America’s deadliest mass shooting, in Las Vegas in 2017.

The bill, sponsored by Centennial Democrat Sen. Tom Sullivan, would not prohibit possession of the targeted firearms, and anyone who possessed the weapons before a ban went into effect could keep them. The measure would level criminal penalties — as well as the loss of licensure — against sellers who violated it.

Sullivan cast the bill as a way to enforce the state’s 11-year-old ban on high-capacity magazines — which, he said, are still sold in Colorado despite the prohibition. The components were used in both the Boulder King Soopers shooting and the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs, Sullivan said. [Pols emphasis]

“So instead of walking into the King Soopers with multiple magazines that (the shooter) just switched out and kept on firing, he would either have to stop and manually reload, which gives law enforcement and the public the ability to take some kind of an action … or he would have to walk in there with multiple AR-style weapons with attached magazines,” said Sullivan, whose son, Alex, was killed in the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting, in an interview.

Banning high-capacity magazines would have made a difference in Aurora and in Las Vegas in 2017, when a gunman fired more than 1,000 bullets in 11 minutes, killing 58 people and wounding 850 more. But Escalante and RMGO are claiming that this is really a secret gun prohibition, or something.

“This bill WILL ban every rifle, pistol, and shotgun that is semiautomatic and takes a detachable magazine,” said Escalante in the same video. These comments are not unlike the pearl-clutching statements made by RMGO supporters 12 years ago.

When the original magazine ban bill was introduced in 2013 (HB13-1224), groups like RMGO screeched that the result would be an end to shotguns and hunting in Colorado. Shotguns are pretty easy to find today, and hunting in Colorado remains a popular activity.

As Peter Marcus reported for the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman in May 2013:

In the days leading up to the governor’s signing ceremony, Republicans and gun rights activists flooded Hickenlooper’s office with phone calls and e-mails pleading with him not to sign the bills.

Most of the concerns rest with the magazine ban. Some argue that the measure effectively bans all magazines because most have a removable base plate for extenders, which they believe is illegal under HB 1224.

Noting the controversy surrounding the bill, Hickenlooper also issued a signing statement, explaining what the measure does and does not do. The governor does not usually issue signing statements.

Then-Gov. John Hickenlooper felt compelled to provide a signing statement after penning his name to HB-1224 because of the absurd lies and exaggerations propagated by the likes of RMGO and the National Rifle Association (NRA).

As Everytown for Gun Safety explained in a recent press release about this new bill in Colorado, the measure is directly related to the 2013 bill that did not turn out to be as problematic as RMGO and others claimed:

At least eight out of the 10 of the deadliest mass shootings involved a military-style firearm with a high-capacity magazine.

High-capacity magazines make shootings more lethal by increasing the amount of ammunition that can be fired before a shooter needs to pause to reload. In 2013, Colorado wisely enacted a law prohibiting magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds of ammunition.

While Colorado already has a ban on high capacity magazines, high-capacity magazines are legally sold in every single state neighboring Colorado and the high-powered, military style firearms that are compatible with high-capacity magazines are currently legal to purchase in Colorado. This makes the current ban incredibly weak because someone can easily just go buy a magazine in a neighboring state. Legislation to amend the state’s high-capacity magazine policy to also ban the purchase and sale of military-style firearms that accept detachable high-capacity magazines would close this loophole and save lives.

Senate Bill 25-003 closes a loophole in legislation originally passed in 2013 that sought to limit extended ammunition magazines. It is not a ban on assault weapons or anything similar. Nobody would lose their guns if this legislation passed.

So why so much bellyaching? Because groups like RMGO can’t put their “no compromise” stances into action without making wild exaggerations about every firearm related bill in Colorado, and it’s a lot easier to raise money from gullible gun lovers if you employ ridiculous rhetoric.