President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Kamala Harris
(R) Donald Trump
80%↑
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) V. Archuleta
98%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Marshall Dawson
95%
5%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(R) Jeff Hurd
(D) Adam Frisch
50%
50%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(D) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank
(D) River Gassen
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) John Fabbricatore
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen
(R) Sergei Matveyuk
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
52%↑
48%↓
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
December 30, 2014 12:16 PM UTC
24 Comments
Is Lang Sias going to run a primary against Sen.-elect Waters Woods in '16?
That depends on the degree of Waters-Woods' looney tunes in the Senate for the next two years. Then again, is someone going to challenge Marble?
You're talking about the district that elected Shawn "explosive boners" Mitchell twice. (Lost her) Marble(s) is exactly the spice that electorate seems to like in their pot.
In Mitchell's defense, I think he meant "boner" in the traditional meaning of the word (i.e., doing or saying something stupid), not as the euphemism for an erection.
Then again, given his malapropism about telling a Senate committee witness who was nervous to just visualize Morgan Carroll in her underwear, I suppose anything is possible.
And, if you've never heard Mitchell speak or argue in his capacity as a legal representative of RMGO, well first of all you're fortunate, but second of all his legal ignorance and eighth-grade grasp of the law makes any malapropism seem learned by comparison. This is a stupid, stupid, stupid man . . .
RMGO-owned people will be kicked out due to ethics violations in a short time, forcing Jeffo to hold special elections to replace their morons, and it'll be D's taking their seats.
dusty, while we appreciate your exuberance, you really need to study up on Colorado election. The Jeffco legislators whom you predict will end up with ethics problems will not be replaced in special elections but would be replaced by vacancy committees made up on the same nut jobs who got them into office in the first place.
And if you are thinking recall election, think again. You can't recall Laura Waters Woods because she's only serving the remaining two years of Evie Hudak's four-year term. And Neville would probably welcome a recall attempt as a fundraising boom for RMGO.
$8,450?!? — Ruger, Colt, Browning, or somebody else will gladly write that check for their widdle cuddlydudleybuddy without giving a moment's pause . . .
RMGO will cease to exist as an entity when they are ordered to be shut down in violations of FEC laws.
See Frank's comment above… Have you looked at the operation of the FEC lately? It's a complete gridlock.
Until the penalty for non-compliance with disclosure laws is the dissolution (or forced reorganization) of the organization in question, RMGO will remain the same slimy entity that it has been…
Has RMGO issued a statement re: the two year old in Walmart in Idaho simply exercising his or her Second Amendment rights?
Do they have to? It was a "tragic accident", just like all other shootings by small children.
The victim in this case also happens to be the perp – the one who left a loaded, fire-able handgun within reach of a small child who isn't even old enough to understand the NRA's Eddie Eagle instruction. If I was feeling cruel, I'd nominate her for a Darwin Award. Of course, they could go after the father that gave her the purse with the special handgun pocket for Christmas… Nah – just call it "tragic accident" and get it over with; that always works.
Their other familiar refrain is to say it is in poor taste to talk about a tragedy so soon after it has occurred. It's best to wait until everyone has forgotten about it at which point you can bring it up ….. but nobody will remember it.
No, PR. It was a murder clearly. The 2 y/o must be held accountable, tried as an adult with death penalty on the table. Where was the "good guy with a gun"?
Let's hear it for personal responsibility! And if other two year olds hear about what becomes of this one, they will think twice before committing matricide.
Except that the death-penalty alone won't deter all naughty two-year olds . . .
Obviously, the only way to stop a bad 2-year old with a gun, is a good 2-year old with a gun . . .
Tragedies like this only point up how liberals have failed society by deciding it was ever a good idea for our nursery schools becoming gun-free zones!
Most gunheads train their kids in gun safety. For sure, most veterans do -they've seen what bullets do to living flesh. Most people who hunt for sport or necessity also train their children in how to handle weapons. My ex trained me and my kids – we're all good shots who would never point a gun (loaded or un-) at someone. The NRA even has had gun-safety classes for generations.
For some reason, this is all breaking down now. People who should never have loaded guns have them, wear them, flaunt them. There are some crazies and violent people being stopped by the background check laws, but clearly not all of the people who need to be stopped.
Is it just the marketing from gun manufacturers? RMGO? The ceaseless propaganda that "Obama's comin' to take yer guns?" Is it the Laura Carnos and Laura Woodses of the world, still trying to convince women that packing a loaded gun is an equivalent "choice" to using birth control or abortion?
In case it isn't clear, I think that the way out of this madness is compromise with the gunheads, using "gun safety" and training as a pathway. Recruit them, use their knowledge. Promise them nobody's coming to take away their precious guns (nobody is, unless they're already a criminal or have destroyed a living thing or property with a firearm).
That, and seriously beefing up the mental health system, allowing for easier mental health holds, funding walk-in centers, long term housing and rehab.
A comprehensive solution will be the only workable one.
Correction — most gunheads SAY they properly train their kids . . .
. . . some may even actually provide some "training" . . .
Yes, "training" would help, but the fact is that kids are kids — with kids' judgment, kids' temperament, kids' curiosity, kids' intelligence, kids' reasoning, and kid's logic — and living in denial of these truths is unconscionable adult stupidity!
. . . and, the other fact remains that, as long as kids have any kind of unsupervised access or opportunity to unsecured weapons, there will never be a dearth of sad, tragic, stupid news stories.
Granted, kids are kids without adult judgment. However, adults who screw up like the mom packing heat in her purse, or who leave loaded guns around, should de facto lose their gun rights. I'll pull a dustpuppy here, and say that they would lose their right to bear arms, in my world.
RMGO has proven that its leadership are scofflaws, so I'm not talking about recruiting them, or RMGO members, as trainers. However, there are relatively sane gun owners who should be willing to work with legislators on sensible programs.
Many schools used to have shooting ranges and competitions. I remember the East HS "Riflettes". We need to bring that training back. Just like kids know not to run across a street without looking both ways, not to take rides or candy from strangers, not to punch your seat buddy because he called you a poopyhead, they need to have an ingrained response never to point a gun at someone, because you don't know if it is loaded or not.
I really think we're going to have to work with the saner gun heads out there. We're not going to be able to ban most guns. We're not going to be able to take guns away from people who shouldn't have them, unless said people have already proved themselves a danger to society.
Training in gun safety is part of the solution.
I'd be happy with some basic adult training. Something very simple, similar to what we've done with cigarettes, a warning label affixed as a sticker on the barrel of every gun sold in the US. Nothing inflammatory, just a simple statement of absolute fact:
"WARNING: Firearm ownership has been proven to significantly increase the likelihood of severe injury and death to persons living in a home with a gun!"
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/guns-and-death/
Shouldn't be any problem, right ?!?
A warning label would be an OK first step. Extending the analogy with cigarettes : guns, the next steps would be restricting the marketing, promoting aggressive anti-gun marketing (remember the "smoking is so cool" ads?), and public education. Here's a thought experiment:
Marketing: TV already doesn't allow gun commercials or cigarette commercials, and the internet really didn't exist when cigarette commercials were restricted.
In the interests of free press and free markets, you probably can't restrict online firearms advertising anymore than it already is (click this box if you're over 18). So that probably leaves print media. Retailers like Walmart, the largest seller of guns and ammo, wouldn't be able to advertise guns in print, because anyone could see and read them.
If a consumer subscribes to say, the NRA Rifleman, then of course he/she would still be able to read it. But any gun ads publicly available to children would be banned. "Toy guns" that look like real guns should be banned – for obvious reasons.
Aggressive anti-gun and gun safety media messages should already be broadcasted, and would be if the gun sanity forces had the money that the RMGOs of the world have. It should be slickly produced, public service advertising, just graphic enough to make the point, like the anti-smoking messages of a few years back. These should be on every media outlet.
Public education on gun safety
Now I'm back to my original point. If parents are in fact NOT educating their kids about gun safety, and you're probably right that it's sporadic at best, then it is up to public education to do so. Just as we have age-appropriate sex education, and anti-drug, anti-smoking education, driver safety (buckle those seat belts!) education, we should be teaching kids how to either not handle guns, how to handle them safely in hunting and target practice, how to behave around guns, etc. I know that kids get this in approved hunter safety courses, but again, it's uneven.
I realize that these ideas would be fought by the gun lobby, including RMGO, with falsehoods and hysteria, just as the moderate gun laws were. But we can't just keep writing off "another tragic accident" involving a child with a gun.
The only positive in this tragedy is that the two year old didn't shoot himself or some innocent bystander or other shopper's child. Not that the poor child and the entire family isn't doomed to be deeply and irreparably damaged forever but at least the person responsible is the only one who got killed. If you're packing heat in your purse, that purse belongs under your control on your person, not laying around right next to your two year old.
I don't have a hand gun in my purse but I never leave it in a shopping cart or in my car and am always amazed at all the annual stories of women having their purses stolen out of their locked cars while they go to the gym or rec center even though those places have lockers available. Maybe it's because I'm from Chicago where smart people strap their shoulder bags across their bodies instead of hanging off a shoulder. Must admit, I've gotten lax about that after over 36 years in Colorado but not lax enough to go check out the produce or sales rack while leaving my purse behind in a shopping cart, much less a gun and a two year old.
Gun safety education isn't a new idea. And again, we're much likelier to have a successful gun safety program if we ask for input and enlist the help of the saner "gun heads".
Or – let RMGO explain why they don't want kids to be taught always to check if a firearm is loaded, and never to point a gun at anyone.
OK, I'm done for tonight. This is what happens when teachers are bored – they post pictures of men wearing whipped cream, and think up extravagant schemes for public education.