March 01, 2016 09:51 AM UTC

Regarding Sen. Tim Neville's "Gun Giveaway"

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• by: Jane Dougherty

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Colorado State Senator Tim Neville is promoting a gun give away to gin up support for his U.S. Senate campaign. The gun he is using to draw caucus goers is the AR-15 – the semi-automatic civilian version of the military M-16. There is much debate about whether the AR-15 is an “assault rifle” or a “sporting rifle.” Tim Neville tells us that “he believes the AR-15 is a great weapon,” and that people in Colorado are “pretty excited about it.” It is not hard to see based on Senator Neville’s legislative record that he is a gun extremist. Neville is a Second Amendment absolutist, championing guns for everyone, everywhere.

The idea of a sitting Colorado legislator using a powerful and deadly weapon to promote his candidacy is repulsive. I guess either Senator Neville is tone deaf or completely callous to the fact that there have been multiple shootings here in Colorado where the AR-15 has been used to take innocent lives. In the Aurora Theater shooting, 12 lives were taken and 70 others wounded by a depraved gunman with an AR-15. In the Colorado Springs shootings this past fall, the AR-15 was the openly carried gun that killed three innocent victims, and a similar weapon was used in the Planned Parenthood shooting taking the lives of three including a police officer, and injuring nine others including five police officers.

When I first learned of Senator Neville’s gun give away I was physically sickened. This is the gun that took my sister Mary Sherlach’s life at Sandy Hook Elementary School. This gun is not a toy to be dangled before constituents. I wonder if the Senator has given any thought to what could happen if the gun he is giving away fell into the hands of a dangerous person.

Using a deadly weapon for political gain is reprehensible. Is this the message a candidate for U.S. Senate should be sending in a state that has been torn apart by so much gun violence? I think not and I hope the voters of Colorado will agree.