A bill advanced by Colorado Democrats to ban the sales and transfers of a broad selection semiautomatic firearms has barely failed in the state legislature this week.
State Sen. Julie Gonzales (D), one of the main cosponsors of House Bill 1292, announced Monday that she would ask for the measure to be killed Tuesday in the Senate State, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.
“After thoughtful conversations with my Senate colleagues, I decided that more conversations need to take place outside of the pressure cooker of the Capitol during the last weeks of the legislative session,” Gonzales said in a written statement. “In that spirit, I look forward to renewing and continuing those discussions over the interim.”
“It is clear that survivors of devastating gun violence, responsible gun owners, and local and national policy advocates remain committed to doing the work necessary to save lives — and an assault weapons ban will do just that,” she added.
House Bill 1292 would have classified many common semiautomatic firearms as “assault weapons”, including rifles such AR-15s, AK-47s, TEC-9s, Beretta Cx4 Storms, Sig Sauer SG550s, MAC-10s, and Derya MK-12s, and many commonly used pistols.
The bill would have defined “assault weapons” as:
- A semi-automatic rifle capable of accepting a detachable magazine or of being modified to accept a detachable magazine that also has a pistol grip, muzzle brake, functional grenade or flare launcher, shroud attached to the barrel, threaded barrel, or a folding, telescoping or detachable stock. One or more of those secondary features would make the pistol qualify as an assault weapon under the bill.
- A semi-automatic pistol that’s capable of accepting a detachable magazine or is capable of being modified to accept a detachable magazine that also has a threaded barrel, second pistol grip, shroud attached to the barrel, a muzzle brake or an arm brace. One or more of those secondary features would make the pistol an assault weapon under the bill.
- A semi-automatic shotgun that either has a pistol grip, fixed large-capacity magazine, or a folding telescoping or thumbhole stock. One or more of those secondary features would make the shotgun an assault weapon under the bill.
- A .50-caliber rifle
The legislation initially passed the House in mid April on a 35-27 vote, with no Republicans voting in favor of the bill, and even a few Democrats voting against it.
From there, the bill “languished” in the state Senate until a committee hearing scheduled for this week, but the legislative sessions ended Wednesday.
Even if Gonzales had not asked for the bill to be killed, it’s unclear if the bill would have moved out of the Senate State, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.
State Sen. Tom Sullivan, one of the Democrats on the 3-2 majority of the panel whose son was killed in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, previously expressed skepticism over the bill.
“Banning? That doesn’t end well for us,” Sullivan told The Washington Post last year. “And I’m speaking as the father of a son who was murdered by an assault weapon.”
Just because this particular gun control bill failed to become law this time does not mean gun-grabbing Democrats will give up trying to disarm law-abiding Americans.
