Reader Pascal writes:
As the AP is reporting, “Colorado Republican leaders have begun a legislative push to repeal recently passed gun control measures, reigniting one of the most intense political debates in recent history. The first advance came Monday as discussion started on several measures in each chamber. One of the most prominent measures — a longshot bill that would undo expanded background-check requirements on private and online sales — was passed by a Senate committee.” And long overdue, too. The big question is, assuming these measures make it through the Democrat-controlled House, will Governor John Hickenlooper, who won reelection by the skin of his teeth, sign any of them into law . . .
Here’s a look at other gun control proposals up for consideration:
— A House committee led by Democrats defeated a proposal to repeal background checks, a measure identical to the plan that advanced in the Senate.
— A Democrat-led House committee rejected a measure that would have reduced the civil liability of businesses that let people carry concealed firearms with a permit on their premises. Republican sponsors said the bill was intended to allow an armed response to an attacker.
— A bill to undo the limit on ammunition magazines failed in a House committee. However, Republicans may try again later in the Senate.
— A bill allowing anyone over 21 who can legally possess a gun to carry a concealed firearm without a permit, except on school grounds, passed its first vote in a Senate committee.
— A bill to expand protections against prosecution when a business owner or employee uses deadly force against an intruder failed in a House committee. Homeowners already have that protection.
Saw this on FOX. Good luck in Colorado. To hell with the bumbling billionaire…
Agreed – I wish them luck, but with a Democrat House and Pooperlooper as Guv, I’m not seeing it happen. The Senate recall was cool and certainly sent a message, but when Hickenlooper won re-election, it pretty much sent the message that the pro-gun rights people don’t really have enough votes to make a difference in the long run. As long as Colorado continues to absorb left-coasties, the demographics will grow more unfavorable for gun rights.
What the lesson should be is that states where a pro-gun majority exists should be passing laws now to further expand gun rights. This will serve as a bulwark against the future should anti-gunners and hysterical moms become more populous.
Some twat in the legislature is already moving ALL gun bills to the “kill committee” to avoid having them on the floor.
Ray
Governor Chickenpooper signed gun control bills into law during his first term and nevertheless won re-election. Why should he be afraid to veto any bills which would repeal those gun-control laws?
I expect you are on to something there.
Yeah, this all seems like it’s doomed to die on his desk, even if they manage to get any of it passed in the legislature. He’s not gonna sign any of it; there’s simply no compelling reason for him to do so, and if there’s one thing politicians hate, it’s having to admit they were wrong.
@Stinkeye, yup…probably. But it’s still good to put the lie to these cheesedicks and allow them to show the world for what they are. Chickenlicker tried his aw shucks “I really didn’t mean to…” routine. Let him put the knife in the back of the “pro 2A” Demoloons that believed him the first time around.
Tell me, how many votes did those third party candidates get in the last election? How many votes did Dickenlooper win by? Yeah, some people really sent a message with a vote for those other candidates – and they helped send Dickenlooper back to the Governor’s office.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_gubernatorial_election,_2014
Yeah, you’re right. Those Green voters–1.34 percent, sure sent a message to Chickenhumper by not voting for him. Because if they had, he’d have won an absolute majority of the votes.
OK, so let’s say the Greens ran a candidate but the Libertarians and the two independents didn’t.
If you add every single vote cast for the libertarians, and those two independent candidates, to Beauprez’s total, you get 1,007,750 votes to Chickenhumper’s 1,006,433, or a win by 1317 votes.
Based on my time in the Libertarian party many years ago I can assure you at least ten percent of them, probably more like 20-25 percent of them, would NEVER vote for a Republican if their choice included only a Republican or Democrat (this is largely because of the abortion issue, though there is much bitterness over the Patriot Act as well). So if the Libertarian candidate had not run, Chickenhumper’s total would have been at least 1,010,000, and Beauprez’s total would have been at most 1,003,000, and that’s assuming that every single one of the independents’ votes went for Beauprez. (I vaguely recall one of the indies was quite leftist but since I’m not sure of that, I’m giving the Republicans the benefit of the doubt.)
To boil it down, even under the most optimistic assumptions as to where the Libertarians and indie votes would have gone, and also assuming the Greens were still there to suck votes away from Chickenhumper, Beauprez would still have lost. (I assume the greens are still in the race; if not, their votes would be 90+% Chickenhumper votes anyway.) Although I suspect the Ls did more damage to Beauprez than they did to Chickenhumper, it wasn’t them that made the difference.
If Beauprez and the Republicans want to know who’s to blame for losing this one, they have to consult the mirror.
I think it also comes down to demographics. As people from the left coast relocate to places like Colorado, they take their political opinions with them and this is reflected in the voting booth.
@Stevein Co, not this time. The Repubs lost (barely) because of the influx of illegals, dope smokers and the rampant Leftists that populate the Boulder/Denver corridor. Just a matter of numbers now. Demographics.
Hickenlooper won by ~50,000 votes. Once again I’d like to point out that the 2 million plus votes cast represented only 54% of the eligible voters. Had the other ~460,000 Republicans bothered to show up to vote, this entire conversation would be moot. The people of Colorado who voted to get rid of Hickenlooper and the Democrats in the house ought to line up and give a hearty kick in the nads to the people who are on the side of the angels but are too lazy or misguided (“there’s not difference between D and R, blah blah blah”) to vote. Anyone who doesn’t vote is letting others decide their fate. Period.
Part of the fun of being free is deciding one’s own path through life. I stand in slack-jawed wonder when I see so many people who wish to be led and to have decisions made for them by others. In my darkest nightmares, I see many people of the gun who secretly wish to wear these chains too, if only to have something to complain about. I wonder if that’s not why many of them can’t be bothered to do the very easiest thing to secure their independence from a tyrannical government–vote. I pray that I’m wrong, but I can see the upside to not voting. When someone else controls your destiny, you have a built-in excuse for every bad thing that happens to you. It’s never your fault. When you are free to make all your own decisions, any bad choices are yours to own. That’s scary. It’s also wonderful.
Anyway, let’s get registered and make sure we all vote. Ask the guy at the range next to you if he is registered to vote. Carry registration cards in your range bag. See if you can get on a list for permanent absentee balloting. I switched to that after I once missed an election because I was trailing a shot whitetail and couldn’t get back to town in time. (Found him…in some serious thicket, in the pitch dark. And for the record, my buddy shot him. Mine fall down dead when I shoot them. 🙂 ) I said never again will I miss voting and now I vote early on the absentee ballot. VOTE!
http://ballotpedia.org/Colorado_gubernatorial_and_lieutenant_gubernatorial_election,_2014
Why do Republicans feel like they’re entitled to have all those Libertarian votes in the first place? What makes you think that those people don’t find Republicans just as disgusting as Democrats, for different (or sometimes the same) reasons?
(The same goes for Demograts/Green etc)
Dunno why things would go any differently in the Dem-controlled House than in the Repub-controlled Senate. We are constantly reassured on this very board that there is no significant difference between the two parties on this issue. By the same token why would a Dem gov who has harbored national-office aspirations fail to sign the bills? Hmmmmmm????
Right? I imagine all those proud 2A supporting, gun toting, NRA loving democrats will pass this with flying colors!!! Right guys? Right?
The comments section was great on the Denver post for this story. Some guy was yammering about how magazine capacity should be limited so that someone can tackle the bad guy! They also said something about how if the criminal has to reload a marksman can take a shot and stop the shooter. Right, that has happened so many times so we must do it, or not.
Lastly, the ubiquitous comments about the Republicans wasting time on this matter instead of working on infrastructure or other bills. Some other person had a comment about how come the dems didn’t do it when they were in control?
HB 1009 that would have repealed the legislation that arbitrarily limits the number of rounds of ammunition to 15 was defeated
HB 1050 that would have repealed the private transfer background check law was defeated
HB 1049 that would have extended the protection and right to self-defense you currently have in your home to your place of business was defeated
WTH is wrong with Colorado?!
@Danny Griffin, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Colorado. There is everything wrong with Denver and Boulder. That sums it up. Would that those two shatstains could be fenced off, we would have something.
Thank you for this. Boulder will never see a gun control initiative they don’t love, and all of the House bills were expected to fail in the Dem controlled House.
The Senate is firing another volley here.
Sometimes I think people don’t understand the whole bicameral legislature thingy.
Last I checked, Denver is still Colorado, and a huge part of it population-wise.
This “real America” bullshit gets tiresome.
@int19h, need some cheese with that whine?
I prefer mead, thank you very much.
@int19h, sorry, I couldn’t tell…
Those are the House bills. The House is slimly D controlled, and these failed on party lines by 1 vote.
This write-up is taking about the Senate bills, which will likely pass the R controlled Senate. Then, they have to be approved in the House, where the 1 vote dem difference will come into play.
It’s not over yet, but “what’s wrong” is that elections have consequences, the votes are mostly on party lines (except for some who voted against them, like Tochtrop)..
It’s better than last term when both the Senate and House were D controlled, but there’s still work to do.
So if you want to just say there’s ” something wrong ” with all of us when there’s simply a closely divided legislature (keep in mind many D seats weren’t even up for election), I guess you mean we should have simply taken the capitol by force.
The D seats that weren’t up were in the Senate. (The entire house is up every two years, resembling the US house in that way.) In spite of that, and in spite of losing the two seats we won in the recall, the Rs made the one seat net gain they needed to capture the senate.
The house elections were so close it was a number of days before it became clear that the Rs had fallen short by one seat. A handful of votes in the right district would have tipped that chamber.
Chickenhumper’s victory was a little less narrow, but still just a plurality not a majority, and there’s a tendency to blame it on third parties “stealing” votes from Rs (this is bullshit; votes belong to the caster, not one or the other of the two major parties, they aren’t somehow entitled to them). I’ve explained upthread why I don’t think Beauprez would have won even if the libertarians and two independent candidates were not running; in short it’s because enough Libertarians hate the Rs more than the Ds that they’d have voted for Chickenhumper, not Beauprez. The Greens running actually helped Beauprez since the vast majority of them would have voted for Chickenhumper over Beauprez.
It was a very narrowly decided mess we are now in, anyways. Basically I was very happy with this last election, except for in this state and that initiative passing in Washington State.
What’s wrong with Colorado? Too many Californians.
Yep.
Yep It’s the same Californian progressives that moved to Colorado to escape the hell they created by their self destructive, self hating, culture destroying belief system.
Now they are diligently working to create the same hell in Colorado.
What is truly bizarre is that in their own minds, they are the “enlightened” ones.
It could be worse; they could have moved to New Mexico.
I don’t know, I think them moving to New Mexico would have been better, actually. 🙂
LoL,, better you than me.
What’s going on with the infestation of progressives moving to conservative states really does effect us all.
No matter how much I want to believe otherwise.
Those progressive Dems you speak of fleeing CA must follow the jobs leaving CA and going to other states because if the idiot Sacramento Democrat politicians’ tax and regulate policy used to support their utopian dreams and feed half of the refugees encouraged by Obama to flee from Mexico and Latin America.
As a native Coloradan, the problem is that way to many people from California and the east coast moved here. I used to resent Texans on the slopes but God bless em, they are a sight better than tofu eating Boulder leftist. The cities in Co are screwed but believe me, the people outside of Denver, boulder, aspen and vail are dead against what has been happening. Remember that Colorados population has more than doubled since 1990. Those who grew up here can’t recognize the centennial state.
Trust me, those tofu eating boulderains and denverains would be right at home with the austinite population.
I spent a summer down there and I believe you completely on Austin. Why is every capital of the union infested with the take something for nothing crowd?
That’s every major metro, dude. Cities are controlled by Ds, Rs hold the rest.
Capitals are where the stolen goods are devied up…
Pistolero gets it for the win.
These people believe the job of government is to redistribute wealth (the political science course I attended for one day in college started with the professor’s defining “politics” as being, essentially, deciding who gets what–I couldn’t drop that class fast enough), and they tend to be political animals, so guess where they congregate and what they do when they get a chance.
In a nutshell, because Democrats are an urban voter party, and Republicans are a rural voter party.
At least TX is big enough that the rest of the state can regularly tell Austin to STFU. I’ve been living here for over 20 years, if I’d had any sense I would have cornered the tofu market back when.
@LarryinTX, actually, Texas is in danger of going blue as well. And it most likely will if the illegal amnesty thing is passed. Texas is in the gunsights of the Leftists and it will take a massive undertaking to keep it free.
The only reason why Texas can ignore Austin is because it is very carefully gerrymandered in such a way that the city doesn’t have a district to itself, but is instead split into several districts, each of which has a chunk of the city and a bigger chunk of the surrounding countryside, the latter to ensure that all those districts elect Republicans. The end result is that the residents of Austin are effectively denied representation on both state and federal level.
https://handsoffredistricting.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/austin-metro-area.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Texas_redistricting
Well, I came here from the east coast in the early 90s; but I came here for what it was, not to change it into what I left.
In New Jersey, you could pretty much bet that if you wanted to do it, it was illegal. For many of us there’s no love lost on that aspect of the coasts. Keep in mind some people left the coast *because* of the restrictiveness there.
I did a lot of organization and mobilization work before 1224 and the like passed, little good it did, but you don’t necessarily have to be from Texas to not want to see Colorado go gun control crazy.
I’ll continue to work as hard as I can as just a plain old citizen, to assist in getting these laws repealed, as well as support candidates who would repeal them, and not support candidates who support these laws.
And I for one have no problem with people who come here because they fit here better than where they did before.
It’s those others, who come here and think it’s charming but could do with “a few changes” to get rid of the “not quite civilized” aspects, that are the problem, and we didn’t have nearly enough harsh winters in the last ten-fifteen years to run them off. Maybe they should stop bitching about global warming, since it has allowed them to infest this state.
No doubt about that. God does everyone complain about 3 inches of snow. Then again half of them are seeing snow for like the 2nd time.
I worked at The Broadmoor Hotel in 1991. Back then, locals were saying that all the out-of-staters moving into Colorado would ruin the state in 20 years. Reminds me of slowly boiling a frog.
How correct those locals were back 24 years ago….
Well, as I mentioned, not every import agrees with these laws. Plus we are starting to see some other imports of pro-gun culture, like Cabelas opening up stores here; (and i’m actually glad that Magpul left behind at least a small presence to help fight these laws.)
I don’t believe the state is lost, well, I refuse to believe it at least. The problem is, the more time goes by, the more these laws simply become the norm, and end up being a new baseline.
It infuriated me how little RMGO did while these bills were originally being floated. Dudley didn’t say a word until they passed, probably thinking he could line his pockets with the outrage of gun owners. Now we have the Colorado Second Amendment Association; which seems a fair sight better – but we all have to keep this fresh in our minds and not just say “oh well, the state is lost.”
Dudley is all about Dudley. He does do some good, but I’m beginning to think it’s incidental.
The volume of emails I get from him begging for money certainly hasn’t slowed down.
As someone who hopes to leave California once my college education is complete, I was planning on going to Colorado for the longest time. Definitely sad to watch these bills not pass and the horrid laws that made it through last year are staying in effect even with no one enforcing them.
It’s not over yet. The Senate republicans still have to float their equivalents and they’ll likely at last pass the Senate. If 1 or 2 D’s could be convinced on at least one of the issues, maybe we could see some movement still this year like the mag ban being overturned.
Still not over though. Next 2-year election cycle (so in about 1.5 years), R’s would have to regain control of the House, and R’s would have to maintain control of the Senate. This is definitely in the realm of possibility. I just hope that the legislature doesn’t end up with a short memory, and remembers how the electorate (outside of Boulder and certain parts of Denver and the like) feels about these issues.
More than likely they’ll get assigned to a kill committee in the house like the last ones. Unless there’s a defection on that committee, we’ll get to hear Rhonda Fields again talking about what a good idea it was to pass those execrable pieces of legislation.
I agree that that’s probably going to be the result this time around. I have some slim hope that on one of the bills, maybe the mag ban, they may be able to sway one House dem, and I could see Hickenlooper not wanting to go through the same “I was against it after I was for it after I was against it” dance again. But I know it’s a very unlikely outcome.
And yes, of course Fields will count this as a second victory; the legislature being extant only to serve as a vehicle for her to cope with family tragedy (on our backs), I guess.
But at the very least I’m glad that the Senate is at least keeping this in the public mind, even if this is just a political act. If anything it’ll remind people how important the next election will be.
@Michelle, great posts…all of ’em. We are kindred folk! It ain’t over here in CO. Not by a long shot. Thanks for your work. And I agree about Dudley and the alternative to him…
My understanding is that bills coming into the House from the Senate go through a different committee than the one that killed the house bills Monday (correct me if I’m wrong). That’s not to say that the members of that committee won’t also reliably vote party line.
If the bills should actually make it to the floor of the house, there might be one pro-gun dem from some rural district that will vote for them. (There was one in the Senate last year, but they never had a chance to vote on the repeal bills that were introduced after the recall votes, because of the Senate’s kill committee.)
None of this has a chance in hell of passing. These bills are political grandstanding and that’s all. Just like all the rumblings at the Fed level to mess with Obamacare. They can pass whatever the hell they want-the Pres is going to veto every single last thing they send to him. Then call the Rs obstructionist.
It’s relatively no lose since POTUS was calling them “obstructionist” anyways. Which has been a time honored political tactic, even the phrase “do nothing congress” was used in 1948 by Truman. Sadly, from what I understand, it worked very well for Truman.
I sometimes fantasize about taking the majority (sometimes vast majority) of residents of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Denver, etc and moving them to their own state with a constitutional amendment that allows them to do most anything they want (a unique status, like Quebec in Canada). Pass all the gun control, 2nd amendment doesn’t apply… pass whatever taxes, ad nauseam. And then watch the failure of that social experiment. While the rest of us get left the hell alone.
Remember even California once was moderate, and the Bay Area was once the sole area overwhelmingly liberal. LA County fell next (it at least being a contestable area for quite some time… after all every county except the Bay Area approved the SOS initiative). Move away from the coasts and it is a completely different culture.
I wonder what it is about coasts and dense urban areas that causes the liberal ideology… (well I have theories but I won’t bore you with that)
@JoshuaS, bunching up. The “hive” mentality.
You could move all the leftists into California and you would think they would be happy. They would not because the rest of the country would not be under their collective thumb. Its all about controlling other people`s lives and choices.
I sometimes fantasize about taking the majority (sometimes vast majority) of residents of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Denver, etc and moving them to their own state with a constitutional amendment that allows them to do most anything they want (a unique status, like Quebec in Canada).
I’m rather irresistably reminded of a joke they tell in Canada. A Newfoundlander (or “Newfie”), a Quebeois, and a Torontoan are shipwrecked and wash up on an island. They blunder across a buried lamp, the whole genie thing happens, and this one is quite grateful to be let out. He grants each of them one wish–and tells them they’ll be sent home after he grants the wish, gratis, so don’t wish to go home.
The Newfie wishes for bountiful fishing; it’s his livelihood. *poof* he disappears, to a lifetime of successful fishing.
The Quebecois wishes for a mile high wall all around Quebec, nothing to get in or out. At last, those damn Anglophones can quit meddling in Quebec. *poof*, off to spend the rest of his life with no Anglophones polluting Quebec.
The Torontoan says “fill it with water.”
So if we get to send the statists somewhere, can we wall it off and fill it with water?
I heard a similar joke on a rather left leaning site that replaced it with Texas and New York, except the Texan asked for a wall surrounding the state to keep the illegals out, and New Yorker asked for the state to be filled with water. Everyone seem to snicker at that prospect, I guess until I responded “Seems Hurricane Sandy didn’t get that joke.”
I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who said that the beauty of retaining power among the several states, and of the people, was that one can vote with their feet. If you don’t like the State your are in you can move to one more sympathetic to your needs.
I believe that the good citizens of Colorado and Washington (I594) have gotten exactly what they asked for and I have little sympathy for them. Apathy is rampant in our country. Personal responsibility diminishes daily. We the People still have the power; all We need do is exercise it.
@Gman, “I believe that the good citizens of Colorado and Washington (I594) have gotten exactly what they asked for and I have little sympathy for them.”
BULLSHIT
What are we in Colorado supposed to do? Tell people that are water tastes like crap like 45 other states? That we get less than 270 days of sun? I don’t blame people for coming here but it would be nice if the polite laid back Colorado of my youth was still intact. Have you ever read the end of the lord of the rings? Guess what, the rot of statists will find you. The shire was ransacked. Those that don’t provide for themselves will sooner or later try and get an angle on you and yours.
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