Colorado House passes bill banning semi-automatic weapons

The Colorado House on Sunday passed a bill that would ban the sale and transfer of semi-automatic weapons, a major step for the initiative after Democrats quickly scrapped a nearly identical bill last year.

The new bill, which passed 35-27, is now on its way to the state Senate, which, like the House, is also controlled by Democrats. If approved there, it could put Colorado on par with 10 other states — including California, New York and Illinois — that have bans on semi-automatic weapons.

But even in a state plagued by some of the worst massacres in the United States, this type of bill faces difficulties.

Politically, Colorado has traditionally been a hotly contested state, and has only recently shifted toward Democrats. The bill's chances of success in the state Senate are lower than they were in the House, where Democrats have a 46-19 majority and a larger far-left flank. Governor Jared Polis, also a Democrat, has been reluctant to such a ban.

In 2023, a similar bill failed in committee as some Democratic lawmakers worried about the scope of the ban and promises they had made to their constituents to prevent the government from overreaching and affecting people's rights. most gun owners.

Last year, Democrats passed four less comprehensive gun control bills, and Polis signed them into law. They included raising the age to purchase any gun from 18 to 21; establishing a three-day waiting period between the purchase and receipt of a weapon; strengthening state law for cases where there are red flags about the potential buyer; and the elimination of some legal protections for the firearms sector, leaving it open to lawsuits from victims of gun violence.

These laws were enacted months after five people were murdered at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ+ nightclub last year. It will soon be the 25th anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, in which 13 people died. Other mass shootings in the state have been at the movie theater in Aurora where 12 people were murdered in 2012 and at a Boulder supermarket in 2021, where 10 people were massacred.

“This is the state where the modern era of massacres began with Columbine,” said Democratic Rep. Javier Mabrey, urging his fellow lawmakers to do the same as other states that ban semi-automatic weapons.

Republicans denounced the project as a serious interference with the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. They argued that mental illness and people who don't value life — not guns — are the problems that need to be addressed. People with bad intentions can use other weapons, such as knives, to harm others, they argued.

Democrats responded that semi-automatic weapons can cause much more damage in a short time.

“In Aurora, when the gunman walked into that movie theater and opened fire,” Mabrey said, “in less than 90 seconds he shot up a theater full of people. “You can’t do that with a knife.”

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