DENVER (AP) — Colorado’s Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill Sunday banning the sale and transfer of semiautomatic firearms, a major step for legislation after the same bill bill was quickly rejected by Democrats last year.
The bill, which passed 35-27, is now on its way to the Democratic-led state Senate. If passed, it could bring Colorado in line with 10 other states — including California, New York and Illinois — that ban semi-automatic weapons.
But even in a state plagued by some of the nation’s worst mass shootings, such legislation faces headwinds.
Colorado’s political history is purple, only recently turning blue. The bill’s chances of success in the state Senate are lower than in the House, where Democrats have a 46-19 majority and a larger far-left flank. Governor Jared Polis, also a Democrat, has expressed distrust of such a ban.
Last year, a similar bill died in committee, with some Democratic lawmakers citing concerns about the scope of the ban and promises they made to their constituents to avoid government overreach. attack on the rights of most gun owners.
Last year, Democrats passed and Polis signed four less ambitious gun control bills. These included raising the age of purchasing a gun from 18 to 21; establish a three-day waiting period between purchasing and receiving a firearm; strengthen the law signaling a state alarm; and rolling back some legal protections for the gun industry, exposing it to lawsuits from victims of gun violence.
The laws were signed months after five people were killed at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs last year. Soon, the state will mark the 25th anniversary of the 1999 Columbine high school shooting, which killed 13 people. Other mass shootings in Colorado include 12 people killed in 2012 at an Aurora movie theater and 10 people killed in 2021 at a Boulder supermarket.
“This is the state where the modern era of mass shootings began with Columbine,” said Democratic Rep. Javier Mabrey, urging his fellow lawmakers to join other states that ban semi-automatic weapons.
Republicans denounced the legislation as a onerous encroachment on the Second Amendment to the U.S. 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 far more damage in a short period of time.
“In Aurora, when the shooter walked into that theater and opened fire,” Mabrey said, “and in less than 90 seconds he shot a room full of people. It can’t be done with a knife, it can’t be done with a knife.
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