Colorado Senate approves bill restricting sale of certain semiautomatic guns, with a major concession
Coloradans would be able to purchase otherwise prohibited firearms so long as they complete a safety course. The legislation now heads to the House.
Robert Tann/Summit Daily News
The Colorado Senate voted 19-15 Tuesday to approve a bill restricting the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms, but only for those who don’t undergo state-mandated training.
Senate Bill 3, sponsored by Sens. Tom Sullivan, D-Centennial, and Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, sought to prohibit the sale, purchase and manufacture of high-powered guns that accept detachable magazines. Bill sponsors pitched the measure as a way of enforcing the state’s existing ban on magazines that hold more than 15 rounds.
But the legislation faced a major amendment last week following a marathon debate on the Senate floor and now allows Coloradans to purchase otherwise prohibited guns so long as they complete a safety course.
Gun buyers would have two options. For those who’ve already obtained a hunter’s license through Colorado Parks and Wildlife, they would need to take an additional four-hour course. For those who haven’t, they would need to undergo a 12-hour course over two days that would be offered through a local sheriff’s office and administered by a qualified firearms instructor.
The training would cover information like safe gun use, federal and state firearm laws and de-escalation and crisis intervention tactics. Gun purchases would need to retake a shorter version of the course every five years.
Other amendments to the bill included expanding the eligibility for gun transfers by inheritance and exempting commonly used hunting rifles from the ban.
Sponsors said they brought the amendments to ease concerns from Gov. Jared Polis, who had not supported the bill’s original version. A handful of Senate Democrats had also not signed onto the measure, which garnered 17 cosponsors out of the chamber’s 23 Democrats.
Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, was among those who hadn’t initially endorsed the proposal but said the amendments brought last week would likely be enough to win his support. Roberts, who represents central and northern mountain communities, voted for the amended version Tuesday.
Three Democrats — Marc Snyder, Nick Hinrichsen and Tony Exum — ultimately joined the Senate’s 12 Republicans in voting against the bill.
Republicans, who lambasted the 11th-hour amendments that were made last week, labeled the bill an affront to constitutional rights.
“I am concerned that what we’ve veered into is a bill that intrudes into our rights and our freedoms in a way that moves it beyond a debate about the Second Amendment,” said Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen.
“The Colorado General Assembly is now writing laws that potentially intrude more broadly into all of our rights, all of our freedoms by virtue of saying, ‘Your rights are now a privilege, please join the registry and take the education required,'” Lundeen continued.
Sullivan said he’s been working on the legislation since the end of last year and that lawmakers and the public have had multiple opportunities to weigh in.
His son, Alex, was killed by a shooter in an Aurora movie theater in 2012. Sullivan has been a major advocate for gun control measures at the state legislature since then.
“I wish I had never had to be here,” Sullivan said. “I’m not a threat to the Second Amendment. It’s the 45,000 Americans who are dying by gun violence each and every year.”
The bill now heads to the House, where a more stringent semiautomatic gun ban proposal passed last year by a vote of 35-27. Democrats currently hold a 43-22 majority in the chamber.
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