Colorado: Committee Advances Three Anti-Gun Bills to Senate Floor

On Wednesday, the Senate State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs Committee voted to pass three anti-gun bills and sent them to the Senate floor. They expand Colorado’s “red flag” gun confiscations, deny Second Amendment rights to young adults, and seek to bankrupt the firearms industry. The Senate will hold floor votes on them today.

In the early AM hours of Friday, the House held a second reading for House Bill 23-1219, to allow for indefinite delays of firearm transfers, and voted in favor of it. It can now advance to a third reading and vote for final passage.

Please click here to contact your state senator to ask them to OPPOSE Senate Bills 23-170, 23-169, and 23-168 and also to contact your state representative to ask them to OPPOSE HB 23-1219.

Senate Bill 23-170 expands Colorado’s “red flag” gun confiscation scheme by allowing the designation of additional individuals as “qualified” to accuse people of potentially acting out in dangerous and unlawful ways in the future, and for authorities to confiscate their firearms to prevent these supposed actions from happening. Second Amendment rights are taken away based on mere speculation and hearsay evidence. “Red Flag” orders, or Emergency Risk Protection Orders, are designed to empower the government to confiscate Americans’ firearms without due process of law. They violate citizens' rights without due process.

Senate Bill 23-169 denies Second Amendment rights to young adults aged 18-20 by prohibiting them from purchasing firearms. Adults who are old enough to vote, join the military without parent permission, and enter into contracts should also have their Second Amendment rights. This is an unnecessary restriction on personal freedom and choice. Such restrictions will not stop criminals from stealing firearms, getting them on the black market, or getting them from straw purchasers. It only infringes on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

Senate Bill 23-168 holds gun industry members liable for third-party criminal acts, by “knowingly or recklessly creating, maintaining, or contributing to a public nuisance.” It is possible a gun sold lawfully could later fall into a criminal’s hands, whether through theft, secondary transfer, or some other circumstance wholly beyond a manufacturer’s or dealer’s control. If industry members are potentially liable for every such occasion, it will make it impossible for businesses necessary to the exercise of the Second Amendment to exist in Colorado.

House Bill 23-1219 imposes an arbitrary three-day delay on prospective gun owners taking possession of their firearms and makes this delay longer or indefinite if authorities fail to complete a background check during that time. So-called “waiting periods” are an archaic relic from before the digital age. Mandatory delays of up to three days, only if authorities failed to complete background checks during that time, were already considered appropriate for the technology level of more than two decades ago when the federal computerized “instant” background check system became operational. Such a change backwards allows inefficiencies or failures by state bureaucrats to indefinitely delay Second Amendment rights.

Again, please contact your state senator to ask them to OPPOSE Senate Bills 23-170, 23-169, and 23-168 and also contact your state representative to ask them to OPPOSE HB 23-1219.