Colorado Democrats introduce assault-style weapons ban

Colorado Democrats launched laws to ban assault-style weapons within the state Wednesday, marking the primary time the legislature has thought-about such a ban.

Home Invoice 23-1230, often known as "Prohibit Assault Weapons in Colorado," was launched by state Rep. Elisabeth Epps and state Sen. Rhonda Fields, each Democrats. A whole lot of individuals gathered on the state Capitol to specific their assist or protest the laws.

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The Home Judiciary Committee listening to began at 9:30 a.m. MDT, and it was anticipated to final all through the night.

The definition of “assault rifle” has been extensively disputed and is a barrier in gun reform laws. HB 23-1230 presently defines such a weapon as a “semiautomatic rifle” that options “removable magazines, barrel shrouds, pistol grips, ahead grips, and telescoping shares, which permit a shooter to both conceal the weapon or make it simpler to fireside a excessive quantity of ammunition in a brief time frame whereas sustaining accuracy.”

The invoice would allow present house owners to maintain firearms they already possess, however it will ban the sale and switch of particular weapons.

Sure firearms are exempt, corresponding to vintage firearms, shotguns, “or any muzzle-loader that makes use of black powder for looking or historic reenactments.”

Former Colorado GOP Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown advised the Washington Examiner that the invoice has undergone a number of revisions.

“It is achieved something from banning the ten hottest handguns that girls use in self-defense to banning all kinds of semi-automatic weapons that lots of people in Colorado, who've hid [carry licenses], use,” Brown mentioned. “It is simply an enormous, broad-ranging violation of Second Modification rights.”

Colorado has seen among the nation's most well-known massacres, together with the Columbine Excessive College taking pictures in 1999, killing 13; the Aurora movie show taking pictures that killed 12 in 2012; the 2021 King Soopers grocery retailer taking pictures in Boulder, killing 10; and the Colorado Springs nightclub taking pictures, which killed 5 final November.

A number of states have taken legislative motion round assault-style weapon bans, enacting steps towards a full ban regardless of possible failure on the federal degree.

In June 2022, Delaware banned the manufacture, sale, switch, receipt, and possession of assault-style weapons, and Illinois banned the sale, manufacturing, or supply earlier this 12 months. They joined 9 different states with comparable legal guidelines, amongst them California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York.

“I believe the fact is that Colorado as an entire is a really pro-Second Modification state,” Brown mentioned. “We're a hid carry state. We consider folks have the best to defend themselves.”

“And Colorado proper now could be No. 1 in a variety of violent crime metrics within the nation. And so with crime on the rise in a variety of our communities, folks do not wish to see these sorts of bans and preventions on folks defending themselves,” she added.