Probably the most baffling thing to me about politics is how often people who think they're well-informed say utterly wrong things about the issues they're supposedly experts in. That's never more apparent than in anything to do with guns and gun control. Far too many people bill themselves as experts about firearms, then claim that the AR-15 will blow your lung clean out of your body or something equally stupid.
What happens is you get utterly wrongheaded arguments in favor of terrible infringements on people's Second Amendment rights, such as what seems to be happening in Colorado.
There, the terrible bill that would require a special permit to buy so-called assault weapons just advanced.
A controversial firearm bill that would restrict the sale of guns with detachable magazines drew hours of divided testimony Tuesday at the Colorado State Capitol as lawmakers considered the measure.
Senate Bill 25-003 is not an outright ban but would halt the sale of commonly purchased firearms, particularly those with detachable magazines. The bill had previously been heard in the Senate, where legislators added an amendment that modified the bill's original version.
"This bill is about recognizing the deadly reality of modern-day mass shootings and doing everything in our power to prevent them," said one student from East High School, who spoke about their own first-hand experience while encountering violence at the school.
The legislation includes a provision allowing individuals to purchase otherwise restricted firearms if they complete safety courses through Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), a requirement opponents labeled as unnecessarily bureaucratic.
To purchase a semiautomatic weapon that falls under the bill, an individual would have to complete multiple in-person courses including a hunter education course with CPW within five years of the purchase. The bill also requires an extended firearms safety course.
The Colorado House Judiciary Committee voted to advance the bill 7-4.
They shouldn't have, though.
First, let's remember that while things like AR-15s might make headlines when used in a massacre, most mass shootings actually tend to involve pistols. In fact, the worst school shooting in American history remains the Virginia Tech killings, where the gunman used two handguns to kill 32 people and wound 17 others before ending the attack where it should have started by taking his own life.
Plus, let's also be real here, this bill won't stop that.
Anyone who has the means can undergo the process to get a permit for one of these firearms. There's absolutely no way to determine who will and who won't be a mass killer with any degree of certainty, at least not that we're aware of right now. They'll still get their AR-15s or other modern sporting rifles and do the same thing if that's what they want to do.
Just don't get me started on how these started to become so popular with mass killers shortly after the media started spending so much time demonizing the guns by saying they were perfect for mass shootings.
Finally, let's face the fact that there's no way a law like this should survive judicial challenge after the Bruen decision. There's no historic analog for something like this, which will most definitely be a point working against this when the inevitable lawsuits get filed.
But, this is Colorado, where pot is freely available but your right to keep and bear arms isn't.
And they voted for it to be that way, too.
