Colorado lawmakers begin debating ban on sale of assault weapons

Updated at 1:17 p.m.: As the first public commenters began to testify for and against the “assault” weapons bill late Tuesday morning, common themes quickly emerged.

For supporters of the bill, which would ban the sale and purchase of certain semi-automatic weapons, the measure is a response to the mass shootings that have become routine in Colorado and in America. High-casualty mass shootings — including several in Colorado — have been carried out using the sort of weapons that would be curtailed by the bill.

“I have grown up as part of ‘Generation Lockdown,’ a generation that has only ever known the consequences and ensuing fear of gun violence in schools,” Rhiannon Danborn, a senior at Arvada West High School, told lawmakers. She described first hearing about a mass shooting when she was 6 years old, after the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting, in which 20 first-graders and six adults were shot to death.

Opponents, meanwhile, countered that the bill was so broad that it would cover a number of handguns and other firearms. They accused lawmakers of infringing on residents’ ability to own firearms and defend themselves, and representatives of pro-gun rights groups pledged to sue the state should the ban ever become law.

Several compared firearms to trucks, given the potential danger from both.

“You cannot legislate away evil, period,” said Amanda Hardin, a firearms instructor. “But you can defend yourself against evil. I want to be clear, this is not an assault weapons ban bill. The language in this bill makes this a gun ban.”

Several other opponents argued that the issue in America wasn’t high-powered firearms or gun-ownership, but untreated mental illness. That’s a frequent talking point from gun-rights advocates. Democratic legislators repeatedly pressed them to explain why America has so many more mass shootings than comparable nations with stronger gun restrictions.

Rep. Judy Amabile, a Boulder Democrat, asked one opponent if he thought Americans are just more “monstrous” than their peers overseas.

“There was a study released last year — the United States has had 57 times as many school shootings as every other G7 country combined,” Rep. Javier Mabrey, a Denver Democrat, told one panel of gun-rights advocates. The Group of 7 countries are the U.S., Canada, Japan, Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom. “My question, for anybody, is why? Why is that?”

Original story: Colorado legislators kicked off a marathon committee hearing Tuesday about whether to ban the sale and transfer of a range of semi-automatic firearms here, a bill that’s likely to pass its first vote and has drawn hundreds of supporters and opponents who’ve signed up to testify.

The bill, HB24-1292, would prohibit the sale, purchase, transfer, import and manufacture of so-called “assault weapons” in Colorado. The measure’s definition of those firearms includes semi-automatic rifles and pistols with fixed large-capacity magazines or that have the ability to accept detachable magazines, along with several other types of high-powered firearms. The bill does not ban the possession of the weapons.

The bill is sponsored by Denver Democratic Reps. Tim Hernández and Elisabeth Epps. Last year, a similar bill died in the House Judiciary Committee on the anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting.

The same committee will vote on the measure Tuesday — though, given that more than 500 people have signed up to testify, the vote may not come until early Wednesday morning.

But two of last year’s no votes are off of the committee, replaced by progressive legislators who are co-sponsoring the bill. That gives the bill a strong chance of advancing out of committee.

Epps and Hernández are expected to make slight changes to the bill related to the transfer and transportation of the weapons. If passed Tuesday, the measure would next go to the House Appropriations Committee before moving to the House floor.