Recalls oust 2 lawmakers who backed gun limits

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Two Colorado Democrats who provided crucial support for a package of state gun laws were voted out of office Tuesday in special elections seen as a test of whether swing-state voters would accept gun restrictions after mass shootings at a Colorado movie theater and a Connecticut elementary school.

The vote, which came five months after the U.S. Senate defeated several gun restrictions, handed another loss to guncontrol supporters and gave moderate lawmakers across the country a warning about the political risks of voting for tougher gun laws.

Among other things, the laws require background checks for private gun sales and limit ammunition magazines to 15 rounds.

The immediate effect of the recalls was to remove two state senators, Angela Giron of Pueblo and John Morse of Colorado Springs, and replace them with Republicans.

Although the election was confined to two small districts in southern Colorado and does not repeal Colorado’s gun laws or change control of the General Assembly, both sides spent heavily in a proxy battle between gun-control advocates and the National Rifle Association.

For advocates on both sides, the stakes in Tuesday’s elections were far bigger than the fates of two politicians. As money and national attention poured into Colorado, a state that has been stained by two mass shootings, the races became a symbol of the nation’s fight over gun control, with one side bolstered by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the other by the NRA.