Democrats pledge their support for gun control

Colorado Democrats are pledging support for universal background checks, an assault weapons ban and other gun control measures in the wake of a mass shooting at a south Boulder King Soopers that left 10 people dead.

Eight local, state and federal elected officials spoke at a virtual town hall Wednesday night about how they would address the aftermath of the shooting and the flood of calls for gun reform.

“I need to say that it doesn’t have to be this way,” said Rep. Joe Neguse, D-lafayette. “All of us should feel safe in our grocery stores, in our schools, in our movie theaters and our communities. We hear often that these situations are complex and that no one law would solve terrible tragedies like this one, but that cannot be an excuse for inaction.”

Neguse said he intends to push for change “ever y single day” that he ser ves, including enacting universal background checks, closing a federal loophole on background checks and reinstating an assault weapons ban.

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-colo., said he felt ashamed of Washington, D.C.’S political leadership for allowing a generation of children, including his eldest daughter, to

grow up in the shadow of gun violence and with a reasonable fear of being killed in public places.

“We are not asking the Congress to show the same level of courage as Of ficer Talley, or the other men and women of law enforcement or grocery store associates who helped people escape,” Bennet said.

”We’re asking our politicians to show just an ounce of courage by doing ever ything possible to keep weapons of war out of our communities, to pass universal background checks, to limit the size of magazines and address the epidemic crisis of mental health in our countr y,” he continued.

Bennet said he will “insist” that those issues get a vote on the floor of the Senate.

Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-colo., also said Washington, D.C. needs to act.

“I think it’s clear our nation has a serious, serious problem, a gun violence problem, and we can’t just retreat into partisan corners,” Hickenlooper said. “We’re going to have to put politics aside and figure out how to find some common ground to keep dangerous weapons from falling into the wrong hands.”

Hickenlooper said he thinks “we’ll get there” on universal background checks, though it would be a heavy lift, and that an assault weapons ban will come eventually.

“We know these common sense steps will save lives,” he said.

Colorado Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg, D-boulder, said he, Rep. Edie Hooton, D-boulder and Rep. Judy Amabile, D-boulder, want to pursue aggressive action to prevent future tragedies.

“We all know in the end we need federal action… because that is going to be the most effective way to address a lot of this, but that doesn’t mean that without that action or while we wait for that action that we should just sit around and see what happens,” Fenberg

said. “There are things we can do as a community, there are things we can do as a state.”

The three Boulder legislators support an assault weapons ban, Fenberg said, though they don’t know what the next steps will be.

“Those are policies we suppor t, those are policies we will fight for and the three of us will advocate for the most meaningful, most life saving, most ef fective policies that we can at a state level to make sure our communities are safer and we can do everything possible to prevent these tragedies from happening,” Fenberg said.