Why weren’t assault rifles part of state Democrats’ reform package?
When Colorado Democrats rolled out their gun law reform legislation Thursday, it lacked a proposal subject to much consternation — one to define and prohibit the sale of assault weapons.
Six weeks after an initial draft was released without the sponsors’ permission, the assault weapons bill has still not been introduced in the House. In the interim, Republicans have used the proposed ban as a punching bag, while top Democrats have coalesced around a cache of gun reform measures that include age limits, waiting periods and expanding the state’s red-flag law.
That’s moved the ban to the margins of the party’s historic effort to address gun violence. One of the measure’s initial sponsors — Rep. Andy Boesenecker, who previewed the bill for the Denver Post a month ago — has pulled his name from the bill. He declined to comment on the measure this week. The measure’s remaining primary House sponsor, Denver Democratic Rep. Elisabeth Epps, has grown increasingly frustrated about the bill’s status and feels the policy has been de facto sidelined by House leadership. She said she’s had tense discussions with Speaker Julie Mccluskie about the proposal but that it’s now on track to be introduced in the coming days.
For Democrats, the bill stands at the intersection of policy and politics. On the one hand, assault-weapon bans are broadly popular among Democratic voters, in America and in Colorado, who have been on the front lines of America’s mass shooting crisis for more than two decades. Colorado’s two U.S. senators have signed on to federal legislation to ban assault weapons, a measure supported by President Joe Biden and leading gun control groups.
On the other hand, the policy is deeply contentious — even in tense gun-control debates — and, some lawmakers argue, will not do as much to prevent suicides and day-to-day gun violence as other bills.
Those measures are expected to invite hours of testimony and floor debate, without the additional tension of an assault weapons ban. Gov. Jared Polis has given rhetorical support to the other gun bills. Asked for comment Friday, his spokesman sent a statement about Thursday’s package that didn’t mention the assaultweapons bill. Some Democratic lawmakers have expressed concern about the details of the policy, like how it would be enforced, and its path in the Senate. Rep. Meg Froelich said Democrats are in a “golden moment” to address gun reform. She said lawmakers want “progress (on) what’s proven to reduce gun violence, what saves lives and what needs to be in place in order for the different policies to be enforceable.” Republican opposition to Democrats’ gun bills is assured, with or without a measure to ban the sale of assault weapons. Rep. Mike Lynch, the top Republican in the House, pledged to mount a “vigorous” fight to what his party sees as infringements to the Second Amendment, and a leading gun rights group has been raising funds since early January to fund its planned lawsuits.