The good news? It was shuffled off to the State, Veterans, and Military Affairs subcommittee . . . from which it has very little, if any, chance of passing. A way to let the rabid anti-firearm Democrats salve their conscience with little risk of angering the populace and threatening their majority in the legislature.
Given that SCOTUS has said that a handgun is the most popular arm chosen for self-defense in Heller and McDonald, and that in the Bruen decision that the right extended outside of the home, there is not a single chance that even if the Democrats managed to pass it and have Polis sign it that it would survive a court challenge.
More than anything else, it says a fair percentage of Democrats didn't learn anything from the results of last November's elections.
Excellent to see that this is just a phony bill. Doesn't make sense to pass a law that the courts will overrule and then Colorado taxpayers will have to pay to defend.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
Sullivan, if memory serves me still, was chairman of the committee last session, he's vice chair this session. Gonzales is a former chair and former vice-chair of the committee, but she's not on it this session.
Mike Weissman, representing Senate District 28, is the chair in the 2025 session, and a fair amount of his district is out in eastern plains areas just outside of Aurora and Commerce City. Yes, he's a Democrat, but not a rabid one. He's a supporter of background checks, and safe storage laws, "Red Flag" laws . . . but not outright prohibition of sales. No way he'll back this play by his vice-chair.
The Committee on State, Veterans & Military Affairs in both chambers of the assembly is colloquially known as the "kill" committee where bills that no one wants to see make it to the floor are sent.
The bill made it out of committee and will go up for a vote. This bill bans the new sale of semiautomatic firearms. The Democrats in the State legislature have the votes to pass it. Will rural Democrats prevent it from happening again?
Revolvers, lever action rifles, and pump shotguns are going to become really popular if it does pass.
Plus unintended consequences. Every semiautomatic currently in Colorado gun stores will quickly sell out as we wait six months for the law to go into place.
I was looking at a Browning .380 1911 as a new carry piece.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
If it does pass, and Polis is foolish enough to actually sign it, the courts will toss it out on its ear. Semiautomatic handguns with detachable magazines have been sold for well over 100 years now, there is no possibility after the ruling in Bruen, Heller, and McDonald that a law that is passed now will survive the strict scrutiny of needing to conform to the historic traditions of gun jurisprudence. Bruen overturned a NY law that had been on the books for as long as the Colt 1911 has been around.
Given that a .45 1911 with a factory magazine adheres to the restrictions of the magazine capacity laws passed in Colorado, there's no conceivable argument to be made that prohibiting its continued sale in Colorado under this law is allowed in an effort to enforce the magazine limit law. Not to mention, though I will, that SCOTUS has said prohibiting the sale of handguns itself is a violation of the 2nd Amendment given they are the most popular choice for self and home defense.
We can even employ Miller's language here, even though the remand back to the federal district court ordered by SCOTUS never occurred . . . which established that arms that are in common use at the time are specifically protected by the 2nd Amendment. There is no more common arm in the hands of the citizens of these United States than a semiautomatic handgun with a detachable magazine.
A panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that the federal law prohibiting the sale of handguns to individuals under the age of 21 violates the 2nd Amendment as a result of the Bruen decision.
Under the previous administration a request for an en banc or an appeal to SCOTUS would have been pursued, but I'm not so sure that the current administration will do so, but I can all but promise you that a pro-firearm organization in a different district is going to mount a challenge to the law as well based on the 5th Circuit's ruling. Probably initially against a State law that prohibits any firearm sales to individuals under the age of 21 given the 2nd Amendment was deemed applicable to every State via incorporation under the 14th Amendment in McDonald.
If we have federal courts now ruling that previously upheld federal laws are now null and void in light of the McDonald decision, there's not a single chance in Hades that a Colorado law seeking to prohibit the sale of a type of arm that's been available for purchase for over a century is going to survive a challenge.
Heck, in the 1960's the federal government was selling to the citizens of these United States, as surplus, M1 Carbine rifles that had a detachable magazine for $20. It's going to be hard to sustain an argument that the type of arm the federal government itself sold to individuals by the thousands isn't an arm protected by the 2nd Amendment.
