Two of three firearm safety bills heard by Colorado's Legislature

Two of three firearms safety bills got initial hearings in state House committees in the past week.

House Bill 1298 is in part a response to the shooting at the south Boulder King Soopers on March 22. The Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee approved the bill on May 5 on a 7-4 party-line vote.

The bill is a comprehensive approach to several issues tied to background checks. It has three components: the first is to bar anyone convicted of a violent misdemeanor from purchasing a gun for five years after the conviction, and that is retroactive, meaning once the bill becomes law, it would apply to those convicted in the past five years. 

Had the change contained in HB 1298 been in place, the alleged shooter at the Boulder King Soopers would have been denied a weapon because he had a prior misdemeanor conviction from three years ago for third-degree assault, according to witnesses.

HB 1298’s second section closes what’s known as the Charleston loophole. That refers to a 2015 shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. Nine parishioners of the African-American church were murdered. The shooter purchased a gun but the background check failed to come in within the three days allotted under South Carolina law, so the dealer had to transfer the weapon to the shooter. However, had the background check come in on time, it would have revealed a prior drug conviction that would have barred the shooter from purchasing a weapon. Colorado has that same law.

The third provision under HB 1298 grants the Colorado Bureau of Investigation more time to conduct appeals for denials of firearms transfers.

Testimony came from those impacted by gun violence and those who advocate for Second Amendment rights. 

Bill sponsor Representative Judy Amabile, a Boulder Democrat, told the House Judiciary Committee that her district includes the King Soopers. After reading off the names of the 10 victims of the shooting, she said their fate was sealed, not on the day of the shooting, but six days before when the shooter passed a background check and purchased the gun. 

Rep. Terri Carver, a Colorado Springs Republican, who pointed out that some of the misdemeanors listed in the bill, such as harassment, cruelty to animals and crimes against at-risk persons would not necessarily constitute a violent crime. In such situations, the misdemeanor could be neglect rather than violence, she said. 

The second bill, House Bill 1299, won an 8-5 party-line approval from the House Public & Behavioral Health and Human Services Committee on May 7. That measure sets up the Office of Gun Violence Prevention within the Department of Public Health and Environment and would establish a resource center for data, research and statistical information on gun violence in Colorado, conduct an education campaign and provide grants for community-based gun violence intervention.

Advocates for the bill told the committee that it addresses a public health issue. Doug McMillan of Denver, who has spent 25 years working in youth and gang violence prevention and intervention, said “gun violence prevention should always be viewed as a public health priority,” given that Colorado is seeing record gun sales. The State needs to invest in education on safe gun ownerships, including safe storage, he explained.

But more gun laws will not prevent gun violence, according to Mario Acevedo, who pointed out Colorado’s red flag law didn’t stop the Boulder shooter. Similar laws in other states haven’t stopped mass shootings, he said. “Who are we kidding? We need practical and effective solutions,” rather than what he called a useless bureaucracy; the $3 million to set up the office would be better spent on gun safety, suicide prevention and initiatives already in place in Colorado.

Lesley Hollywood of the gun-rights group Rally for Our Rights said the state needs to look at the root causes of violence and invest in more mental health services.

Many of the same people who testified against HB 1298 came back for the second bill, and will likely be back this week for the third bill, which would allow local governments to enact stricter gun control laws than are already in place statewide. Senate Bill 256 would allow a local government to ban assault weapons, for example. In Boulder, a city council resolution to ban assault weapons was overturned by a judge 10 days before the King Soopers shooting.

In other action:

The Senate adopted the amendment striking Northeastern Junior College from Senate Bill 8 and the bill now heads to the Governor.

The bill initially intended to take the word “junior” from Northeastern, Trinidad State and Otero junior colleges. However, Senator Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, pointed out that the Sterling community, including NJC’s alumni and students hadn’t been given an opportunity to weigh in, and were very much opposed. When the bill got to the House, Rep. Richard Holtorf, R-Akron, asked the House Education Committee to take Northeastern out of the bill. That amendment was approved by the Senate on May 5. 

NJC was in the news at the Capitol for another reason in the past week.

Sonnenberg, Holtorf and Rep. Rod Pelton, R-Cheyenne Wells, sponsored a resolution naming a portion of US Highway 138 in Sterling in honor of Jack Annan, known as Mr. NJC, on May 7. Annan died on April 21. The Senate approved the resolution unanimously on April 28.

The impacted portion of the highway is from North 2nd Street to Pioneer Road in Sterling, which runs past the college.

Annan’s son Bill and his sons, along with NJC President Jay Lee and NJC friends Mike and Laural Brownell, who worked with Jack with the Young Farmers Association, all attended the resolution’s passage on May 7.

Sonnenberg, in a rare moment of privilege, also addressed the House, noting the Senate passed the resolution while the family was preparing for the funeral. “I knew Jack Annan before he was Mr. NJC,” Sonnenberg said. He had graduated high school with Bill and saw Jack and his wife, Florence, as loving parents, even when he and Bill would take the neighbor’s tractor for a joyride. Jack and Florence just smiled and laughed, Sonnenberg said. “He carried that love into NJC, where he shared that love with students.” One of the stories told at Annan’s May 1 funeral was from when Jack was executive director of Young Farmers and came down to Denver for a convention. They were walking around downtown Denver, Sonnenberg said. People hollered, which startled the students, and then a very tall man began to approach them.

It was a former NJC student, a basketball player, “who saw Jack Annan on the street and ran to say hello because [Annan] had an impact on that student,” Sonnenberg recounted.

“He got you excited about NJC and when you got there, he remembered your name, where you were from and as a person.