Sunday, January 6, 2013

Colorado Gun Law

If this is any indication, I have to say the legislature is taking the "Softly, softly, catchee monkee" approach to gun control here. Refreshing, I suppose, compared to the ham-fisted approach in Illinois.

Rep Claire Levy and Sen Rollie Heath have introduced what has to be called the Seung-Hui Chu Virginia-Tech memorial bill which while bowing to the Colorado Supreme courts ruling that a CCW is pretty much valid anywhere, chips away at the phrase "pretty much anywhere".

If you have a CCW here you are allowed to carry on college campuses, but not in K-12 schools or government buildings. This bill would continue campus carry, but not in any campus buildings. The newspaper article in Pravda-by-the-Platte does not mention a number assigned to the bill, nor does it mention any provision to provide secure lockers for CCW folks to leave their carry pieces in when they enter a building.

If enacted the bill would turn every college campus building in the state into a copy of the Lubys restaurant in Texas where Susanna Hupp watched her parents murdered before her eyes as she left her CCW gun locked in her car outside. Of course legislation that enables mass murders also enables further such legislation, which may be the point. To make an omelet, one must break a few eggs.

With a couple of minor tweaks, the above 2 paragraphs would make a nice letter to the legislators in question. Be interesting to see their responses.

Speaking of responses, I wrote our Senatorial delegation regarding gun control bills in the 113th congress. I got a non-committal response from Sen Bennett who is safe until 2016, and no response from Sen Udall who is up in 2014. Excerpt form Bennett:
We must have a real discussion in this country about finding ways to stop these types of senseless shootings.  While no one law is likely to prevent a deranged individual committed to taking life from doing so, we should have a comprehensive and civil conversation about finding the right and most effective solutions to protect our communities and particularly, our children. This includes exploring a number of areas, such as mental health services, violence in our culture, and a review of our gun laws.
The phrase "real discussion" is Demspeak for "I'll talk and you'll listen". Calling for a review of gun laws similarly suggests some kind of draconian ramp-up toward turning the whole country into Chicago. 

1 comment:

bob r said...

"... Lubys restaurant in Texas where Susanna Hupp watched her parents murdered before her eyes as she left her CCW gun locked in her car outside."

That is not quite correct. She did see her father get shot but not her mother. More importantly, she did *not* have a CCW -- at that time it was a felony in Texas to carry a concealed weapon. She had been carrying a pistol in her purse in spite of that law but had stopped doing so a couple of months prior to the incident at Luby's. That incident was a motivator for her to become a Texas State legislator and a sponsor of CCW legislation in Texas.

In her own words.