Colorado Legislation

Once more dear friends, into the breach...

Arrived at the capitol around 10:30 by missing the bus I intended to take by 30 seconds. The din of horns honking was impressive. A line of vehicles wrapped all the way around the building and the block adjacent and were leaning on their horns pretty much non stop. The din was audible in both hearing rooms. Improved my humor right away. Had some 50 people waving signs and hands at the passing traffic. There was no doubt whatsoever which side the motorists were on.

The hearings were scheduled to run to 90 minutes pro and con, followed by about an hour of debate on amendments, followed by the same procedure for the next item, so 4 hours plus short breaks times a minimum of 3 bills per committee beginning about 10:45. Do the math. It will be a late night tonight.

I ran out of steam at 5 PM after talking to my representative, my senator, Michael Bane, and numerous of the folks who had showed up.Consensus is that all the bills will pass their committees on party line votes, but several non-committee senators are likely to defect on Wednesday. We'll see. We also expect that some wavering senators will awaken tomorrow to a horses head in their beds. Labeled beef, of course.

One of the bills is the Sueng-Hui Cho memorial bill that would ban CCW on state college and Univ. campuses. The graphic I put up here was received with great interest and will be passed around to all the Senators in the next 24 hours. Following the link to Sonderstrom and reading the comments suggests that at the same time, CU continued to prohibit CCW on their campus and saw an increase in crime of all types.

The bill requiring a background check for all firearm transfers is having trouble due to a difference in interpretation of the word "transfer" which in some cases implies a sale, but in others implies only that the firearm change hands for any period, however brief.  With some 23+ amendments proposed it passed the committee.

The bill that establishes that everybody is guilty of something and must pay the state to prove otherwise (background check) also passed although a couple of gun shop owners were there to point out that the bill imposes a burden on them to supply some 1/2 hour of time and effort for a payment of $10 which they don't see as fair. Others have noted that the bill imposes a $10 tax on all gun transfers and will likely be largely ignored. It was openly suggested that the "big 4 " bills were originally authored in New York by the Bloomberg group.

When I left the magazine ban was beginning to be discussed and the campus carry bull was about 3 hours out. BIG TIME KUDOS to the county sheriffs of Colorado, most of whom seemed to have turned out to take our side on the bills. Didn't get a count, but when they walked into the hearing room, the parade was impressively lengthy.

NOTES: 2 Dem senators were absent today, both of whom are considered likely defections from the antis. Discussion with my Representative suggested that 2-4 others might also side with us. Knowing what I know about pols, I will remain cautiously optimistic, but will not be surprised to see them tow the party line come Wednesday. Still, keep pounding them, they're feeling the heat.

People to contact:
Jahn,
Kerr,
Schwartz,
Hudak
Todd
Nicholson
Newell
Giron
Jones

Let them know that you don't consider Mike Bloomberg to be the Mayor of Colorado.

Horns were still honking when I left at 5 PM!

Oh By The Way: Questions were raised to me regarding recall efforts afoot. I had heard of 3 over on the Western slope, and if anyone hears of any other efforts at all, I am given to understand that the effort will be welcomed and some sort of support will be available. Leave info, contact, rumors propaganda, whatever, in the comments. Film at 11. The bills supporters were rather thinly spread and opposition is deep and wide. I think I'd make a fine Senator, don't you?

Unlike when the House was holding hearings, the shirt stickies supplied by the RMGO were forbidden in the hearing rooms. I guess some of the senators were finding that seeing a sea of stickies with guns on them to be creating a hostile environment. Good.