Colorado Gun Law

The Colorado Senate has 2 more gun bills up, one to correct an old oversight, and one a feel-good bill which will more likely aggravate the situation it was intended to address. At this point I think we all understand that they will pass and be signed into law because the legislature can do whatever they want. They won.

SB-195 - When you apply for a hunting license here you can take part of the hunter safety course on line but part of it is taken in person at the Department of Wildlife. This saves time and money all around. When applying for a CCW, it is now required that the gun handling part of the course be conducted at the instructors site. This actually makes sense although I'm finding it hard to believe that Colorado law permitted a 100% online training course to be considered sufficient. Colorado has been a shall-issue state for some time and I had never heard of anyone being able to satisfy the course requirement with an on-line course.

SB-197 states that anyone who gets a restraining order in a domestic/divorce situation is required to surrender any and all guns he or she may own to either the police, an FFL, or their buddy Bubba,. Everyone will provide a receipt for whatever was turned over which will be sent back to the court, and Bubba will have to get a background check. Swell.

There is no way to insure that any guns surrendered represent all the guns in the persons possession, and there is a 48 hour time frame allotted to do this unless the RO comes out on a Friday in which case the person served has until Monday. ROs are handed out like Kleenex in the courts, and have about the same value as regards to protecting any one. The addition of a disarming order will seem like rubbing someones nose in the proceedings so I'm thinking that this will have the effect of telling the recipient that they have 48 hours in which to deal with their ex.

If the RO target is a LEO, as happens frequently enough, enforcing the order will render the LEO unable to work, unless the courts decide to make an exception. Agents of the state are frequently excepted from the law. I'll ask, since my Senator seems to be one of the sponsors.