Gun Law - High Noon In Denver

All those abusive gun laws we've been fighting to no obvious avail will be heard in committees for the Senate which is the last stop before Mayor Bloombergs stooge, Gov. Hickenlooper, signs them. And sign them he will, as he has already stated.

In addition to the big four which have been occupying everyones attention, others have been added. Per RMGO:

 Senate President John Morse has scheduled ALL the anti-gun bills to be heard in two different Senate Committees on Monday, including his newly introduced Backdoor "Assault Weapon" ban.

That’s right, Morse is trying to ram billionaire-playboy Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s New York gun ban agenda through the state senate as fast as possible.
All gun rights activists are encouraged to attend, and politely voice their opposition to these outrageous attacks on our gun rights.

The committees will both meet at 10:30 am on Monday, March 4th.
The Senate Judiciary Committee (Old Supreme Court Chambers, second floor of the Capitol) will hear:

    SB-195: Prohibit Colorado citizens from taking online CCW training courses
    SB-196: Morse’s De Facto "Assault Weapons" ban.
    HB-1224: Bans all magazines that hold more than 15 rounds.

State Affairs Committee (Senate Committee RM 356, third floor of the Capitol) will hear:

    HB-1226: Bans armed self-defense on college campuses; expanding criminal safe-zones to all state college and university campuses.
    HB-1228: Imposes a Jim Crow-style gun tax on all firearm purchases. This legislation has no limit on the amount the CBI could charge for a background check.
    HB-1229: Bans the private sale of firearms and expands background checks/gun registration for all Colorado gun owners.

Witnesses in each committee will be given a number indicating the order in which they will testify (think Deli Counter numbered tickets).

Each witness will be given THREE (3) minutes TOTAL to speak on any/all of the bills being heard before that specific committee. This will hopefully allow all interested citizens the ability to testify before both committees with the knowledge that they will not lose their place in line in either of the two committees.

SB 194 and 195 are recent additions. While I don't see any big problems with 195, 196 establishes strict liability for any damage done by an "assault weapon" back to the manufacturer and vendor. This is a violation of the Lawful Commerce in Arms law, but Morse figures that the Feds can't tell the states what to do, so he's going ahead. That squelching noise under your feet is from trial lawyers drooling.

The Senate Veterans & Military Affairs committee is normally where bills not favored by the majority party are sent to die. Pretty obviously none of the bills being sent there have anything to do with Veterans or Military Affairs, so the logical way to bet would be that all are to be disposed of. This assumes something logical.

A Machiavellian would suppose that since the mag limit bill is drawing the most attention, the remaining bills will be sent to the "glue factory" where they will be quietly approved and sent to the Senate floor for a vote with a favorable recommendation, which means they'll all pass.

A cynic would assume that the mag limit hearings will be packed, and that the other two bills will be heard first with 4 hours of speaking, 2 in favor and 2 opposed, allotted to each. With amendment discussion, this will stretch to 5 hours each which will begin around 10:AM. At 10 PM hearings will be bound over until the next day or some time further out than that in hopes the peasants will give up and go back to their jobs.

We shall see, I guess.

Senate Judiciary:

lucia.guzman.senate@state.co.us, jessie.ulibarri.senate@state.co.us, irene.aguilar.senate@state.co.us, steve.king.senate@state.co.us, kevin@kevinlundberg.com

M&VA Committee

angela.giron.senate@state.co.us, senatormattjones@gmail.com, larry.crowder.senate@state.co.us, ted.harvey.senate@state.co.us, senatorhudak@gmail.com

The first name in each group is the chairman, Paste that name in and bcc the rest.

And if you can't come in and waste the whole day, just do a drive-by
Updated the link. If the context gets lost, it calls for people to honk their horns as they drive around the capitol building Monday. If they object, tell them it's our version of a rape whistle.

Gun Law - Testimonials

You've got to love some of the stuff people say in front of Congress, the press and everybody. If we had actual journalists covering it, you might get even more but here's testimony by the Milwaukee Chief of Police on the Feinstein gun bill"

Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn brushed off a self-defense argument, saying “the notion that innocent law abiding citizens will use an assault weapon or a high capacity firearm to protect themselves is not our experience.” In fact, he characterized most crime victims in his city as criminals.

“Ninety-seven percent of our suspects and 82 percent of our victims have criminal histories,” Flynn said of Milwaukee homicides. “Furthermore, our experience indicates that the vast majority of our home invasion victims are drug dealers. They do not need semiautomatic rifles to protect themselves.”

Think about this for a second. Thug A and possibly some of his friends bust in to the residence of Thug B to help redistribute some of Thug A's wealth. In the ensuing affray, one or more of the participants join the ranks of the metabolically challenged. To me this looks like  a win for the good guys, excepting of course any peripheral damage due to stray or badly aimed bullets.

Had the participants been using "personal defense weapons*", the count might be higher. Again, where's the down side. Come on chief, these sorts of problems can be self curing if you play them right.

*I love this term, invented by no less an authority than the DHS. We should immediately abandon all the previous terms for magazine fed rifles and use this one exclusively. No more  of the following:
Assault weapon, Evil Black Rifle, Sport utility rifle, Modern Sporting rifle, AR-pattern rifle, AK-pattern rifle, Spray-firing bullet hose, or anything else. They are all Personal Defense Weapons and everybody should have at least one.

Sequestration

There are lots of links about the sequestration kerfuffle over at insty including a QOTD candidate from Steve Green:

“Already, day and night, the producers and crew at NBC News are deceptively editing old video to make it appear as though it were Woodward who ordered Alderaan to be destroyed, and right after Rachel Maddow had told him everything he wanted to know, too.”

The sense of outrage is building in the medias the administration begins to treat them like the 3rd tier lackeys they are and threatens ever more absurd Bad Things if large tax increases are not immediately forthcoming. Raise my allowance or I'll hold my breath untill my face turns blue!

TSA screeners will be laid off, leaving the groping to be done by an overworked skeleton crew.

Illegal aliens will have to be released from jails instead of bussed back to the border.

Aircraft carriers will be docked, 5 abreast, because there's no budget for fuel. (Remember Pearl Harbor!)

Next we'll be hearing that the Department of Agriculture will have to stop shipments of grain to Ukraine Texas on account of lack of fuel.

Just remember, nobody's budget is actually being cut, it's just that in some cases the rate of increase is slightly lower.

Gun Registration - Trial Balloon

The Denver Pest has an article up in which the idea of universal gun registration is floated. The premise is that it would make the problem of tracing crime guns so much easier for law enforcement, although what this would do for reducing the crime goes unstated

As Colorado lawmakers push closer to passing a spate of new gun laws, they have almost no data about who owns firearms in this state or even where criminals get their guns.

Let me help you with that: Muggers and other such shooty type thugs get their guns from burglars and sneaky type thugs. Trust me on this one, neither of these two groups are going to register their guns.

Folks, if you have multiple guns around the house, write down the make, model, and serial numbers and keep the list in a separate secure location. If any of your guns go missing, you can report them stolen with all the info needed to get them returned to you after they are found under the body or in the pants of some thug.

I dropped the author an e-mail asking if any legislators had expressed any interest in this.

Update: The articles author, Jennifer Brown responds:

None that I know about. There is certainly no legislation drafted regarding registration. I think it's not a very popular idea.

 Thank you very much Ms. Brown. Now we watch the legislature like that parolee HR hired to be the company security guard.

Murphys Law - Weather

I can now state with absolute certainty that the Denver area will not see another snowstorm delivering more than 1 inch of snow for the next 12 months.

Finally got the blower running.

Gun Registration

Some time back, in the 50's or 60's there was another flurry of debate on guns which MAD magazine covered in their inimitable way.

In the cartoon piece the grabber addressed the gunnie and told him that all they wanted to do was register his guns.

The gunnie objected.  "You're not going to register my guns!"

The grabber went on, "..just like we register your dogs",  to which the gunnie replied "You're not going to register my dogs guns either".

But you know, sometimes dogs go bad.

Found here at Misanthropic? Me? Inconceivable!

Global Warming

I find that if I go out every 2 hours today* and shovel the Warmering off the drive, it limits the layer to about 2 inches each time.

If I see Al Gore, he's gonna get the shovel where the globe don't warm.

*Beginning at about 7AM.

Crime Rates Falling Everywhere

Scroll down to Feb 20 and look at the rape rate graph. Note the sharp drop when CCW was permitted on college campuses.

Now look at this:

There's no reason given for the big drop in prison homicide rates, but that's no reason for me not to invent one. Apparently CCW was permitted in prisons beginning around or slightly before 1980.

Well, why not?

Update: The drop is unexplained, but the graph above suggests that humans will kill a certain percentage of their fellows at a rate that doesn't get below a certain level.If guns are not available, other means will be found. We are clever monkeys.  Go here for a more complete report.

I For One, Welcome Our New Legoland Masters

If you know what you're seeing here,

you're probably dancing in the streets.

If you don't know, then never mind, nothing to see here.

Assault Weapons

What is an assault weapon? Everybody here knows its a made-up term for a gun with scary looking doodads added. Wizbang has a piece in which they add a visual aid:

What makes the lower piece an assault weapon is the addition of the forward grip and a separate lug to which a more modern bayonet is attached. The upper one attaches the bayonet by simply slipping the ring on the base of the blade over the barrel.

To really finish this out, I would have added an elevated handle to mount the scope on, an elevated front sight to compensate for the elevated rear sight, A doohicky on the front to deflect the smoke to the sides, and an adjustable stock and pistol grip assembly on the back.

Someone with a copy of Photoshop could knock this out quickly enough.

How A Bill Becomes A Law

Favors are exchanged, drafts are prepared by interest groups, backs are scratched...

I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised but the claim that 7 votes were bought suggests that all four bills were on their way out before the administration stepped in. Remains to be seen if O'bummer or smirkin' Joe is actually any help.

If this is too small, go here.

H/T ColoradoRKBA.

Global Warming

Once again channeling Benito Mussolini, the administration which by its own admission has stopped the rising of the tides (eat your heart out Canute!) has announced that it will move forward unilaterally to eliminate carbon emissions in the U.S.

By asking the EPA to set new CO2 standards that would be unreachable by any coal-fired power plant and, I'm guessing, any oil fired plant either, new power plants will be running on natural gas or not at all. Of course if the economy slides any further there will be that much less demand for the power so our carbon emissions will fall even further.

At some point however, the overall power supply is going to run up against power demands. At that point we can look forward to rolling blackouts. A nuisance in Summer, but not so much fun in Winter. Too that add this: Natural gas, produced by fracking, costs about twice as much per MWh delivered as coal, so while you're sitting around freezing, your power bill will be doubled. Ban fracking and the price of gas goes up even further.

Not to worry, the president will be golfing in Hawaii.

Cleaning up the coal plants to where they are now wasn't cheap, but up till recently was probably worth it. Removing particulates with separators and non-carbon gasses by burning cleaner coal did wonders but after a while you reach a point of diminishing returns.

Here’s the tragedy: If we had run the gas fleet at a constant fuel efficiency from 1960-present, we would have emitted an additional 1.3 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. That’s 1.3 billion tons not in the atmosphere today thanks to energy efficiency.
On the other hand … if we had run the coal fleet at a constant fuel efficiency from 1960-today, we would have emitted nearly 9 billion fewer tons of CO2 into the atmosphere over the last fifty years.
1,300,000,000 steps forward, 9,000,000,000 steps back.

Carrying Bloombergs Water

Back on the 14th, I observed that an awful lot of gun laws had been introduced all across the country, with similar wording and objectives, and I wondered if they weren't somehow connected.

Now it seems others are noting the same thing. It seems the wording on all the bills is remarkably similar to the wish list of anti-gun laws promulgated by Mikey Bloomberg.

Jim Shepherd of  The Outdoor Wire notes:

Looking at state-level legislation proposed across the country, there is an undeniable homogeneity to the proposals. To me, it seems that Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), the group founded-and funded- by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg might be authoring a very large majority of the language.

In fact, last week's rancorous testimony regarding anti-gun rights legislation proposed in Colorado used anti-gun "facts" and assertions that were nearly verbatim "lifts" from MAIG's talking points. Those same points were parroted in New Jersey and other statehouses where liberal lawmakers did little to hide the fact that their having enough votes to pass their legislation removed any pretense of objectivity.

RTWT. And consider that with only minor tweaking, picking up your shooting buddy's magazine during a match could easily be an illegal transfer, making you both prohibited felons.

When you ask your Senator to oppose the new gun laws, you should also point out that they were elected by Coloradans, not Mayor Bloomberg, and should be looking to the interests of the locals. If they like Mayor Mike so much that they're willing to carry his water, perhaps they should consider moving to New York.

Of course it's possible that the Senators in question actually were elected by Hizzoner. Mikey has an awful lot of money and is expert at laundering it to candidates he favors.

Rallys and Counter-Rallys

The National Day Of Resistance is tomorrow, with rallys all over the country in support of the peoples right to life, and by extension, their right to preserve it.

In response, the administration is pushing its own counter demonstration:

Organizing for Action (OFA), the group descended from the Obama for America campaign organization, will press lawmakers on Friday to back President Obama's proposals to reduce gun violence.
OFA plans to host 100 events in 80 congressional districts aimed at urging lawmakers to back Obama's gun proposals, the group announced Thursday.

The campaign never ends for the left, lest people begin asking questions about their motivations and weather any actual good is coming from it.

As usual, the right has to have its get-togethers on a Saturday to accommodate its members, most of whom have jobs. The left has no trouble at all producing a group, usually estimated by the press to be in the tens of thousands, for demonstrations at 2 PM in the middle of the week.

Here in Denver, both demos are set for the West side of the capitol building, across the lunch hour. I should probably see about getting pictures of both. It would not look good if the Bolsheviks somehow outnumbered us now would it?

High Art

The National Endowment for the Arts has finally produced something fund-worthy. Here's the capitalise answer to the dreary marxist statue of Lennin, pointing the way into the future, or as it turned out, into the dustbin of history.

This statue, representing the taxpayers and constituents, should be mass produced and installed outside every government building in the U.S., Federal, State, and local.

Who knows, it might help the politicians inside keep their egos in check.

H/T to Moonbattery for this one.

More Guns, Less Crime - On Campus

Found here at Erik Sonderstrom, an interesting graphic on rape rates at CSU:

Concealed carry is currently legal on Colorado university campuses, although some institutions are fighting this tooth and nail. The results suggest the effort is not in the best interests of the ladies attending there.

House Bill 1226, currently in the Senate, would ban concealed firearms from college campuses. This would be the "Seung-Hui Cho Virginia Tech Memorial Act". Unless all of our schools are completely gun free, a suicidal madman or a rapist runs the risk of encountering a "hostile work environment".

Call your Senator today.

Day Of Resistance - Denver

The folks at the Day Of Resistance are having a rally at the state capitol on Feb 23:

Denver, CO Day of Resistance: Full Rally
Location: Colorado State Capitol
200 East Colfax Avenue, Denver, Colorado 80203
Time: 11am-1pm
Sponsor: America
Contact Information: Rainer Steinbauer - Service@house-calls.us
Dave Green djgreen726@yahoo.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/491985480865049/

Be there or be square I guess. They are also having these rallies all over the country, so go here and see what's happening in your neck of the woods.

I'll be there.

Colorado Gun Law

All four of the onerous bills the Bloomberg group has foisted off on us are now before the Colorado senate. One Dem senator has said he opposes the bills, but to prevail, we need to flip 2 more.

Call or e-mail your senator, especially if he or she is a Dem, and let them know you oppose the four bills, HB13-1224, 1226, 1228, and 1229.

-House Bill 1224
bans
magazines that hold more than 15 rounds. It effectively states that your life is only half as valuable as that of a state agent, who is allowed standard capacity magazines.

-House Bill 1229
will
force background checks for all gun transfers. Exemptions are made for gifts among immediate family members. There is no means for enforcement except for universal registration.

-House Bill 1228
creates
a fee for background checks. The state presumes your guilt, and demands you pay to prove your innocence. A tax on an enumerated right is a poll tax, whatever you call it.

-House Bill 1226
bans
concealed firearms from college campuse. The "Seung-Hui Cho Virginia Tech Memorial Act". Unless all of our schools are completely gun free, a suicidal madman runs the risk of encountering a "hostile work environment".

Feel free to cut and past any of this in your letters. Make it snappy, time is short.

Journalism

Hewe we have some talking heads at MSNBC wondering why they can't claim a "freedom from guns" just like their "freedom from religion".

I would suggest they spend some money and hire a journalist to look into this. I believe there are a number of countries that can provide just what they want on both points.

 England and Australia are about as close to gun free as any English speaking country, although they still allow the subjects to practice any religion they want.

Most middle eastern countries will zealously protect you from all but one religion. It's only one after all. Their gun laws are dubious at best however.

China and North Korea will do the best job on both counts and will even allow freedom from speech, assembly, unreasonable search, and most of the rest. It's a mystery to me why more liberals don't move there.

How Law Is Practiced

Like the blogfather needs any help from me, but here is a paper written by Dr Reynolds on how law is practiced at the government level. It runs 6 pages in pdf format including footnotes which can be ignored unless you're working on a law degree.

It helps explain why when people are charged by a DA, they frequently face every charge in the book in hope that the defendant will cop to one of them and the prosecutor can move on to the next victim.

What, for example, could an ambitious prosecutor charge Mother Theresa or John Lennon with?

Beat cops do the same thing. When you have immunity from counter complaint for abuse of authority, you tend to abuse that authority.

Colorado Magazine Ban

Go here to read the Colorado magazine ban as it currently stands. From page 4 line 4 there is a huge carve-out for Magpul whose spray-firing baby killing accessories are O.K. to sell to others, CA, NY, and a few others excepted, but not to Coloradans unless you work for the government, in which case the capability is necessary for your job.

School shootings are being encouraged through the defeat of HB13-1170 which would have allowed faculty at K-12 schools to carry concealed if they had a permit, and passage of HB13-1226 which would forbid concealed carry at college campuses under any circumstances. Feeling depressed? Want to make sure everybody knows how pathetic your case is? Think you can set a new high score in the body count column? Come to Colorado where all things are possible.

Gun Law - PSA

You can't bring about radical change suddenly without causing a good deal of collateral disruption. The way to do it in in small increments, although the more radical advocates will complain about the slow pace.

Gun Show, Gun Laws

Worked the Tanner gun show this weekend. The event was well attended without invoking the fire marshal.  Got a much better idea of what was going on as a friend showed up with the intention of buying his first gun.

A quick walk around the place revealed that not much was available, and what was available was priced very high. His problem is that he has very short, fat fingers and most guns simply don't fit his hand. His other problem was a sense of urgency.

He got a Jimenez 9mm which is sort of like buying a Hyundai some years ago. People who own them and shoot them regularly find they work reasonably reliably as long as you don't use hollow point bullets. A common enough complaint about auto pistols in general to my observation. Range report in about 2 weeks.

The rest of the show was rather depressing.Everything was priced at 2-5 times normal.
Primers - $45-55/K
ammo, .22LR, 525 ct - $85-100
Powder, Hodgden, $28-30/lb
ammo, 9mm $70/250,   $17-26/50
ammo 40S&W - $20-40/50
EBR's were running $1600-2400
Mags, P-mag - $40-50/each

Note that the lower priced ammo was reloads.

Denver Bullets says they may have some 9mm available as soon as they can get a delivery of bullets.
Barrys bullets says delivery on anything is running 6-8 months .

NRA memberships were going at a brisk pace at our table. Post-card letters to state senators were available as well. You put your name and address on them and we look up and add your senator's name, to be delivered to the senator this week, were all taken by about 10:30 AM.

We have one Senator who plans to vote against the gun bills. We need 2 more. Elections have consequences.

Russian Meteor

A meteor estimated at 10 tons, or about 6 feet in diameter, has landed in Russia doing a considerable amount of damage, mostly due to the sonic boom of its passing. A Mini-Tunguska as it were.

Some in Russia see a conspiracy. O.K. then:

Secretary John Kerry has sent an apology to Valdimir Putin explaining that an attempt to guide a meteor to crash into Tehran was inherited from the Bush administration, and an attempt was made to divert the rock to Austin Texas where it was to "derail" the presidential ambitions of Governor Rick Perry permanently. Not only that it would look like an accident.

The communication was discovered when SoS Kerry accidentally hit the "reply all" key when responding to Mr Zhirinovsky,'s accusations. The e-mail was thus sent to every news outlet in the U.S. except Fox News.

Mr Kerry has apologized for the error and asked the media to ignore the e-mail, which they have. This explains why you haven't seen this story anywhere else. Remember, you saw it here first.

Update: The one aimed at Havana got through. That Havana is still a city and not a picturesque lake is attributed to the modest sized steering rockets available to the Kennedy administration, who started the project.

Gun Law - Coincidence?

Just this week draconian gun laws are being introduced in state legislatures all across the country. So far there's Washington, Colorado, Missouri, Penn., New York,  New Jersey, Illinois, and California. All contain similar wordings and vary only in the extent to which the targets, either guns or gun owners,  are to be regulated.

Dems in Missouri, for example, are proposing an outright ban and confiscation of the EBRs. Given the heavily Republican makeup of the legislature there, I'm not seeing this going any where. Still, it looks like a coordinated nationwide attack on gun rights which would necessarily diffuse the efforts of national level groups like the NRA.

I believe I've missed a state or two, and of course there's the federal level.

Battle of the Bulge indeed.

Write A Letter, Get An Answer

Got this from the Greg Smith newsletter. They do things differently up north.
------------------

Dear Representative,

I hope you are taking care of yourself during this busy session. I know it is a challenging, compressed time.

I am writing to express my grave concern about House Bill 105. Ample evidence has shown that schools and guns do not mix, and in particular, guns in the hands of amateurs/non-professionals is extremely dangerous, especially in any highly-charged situation. to expose our children to greater risk in their schools by encouraging more guns on campuses is something that we cannot allow.

My husband and I moved to Wyoming not too long ago. We believed it was a good place to raise children. With the recent and reactive expansion of gun laws and the profoundly serious dangers of fracking, we find we are seriously reconsidering our decision, which is wrenching to all of us. However, the safety of our family must come first. We are waiting to see what the legislature does this session. I know of other new-to-Wyoming families in similar contemplation. Your choices matter. It would be sad to see an exodus of educated, childrearing age adults from Wyoming as a result of poor lawmaking.

sincerely,
Rev. Audette Fulbright

Rev. Fulbright,

I’ll be blunt. If you don’t like the political atmosphere of Wyoming, then by all means, leave. We, who have been here a very long time (I am proudly 4th generation) are quite proud of our independent heritage. I don’t expect a “mass exodus” from our state just because we’re standing up for our rights. As to your comments on fracking, I would point out that you’re basing your statement on “dangers” that have not been scientifically founded or proved as of yet.

It offends me to no end when liberal out-of-staters such as yourself move into Wyoming, trying to get away from where they came from, and then pompously demand that Wyoming conform to their way of thinking. We are, and will continue to be, a state which stands a head above the rest in terms of economic security. Our ability to do that is, in large part, to our “live and let live” mentality when it comes to allowing economic development, and limiting government oversight. So, to conclude, if you’re so worried about what our legislature is working on, then go back home.

Sincerely,

Hans Hunt

Representative Hans Hunt
House District 02

Update: I sent him an e-mail telling him not to apologize and suggesting he run for governor.

Colorado Gun Law

Should have stuck around for the finale. The bill now allows 15 rounds in any firearm, and eight in shotguns. The amendments are here although they don't match the page and line numberings of the original bill here.

QOTD

Found here:

California Gov. Jerry Brown dismissively sniffed at Gov. Perry's latest effort, saying, "Everybody with half a brain is coming to California.

You're right Governor, and the rest of us have noticed.

Colorado Gun Law

I spent 12 hours yesterday watching sausage laws being made, and the comment about how you don't want to know is really one of the great pieces of wisdom to come down the pike. The Old Supreme Court room was packed to overflowing and with the standing room filled, the remainder of us were relegated to the smaller hearing room in the basement where an audio feed kept us up to date.

In the main room, audience participation was strongly discouraged. In the basement there was no hall monitor to watch, so the participation was notably pronounced. People had signed up to speak for or against the bills in sufficient numbers that allowing each speaker 2 minutes, we were looking at 12 hours of testimony. It turned out that opposition was running decidedly ahead of support. Presentation was limited to 2 hours for, and 2 hours against each bill. The supporters ran out in about 2 hours. At the end of the opposition time, persons who had asked to speak and were still waiting were asked to stand. About 90% of the room stood.

Two gun bills, HR13-1229 and HR13-1224 were to come before the committee on the judiciary, presumably to decide if they were in fact legal, and secondarily if they would actually do what they were advertised to do.

HR13-1229 would require all private sales of firearms to include a background check run on the buyer. This would be conducted at an FFL and would be price limited to $10. As the work involved is the same as processing a firearms transfer, the gun dealers would be expected to happily do for $10 what they had been doing for $20-35. A motion was made to allow dealers to opt out of the business of private party BCs but was defeated. It was noted that a background check would not be required for several rather innocuous situations involving lending of guns for hunting or self defense. It was noted by a friend who was there with me that rather than sell a gun to a stranger you met on Armslist, you could legally "loan" him the gun after the acceptance of a "security deposit" sufficient to cover your loss if he never brought it back. Of course you could always simply trade money for gun and if anyone asks, the buyer declares that the bought the gun before July 1 2013 and who's to know.

It was observed that the law thus would be effectively unenforceable absent universal registration and many weasel words were spouted assuring us that while this legislature could not bind future legislatures, this legislature would not implement universal registration. The audience did not find this reassuring. Even the supporters allowed that the bill would do little, if anything to reduce gun violence. The topic of jailing criminals came up. We were told this was off-topic. The measure passed on a party-line vote.

HR13-1224 is a magazine capacity law that limits the mag capacity of any semi-auto firearm to 10 rounds. You can keep your old mags, but you can't include them if you sell or transfer the gun. Good news for Hi Point, I guess. Most of the debate centered around the AR pattern guns with occasional reference to pistols. The committee was fascinated to find out there was such a thing as a 15 round mag, but lost interest when they heard that these were pistol mags. Notwithstanding the bills impact on rifles and pistols both, they were focused on the EBRs.

The bill would require all mags manufactured in CO to be marked with a serial number and date to identify those produced after the ban which CO residents would not be permitted to have. Doug Smith of Magpul noted that the mags already had dates on them and the bills sponsor allowed as how that would be sufficient. Magpul mags have a date notation because they are made in an injection molding machine and the molds have a finite lifespan. This way Magpul knows when to replace them.

It was pointed out by one of the participants that other magazine makers used metal and thus did not date mark or serialize their mags.  It was also pointed out that these unmarked mags were sold at Cabellas in Scottsbluff and other outlets in Wyoming, Kansas, New Mexico, and Utah. The committee asked if the witness thought this would lead to road trips to buy the mags out of state, since without markings there would be no way to identify a legal (pre 7/1/13) magazine from an illegal (post 7/1/13) unit. The witness suggested that this could happen, but the committee thought this would not impair the efficacy of the bill and moved on. Anyone who knows anything about the history of buying fireworks in Wyoming and bringing them back to Colorado will find this hilarious.

Doug Smith of Magpul, which surprisingly is located in Boulder County, granola capitol of Colorado, noted that there was no exception in the bill to cover the manufacture of standard capacity magazines, which his company sells world wide, civilian and military. Magpul is a $44M company that was looking to double capacity. The plans are currently on hold while the company waits to see if everybody on their site is liable for 1 year in jail per mag on the site. If true, then Magpul would have until 1 Jul to remove every >10 round mag from their site and cease production in Colorado. They are currently investigating alternative sites. Attention Gov Perry, Magpul is in the phone book. BTW: Magpul has a 10 round mag in development.

Best theater award: In the normal course of making legislation, standard practice is for the peasants to trek to the capitol to kneel and kiss the rings of the legislators, petitioning them to not abuse their constituents overly harshly. In the case of Magpul, once the committee heard the amount of money in taxes and salaries that was involved, the obsequious butt-kissing by the committee chairman was certainly a sight to behold. Amendments? Sure! Exceptions? You mean they're not already there? Let us fix that, possibly while you wait. Fries with that sir? Touch up the shine on your shoes?

The County Sheriffs, led by Smith of Larimer county made a persuasive and impassioned plea that their people needed to be able to defend themselves from assaults to the same degree the deputies were able to defend themselves and the citizens, i.e. standard capacity magazines. Smith for Governor!

A citizen described being in an altercation with 3 assailants in which he was shot 5 times in the back, and went through 13 of the 16 rounds in his pistol before the hostilities ceased. NOTE: In such a situation, NEVER suggest to the 911 operator that all the involved parties are not accounted for, otherwise the police will wait outside for the SWAT team while you bleed to death inside.

End on the day, at 9PM, the bill was judged to be safe and efficacious on a party line vote, and with a carve-out for Magpul, will go to the house for approval.

At this point I have to conclude that the remaining bills will sail through the committee on similar votes, and will eventually end up on the Governors desk where his membership in MAIG will  ensure their signing.

Texas is looking better and better. Colorado is going the way of California, full speed.

QOTD - Gun Control

Every Communist must grasp the truth, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party. Yet, having guns, we can create Party organizations, as witness the powerful Party organizations which the Eighth Route Army has created in northern China. We can also create cadres, create schools, create culture, create mass movements. Everything in Yenan has been created by having guns. All things grow out of the barrel of a gun. According to the Marxist theory of the state, the army is the chief component of state power. Whoever wants to seize and retain state power must have a strong army. Some people ridicule us as advocates of the "omnipotence of war". Yes, we are advocates of the omnipotence of revolutionary war; that is good, not bad, it is Marxist. The guns of the Russian Communist Party created socialism. We shall create a democratic republic. Experience in the class struggle in the era of imperialism teaches us that it is only by the power of the gun that the working class and the labouring masses can defeat the armed bourgeoisie and landlords; in this sense we may say that only with guns can the whole world be transformed.
Mao Tse-tung
November 6, 1938

“If someone is so fearful that they are going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, it makes me very nervous that these people have any weapons at all!” — Democrat Congressman Henry A. Waxman (California).

See you at the capitol tomorrow.