Monday, March 11, 2013

We Now Resume Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

To no ones surprise, the 5 remaining gun bills passed in the Senate and 3 of them now go to the Governor, a MAIG member, who is expected to happily sign the lot.

HB13-1224 is the magazine ban which limits all firearms except tube mag shotguns to 15 rounds unless you work for the State. You may keep your existing larger mags, but if you sell the gun, you may NOT transfer the magazines. Shotguns with tubular mags are limited to 28" of whatever you can fit in. Mags made in Colorado after Jul 1 this year must have a date and serial number so you scofflaws can be more easily identified.

This bill will move Magpul and some of its local suppliers out of the state. I'm guessing Cheyenne so that the existing supply chain will not be as seriously disrupted.

HB13-1228 is a poll tax, which its supporters claim is O.K. if it is presented as a fee.

HB13-1229 assumes that everybody in the state is a prohibited person, and demande that anyone receiving a firearm gat a BC within 72 hours.

This bill will require burglars to go to a gun shop and run a BC on the muggers they sell their guns to. We are told that gun crime will plummet.

All the above will go to the Gov, who will do as the Mayor tells him.

SB13-195 requires that AT LEAST PART of the safety and training coursework required for a CCW be conducted in person. It originally demanded that ALL be in person until someone informed the sponsor that part of the training required for a hunting license was done online.

Occasionally the legislature does something that makes sense. 1 out of 7 is probably above average for these clowns.

SB13-197 gives persons subject to a domestic violence protection order a minimum of 24 and a maximum of 72 hours to either completely divest themselves of all firearms and ammunition in their possession. This means turning it all over to law enforcement, who will carefully keep in in the evidence room or turn it over to a gun dealer who has safe space to lend or rent, or turn it over to your buddy Jack, who has a closet or something to put it in or outright sell the lot. In the last 2 cases, the recipient must provide a receipt, and pass a background check.

In other words the victim here has between 24 and 72 hours to "take care" of the vexatious spouse, but won't because if he doesn't turn in his guns, he'll be guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor. Somehow I don't see this helping a lot. Of course if a firearm is misplaced during the inventory and transfer process, the miscreant is now in violation of the protective order. It adds a sense of urgency to the process of whacking your ex.

3 recall efforts are currently under way. I'm going to bet that should any of them produce the required number of signatures, Bloomberg will provide funding to assist the target in his or her defense, and the Colorado Republicans will remain carefully on the sidelines, which seem to be their natural habitat.

Meanwhile they won (again) and we lost (again). I understand they have bills in the hopper to ban drilling, fracking, and probably anything else that generates wealth. Good luck with those. If .22lr ever becomes generally available again, I'm going back to plinking on the e-postal matches and steel dog shoots.
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3 comments:

Brad K. said...

The one about forfeiting weapons under a restraining order should get thrown out the first time someone gets a restraining order against a convicted felon.

The US Supreme Court held that it unconstitutional to require a felon to register firearms -- it is a form of forced violation of 5th Amendment rights, against self-incrimination.

I wonder what the penalties are for getting a restraining order for frivolous reasons, just to disarm someone, for home invasion setup or for mere harassment. And what are the penalties if the cops or store owner "loses" the weapons? Does Mayor Bloomberg stand good for the damages? Suppose some PD decides such forfeiture constitutes "confiscation", and they sell the weapons outright to fund their next barbecue and strike committee meeting?

A lot of these sound like great opportunities for graft and getting brothers-in-law hired on.

Publicola said...

Actually only the background check tax goes straight to Hick's desk. The rest go to the house - 2 for straight up or down votes because the senate amended them after they passed the house, & 2 for the whole 3 readings+committee process as they originated in the senate.

& the mag capacity limit bill...I think it still bans more than 8 shells in a shotgun. There's some language about a detachable mag attached to a fix mag which I think they meant to mean a magazine tube extension. But it may take a judge to decide what the hell they meant if we can't stop them in the house or at the governor's desk.

Billll said...

I probably need to re-read the mag bill to see exactly what's in it now. Last time I glanced at it it looked like it had been written by a high school sophomore on Red Bull the night before the exam.

Enforceability is a big problem with all of the bills and is only really addressable by requiring universal registration.