House OKs gun bills

POSTED: 02/18/2013 09:05:57 AM MST
UPDATED: 02/18/2013 07:31:46 PM MST
By Tim Hoover, Lynn Bartels and Kurtis Lee
The Denver Post

Video at the page link:
Rep. Lois Court hugs Rep. Rhonda Fields after the Colorado House voted in four bills that seek to enact universal gun background checks, fees for background checks, limits on magazine size and a ban on conceal carry permits on college campuses at the state Capitol Monday in Denver. (Joe Amon, The Denver Post)

A package of four Democratic gun-control bills cleared the Colorado House on Monday and is now headed to the Democratic-led Senate, where the votes could be close.

Senate committees could take them up as early as this week if they wanted. However, timing issues with other bills mean the gun bills could be delayed for weeks.

"I know they're coming, and I strongly suspect they'll get passed," Senate President John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, said of the bills. "But there's still a long way to go and a lot of conversation to be had."

The House on Monday gave final passage to the four bills, which:
• Limit gun magazines to 15 rounds;
• Require background checks for all gun transactions;

HB13-1224 passes at the State Capitol on Feb. 18, 2013. (Joe Amon, The Denver Post)

Ban concealed weapons on college campuses; and• Impose a fee for gun buyers to cover the cost of their background checks.

Democrats hold a 37-28 majority in the House — where 33 votes are needed for passage — but only one of the bills passed with a margin close to the Democrats' majority.

In the Senate, the numbers are even closer. Democrats hold a 20-15 advantage and need 18 votes for passage.

Two Democrats historically known for their support of gun rights say they're uncommitted on the bills.

"I've got to look at them carefully. I've always supported the Second Amendment," said Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton. "The background checks I'm fine with, but the devil is in the details. How do you control private sales?"

Tochtrop also said she was comfortable with the idea of people paying for their own background checks, but wanted to make sure there were limits to how much the Colorado Bureau of Investigation could charge and that the fees weren't "open-ended."

"The other two, I'm looking at very carefully," she said, adding, "I'm concerned about a business leaving the state of Colorado."

Tochtrop was referring to Magpul Industries, an Erie-based maker of gun magazines that has threatened to leave the state if the bill limiting magazines to 15 rounds becomes law.

Sen. Cheri Jahn, D-Wheat Ridge, was having similar struggles. She said she's supportive generally of the fees for background checks and requiring checks for all gun purchases, but is having bigger problems with the idea of limiting gun magazines.

"I'm just not sure passing a law is going to do what people think it's going to do," she said.

Asked about the concealed weapons on campus ban, Jahn said, "That one I probably would support."

The conflict that some House Democrats had on Monday was best summed up by Rep. Ed Vigil, D-Fort Garland, who voted against all four gun bills and described how his family came
The Colorado House prepared to take up four gun bills at the state Capitol on Monday, Feb. 18, 2013, in Denver. (Joe Amon, The Denver Post )

to Colorado in the 1850s."They carried weapons to settle this land. This is part of our heritage," he said. "I cannot turn my back on that."

With all House Republicans voting against stricter gun control measures on Monday, several cited the need to address mental health as a way of quelling gun violence.

This is one area where there is bipartisanship on gun violence.

State Rep. Beth McCann, D-Denver, said she hopes to unveil a measure that addresses the issue next week.

"We need to provide more tools for mental health professionals so that they can have more of an active role in identifying people who might not be able to handle a gun," McCann said. "So this bill will provide them with additional tools to do that."

The bill directs mental health professionals to notify the CBI if they conclude that a person poses a danger to themselves or others so the name can be placed in the background check database, preventing them from purchasing a gun.

Monday's discussion in the House, while far shorter than the 12-hour debate Friday, was distinguished by speeches that quoted Hamlet, invoked images of Japanese internment camps and cited the example of Mahatma Gandhi — in this case in favor of gun rights.

Democrats argued guns and college students don't mix and that campuses are some of the safest places in America.

"There are a lot of students who simply are not ready to be in the presence of firearms," said bill sponsor Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder. "It's a dangerous mix."

But Republicans, especially female GOP lawmakers, said young women on college campuses would now be more at risk of sexual assault and other violent crimes.

"A rapist entering a women's dorm will not be stopped by a whistle or a call box," said Rep. Lois Landgraf, R-Fountain.

Republicans argued that a bill imposing fees on gun purchasers for background checks was essentially a tax.

"This bill is taking advantage of a tragedy that's out there to demonize law-abiding citizens who are exercising their Second Amendment rights, and using it as a way to generate $4 million to $5 million in increased taxes on these people,"said Rep. Brian DelGrosso, R-Loveland.

But Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, noted that the background fee on gun purchases was nothing new and had been enacted originally under a Republican-controlled legislature in 1994. The state ended the fee in 1999 because at that time, the fee had generated so much money, it was going to exceed revenue limits under the state's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.

Probably some of the angriest debate came around the bill to limit gun magazines to 15 rounds.

McCann said high-capacity magazines had been used in numerous high-profile spree shootings, citing in particular the case of Jared Loughner, who used one to wound 13 people, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and kill six others outside a Tucson grocery story in January 2011.

"It was because he was reloading one of those high-capacity magazines that he was prevented from killing additional people." McCann said, saying Loughner was tackled by bystanders when he stopped to reload.

But House Minority Leader Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs, said it was "absolutely inconsistent" for Democrats to have added an amendment to the bill in an attempt to keep Erie -based gun magazine manufacturer Magpul from leaving the state.

The amendment says manufacturers could still make high-capacity magazines for out-of-state sale.

"Apparently, they (high-capacity magazines) are not instruments of destruction when they're purchased outside the borders of Colorado," Waller said.

Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626, thoover@denverpost.com or twitter.com/timhoover


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