Thread: UPDATE COLORADO’S GRASSROOTS REVOLT AGAINST GUN-GRABBERS

​COLORADO’S GRASSROOTS REVOLT AGAINST GUN-GRABBERS



By: Michelle Malkin
8/28/2013 01:12 PM

COLORADO SPRINGS — While most Americans will be chillin’ out, maxin’ and relaxin’ this Labor Day weekend, dedicated patriots in Colorado are hard at work preparing for a groundbreaking special election day with nationwide repercussions. George Washington would be proud.
On September 10, Democratic legislator and state Senate President John Morse of Colorado Springs faces a citizen recall for his sellout to New York anti-gun special interests, for his betrayal of transparency and accountability to constituents, and for his destructive economic policies that are driving thousands of jobs away. Also up for recall: Democratic legislator Angela Giron of Pueblo.
In March, Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper signed his left-wing colleagues’ sweeping package of gun- and ammo-control measures — pushed not by Coloradans, but by gun-grabbing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the anti-Second Amendment Brady bunch and the White House. Vice President Joe Biden inserted himself into my adopted home state’s legislative process, phoning up swing Democratic legislators to lobby for the bills personally.
These radically expanded background checks on every individual gun sale and ammunitions restrictions banning the purchase or transfer of magazines with more than 15 cartridges will do little to nothing to prevent the next Newtown or Aurora or Columbine. “Moderate” Hickenlooper publicly admitted their ineffectiveness before surrendering to the gun-control zealots.
Morse and Giron also posed as middle-of-the-roaders. But there’s nothing moderate about gun-control laws that demonize law-abiding gun owners. While Morse brags of his time as a police officer in Colorado Springs, his brethren in the Colorado Springs Police Protective Association have condemned him and support his recall. One of Morse’s extremist proposals, backed by Bloomberg and company, would have made firearms owners, sellers and manufacturers legally liable for any crimes committed with guns. He was forced to back down on that one.
There’s also nothing moderate about marginalizing tax-paying, job-creating gun and ammo manufacturers. The Morse-Hickenlooper-Bloomberg-Biden laws have already forced Colorado-based Magpul Industries and other manufacturers to abandon the state — and take thousands of related jobs with them. As I reported earlier this year, Magpul alone fueled 600 jobs and an estimated $85 million in spending in the state. Overall, as the National Shooting Sports Foundation found, “The firearms and ammunition industry was responsible for as much as $31.84 billion in total economic activity in the country … (and) the industry and its employees pay over $2.07 billion in taxes including property, income and sales based levies.”
At a local fundraiser in Colorado Springs (which I supported and spoke at), Morse’s GOP challenger and Air Force veteran Bernie Herpin hammered the incumbent over his economic destruction and contempt for the will of the people. “I’m running to defend our Constitutional rights and promote an environment where small businesses are free to create jobs and improve our local community,” Herpin says, while Morse’s agenda is “doing the bidding of big-government interests in Denver and Washington.”
And New York City. On Tuesday, insatiable control freak Bloomberg tossed in $350,000 to a pass-through committee established less than a month ago to fund the anti-gun Democratic recall targets.
Recall leader Rob Harris, a Colorado Springs resident in Morse’s Senate District 11, explains that he was just an ordinary citizen “fed up” with the overlords in Denver. No outside groups contacted him. He had no ties to Republican groups or strategists. Harris was incensed that his representative refused to respond to his emails and to the concerns of his neighbors (an arrogant move that Morse even bragged about on far-left MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s show).
Through hard work and local activism, the grassroots campaign gathered 16,000 signatures in three months to qualify the recall for the ballot. Morse “changed state Senate committee rules, which effectively silenced the voices of hundreds of Colorado citizens from testifying on legislation” affecting them, Harris points out. While Democrats made room for out-of-state astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of former Arizona congresswoman and Tucson shooting survivor Gabby Giffords, to testify before the legislature, the majority Dems manipulated the process so that untold numbers of Colorado residents who support the Second Amendment were frozen out.
In his new No. 1 New York Times bestseller, “The Liberty Amendments,” Mark Levin calls for citizen activists to use the tools and principles the Founding Fathers bestowed upon us to restore the balance of power back to “we, the people.” The spirit of George Washington animates the important battle here in Colorado. As Washington wrote to his nephew in 1787:
“The power under the Constitution will always be in the people. It is entrusted for certain defined purposes, and for a certain limited period, to representatives of their own choosing; and whenever it is executed contrary to their interest, or not agreeable to their wishes, their servants can, and undoubtedly will, be recalled.”
The recalls are a historic David and anti-gun Goliath showdown — and my fellow Colorado Springs citizens know the stakes are high. This isn’t a “single issue” election about guns. It’s about electoral accountability, economic prosperity, personal security and self-government. The single issue encompassing them all: freedom.

Michelle Malkin is the author of “Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks and Cronies” (Regnery 2010).

http://www.humanevents.com/2013/08/2...-gun-grabbers/

Colorado voters boot Morse, Giron from office in historic election

The Gazette • Updated: September 10, 2013 at 11:36 pm • Published: September 10, 2013 | 11:00 pm •

Bernie Herpin kisses his wife Linda as they celebrate his victory in the election to recall Colorado State Senator John Morse Tuesday, September 10, 2013. Michael Ciaglo, The Gazette
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PHOTOSview all photos



VIDEO:Of Morse's unrepentant socialist speech here.
http://gazette.com/morse-giron-recalled-from-office/multimedia/video/2663568525001

• Giron beaten soundly

State senators John Morse and Angela Giron are becoming the first Colorado legislators ever to be recalled from office Tuesday, caught in the vortex of a national gun rights debate.

Morse has conceded defeat. And with about 24,000 votes counted in Pueblo, Sen. Angela Giron is trailing by 60 to 40 percent and also is in danger of being recalled from office. A total of 14,306 voters backed the recall and 9,581 opposed it.

Tears abounded after Morse conceded. Morse said losing his seat was purely symbolic and Democrats still hold a majority in the House and Senate.

The successful recalls would mean that in January, Democrats will hold just an 18-17 margin, which is bound to make it more difficult for them to advance an agenda. Former Colorado Springs City Councilman Bernie Herpin, a Republican and staunch supporter of gun rights, will finish Morse’s term and has said he will run for the seat in November 2014.

If the early returns hold up, Giron’s term would be completed by Republican George Rivera.

“Now the real work begins,” said senator-elect Herpin after Morse conceded. Herpin was at the Republican Party headquarters in Colorado Springs, where the crowd applauded enthusiastically after the concession.

Ron Coleman, a volunteer with the Herpin campaign, said “It’s unbelievable. It’s almost unbelievable that we could beat billionaires.”
http://gazette.com/colorado-voters-b...rticle/1506083

Giron beaten soundly

The Pueblo Chieftain • Updated: September 10, 2013 at 11:40 pm • Published: September 10, 2013 | 11:00 pm •

Facing an insurmountable lead from recall challenger George Rivera as the evening wore on, Colorado state Sen. Angela Giron conceded defeat Tuesday night. She became just the second Colorado lawmaker to be recalled mere hours after state Senate president John Morse became the first in a wave of opposition sparked by their votes in favor of tighter firearm restrictions.
In unofficial election results, the effort to recall her leads 56 percent to 44 percent.

Because Giron comes from a predominately Democratic district, her margin of defeat was remarkable. She lost by 12 per4centage points while Morse, from a more Republican area, lost by just 2 points.

Still, the loss of the two senate seats dilutes the power of Democrats in 2014 and the gun issue may resonate all the way to the governor's race next year.

Earlier Tuesday evening, the Pueblo County's elections department website had crashed because it was overwhelmed after the polls closed in the Senate District 3 recall election. Pueblo County Clerk Bo Ortiz told Chieftain reporters the site was not hacked. Ortiz said the vote-counting process was moving slowly because "we are verifying everything. We want to make sure everything is secure. But they are coming in."

http://gazette.com/giron-loses-in-a-...rticle/1506091