Despite protests, universal background checks passes CO Senate committee
Lines
of people, waiting to testify on a number of Democratic gun bills,
filling the hallways at the State Capitol Monday morning.The Senate Judiciary Committee, after three hours of emotional and at times wrenching public testimony, passed Senate Bill 197 on a party-line, 3-2 vote and heads now to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“This bill is more than a ‘feel-good’,” said Sen. Evie Hudak, the bill’s sponsor, in response to arguments from opponents. “I will feel good when fewer people die, when an abuser doesn’t have a gun to kill them.”
S.B. 197 is the first of four gun control measures scheduled to be heard by the five-member Judiciary Committee Monday.
The panel began hearing testimony on its second bill, House Bill 1224, which bans high-capacity magazines of 15 rounds or more, just after 2 p.m. Monday. At that hearing’s outset, the sponsor, Sen. Mary Hodge, D-Brighton, said she would be offering amendments to exclude law enforcement and to protect shotguns.
Magpul Industries, an Erie manufacturer of high-capacity magazines, is threatening to leave Colorado if the bill passes, even though an amendment has been added to the legislation that would allow the company to continue making high-capacity magazines here for sales and use in other states.
Around 3 p.m., lawmakers upstairs on the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs voted to approve House Bill 1229, which will require universal background checks for all gun purchases and transfers, the first of three bills being considered by that panel.
Lawmakers amended the bill so that transfers between family members do not require a background check for the first 72 hours.
That vote was also 3-2 and right down party lines.
Huge crowd of mostly opponents flood the Capitol
Hundreds of people began filling the Capitol’s hallways and hearing rooms early Monday morning, waiting to testify on seven Democratic gun bills that are being heard by two, separate Senate committees.
Gun owners who oppose the various proposals, which include a ban on high-capacity magazines, universal background checks, and a measure to make assault weapons manufacturers and sellers criminally liable for crimes, flooded the Capitol, the sidewalks outside and even the air above, with a circling airplane trailing a sign pleading Gov. John Hickenlooper not to “take our guns.”
And since the hearings got underway, a persistent wail of honking horns and car alarms has been heard inside the hearing rooms, signaling the determination of some opponents, many frustrated at the limited time allowed for official testimony, to make their opposition heard.
Proponents of the bills also launched an intense public relations blitz, starting the day with a press conference featuring several victims of mass shootings: former space shuttle Commander Mark Kelly, the husband of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords; Patricia Maisich, one of three people who tackled Giffords’ shooter as he was reloading; Tom Mauser, whose son, Daniel, was killed at Columbine; Dave Hoover, whose nephew, A.J. Boik, was one of 12 people killed last July inside Aurora’s Century 16 Theater; and Jane Dougherty, whose sister, Mary Sherlach, was killed at Sandy Hook School last December, along with 20 first-graders.
With seven bills being heard in two separate committees meeting at the same time, Senate Democrats have decided to limit testimony to three hours — 90 minutes per side — on all of the bills, all seven of which are expected to pass Monday on party-line votes.
Democrats hold 3-2 majorities on both the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is hearing four bills in the Old Supreme Court chamber, and the Senate State, Veterans and Miliary Affairs Committee, which is hearing three bills up on the Capitol’s third floor.
Mark Kelly testifies in support of universal background checks
Kelly testified in support of House Bill 1229, which will require background checks on all private gun sales, the first bill heard by the SVMA Committee Monday.
“We don’t come to the debate on gun violence as victims,” he said. “We offer our voices as Americans. We’re moderates. We’re both gun owners. And we take that right and the responsibilities that come with it very seriously.”
Kelly told the story of his wife’s shooting two Januarys ago, and of her difficult recovery; he noted that the alleged shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, bought his weapon after passing a background check, despite his mental health records already having disqualified him for military service and being kicked out of school.
“He should not have passed a background check,” Kelly said, when pressed on that point by Sen. Larry Crowder, R-Alamosa. “The Army knew he was a heavy drug user. His records should have been in the system. He should have failed a background check. But had that happened, he still would have had another option, to go down the street, get online, and buy a weapon.
“The breadth and complexity of gun violence is great. But that is not an excuse for inaction.”
Kelly compared having loopholes for background checks on private sales and, in many other states, at gun shows to having two different security lines at the airport.
“If there’s no security in one of the lines, which one do you think the terrorist will choose?” he said.
Sandy Hook victim’s sister also backs universal background checks
CBI Director Ron Sloan, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates and Jane Dougherty, whose sister, Mary Sherlach, was the school pyschologist killed at Sandy Hook School last December, also testified in support of universal background checks.
“I hear that some think universal background checks is a burden. I’d like to speak directly to them,” said Dougherty, who lives in Littleton.
“A burden is hearing about a mass shooting in Connecticut, working with your family through the chaos to coinfirm it is your sister’s school; a burden is getting a call from your niece: ‘we lost her.’
“A burden is everything that comes after this horrific news, explaining a mass shooting to your 10 year old son.”
“A background check is not a burden. It will save lives,” Dougherty told the committee. “Maybe even your family’s.”
Dave Hoover, whose nephew A.J. Boik was killed inside the Aurora movie theater last July, also testified in support of universal background checks.
“I’m a Republican,” said Hoover, a detective. “Many men and women I work with want to see a difference made in the state. We want to see our Republican representatives do the right thing.
“It’s time for us to make a difference.”
Opponents begin testimony with murder victim’s daughter
The daughter of a murder victim of Gary Davis, the last man executed by the state of Colorado in 1997, was the first person to testify against universal background checks.
Krista said that she opposes all gun controls and believes that had her mother had a gun to defend herself she might be alive today.
“Background checks won’t stop the next Gary Davis,” Krista said. “They’ll just make my world less safe.”
A group of sheriffs, many from rural counties, spoke against background checks, with one representative, Sheriff John Cooke of Weld County, speaking as a group of supporing sheriffs, all in uniform, stood quietly behind him.
“It seems mostly like Denver metro area sheriffs who are supporting this,” Cooke said. “We know there are a lot of chiefs and line level police officers throughout the state who don’t support these bills.”
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