Colorado’s Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill on Sunday that would ban the sale or transfer of so-called “semi-automatic” firearms, a big step forward for the legislation after Democrats scuttled a similar bill last year.
The Colorado House passed the bill by a 35-27 vote. If the legislation makes it through the state’s Senate and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signs it, the Centennial State will join ten other states with semi-automatic gun prohibitions.
But the bill still faces obstacles, even in blue Colorado, a state that leans left and has been home to some of the worst mass shootings in the nation, including the first school shooting in American history at Columbine High School.
Colorado has only recently shifted into a full-fledged blue state and still has some conservative elements in its society and polity, especially with several internationally renowned ministries and mega-churches there. While the Democrats hold a dominant majority in the House, the balance of power is more even in the Senate.
“The answer can’t be, ‘I need to pack my gun so when someone shoots me at church, I can shoot them back,’” state Rep. Jennifer Bacon (D-Denver) said. “The answer can’t be, ‘When I go to the grocery store, I need to have my gun, so I can shoot them.’ That is not prevention. That is reaction.”
🚨 On Sunday, Colorado's Democratic-majority House advanced a measure aimed at banning the sale and transfer of semiautomatic firearms.
The bill, which got through on a 35-27 vote, is set to be introduced next in the Democratic-led state Senate.
⁉️ Is this the same Colorado… pic.twitter.com/RMcDu1R2c0
— The Dibster (@richarddibX) April 16, 2024
But what Bacon said “can’t be” the answer is the U.S. Supreme Court’s most recent answer to the question of gun restrictions, when it ruled in its 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
Leftwing anti-constitution activists devised the term “semi-automatic” during the Clinton years in the 1990s to describe a broad class of firearms in the language of alarmism and hysteria by associating these guns with “automatic” firearms that continue firing new rounds as long as the marksman holds down the trigger.
These are firearms that discharge a round each time the trigger is squeezed and automatically load the next round to be fired. They are only slightly more advanced than the Sam Colt revolver, with a cylinder that automatically rotated when the marksman cocked the hammer. Mr. Colt received a patent for that design from the U.S. government in 1836.
