Colorado: An Evolution in Gun Laws

The Centennial State has made a dramatic shift in its gun laws over the last 23 years

By: Eileen McCarron, President, Colorado Ceasefire Legislative Action

Colorado has made a dramatic shift in its gun laws in the last 23 years. This article will explore the reasons behind this sweeping change. Although the story is more involved, two main factors are responsible: demographic changes and multiple gun tragedies.

Pre-2000

Historically, Colorado didn’t have much in the way of gun laws beyond federal laws until 1985, when Colorado enacted one of the first Stand Your Ground laws, which provides civil and criminal immunity for use of deadly force in the home. The following year, the state extended immunity to the entire gun industry.

Until 1999, the prevailing pattern in Colorado was a Democratic governor and Republican legislature. With their conservative bent, Republicans were strongly aligned with the NRA, but their druthers on loosened gun laws were kept in check by Democratic governors.

In 1999, for the first time in 24 years, Republicans had full control of the executive and legislative branches. The NRA came calling, and a slew of proposals to loosen gun laws were underway when the massacre at Columbine High School occurred on April 20th. It was the first major school shooting in the nation -- twelve students and a coach were slaughtered. All gun bills were either vetoed or withdrawn.

2000: Post-Columbine

Because of the Columbine massacre, Governor Owens (R) and Attorney General Ken Salazar (D) proposed five “gun control” measures for the 2000 session. The significant ones were defeated in committee, including the most important bill, a measure to close the gun show loophole. Three of the four guns used at Columbine were bought at a gun show, and the buyer specifically went to tables that advertised “no background check.” The concept was put into a voter initiative petition by SAFE Colorado, a non-profit active in Colorado from 1999-2003.

Even with the shadow of Columbine over the 2000 legislature, Colorado amended its 1986 immunity law to make It one of the worst in the country, tossing out any suit against firearm manufacturers, distributors, and dealers, and charging the petitioner with defendant attorney fees.

In 2000, voters overwhelmingly approved a SAFE Colorado initiative to close the gun show loophole and elected a Democratic senate for the first time in 40 years. Colorado Ceasefire was born that same year as a Political Action Committee, and successfully assisted in the turnover of six legislative seats. But the state hadn’t thrown its hat into the Democratic ring, as its electoral votes went to Republican George W. Bush. Many attributed Al Gore’s loss to President Clinton’s enactment of gun laws in 1994.

A divided legislature in 2001 and 2002 provided no path to enacting strong gun violence prevention laws.

2003: The Awful Terrible Year

The 2002 election brought back Republican control of both the legislative and executive branches. 2003 was the high-water mark for gun rights activists, who used the Republican majorities to secure what they had been denied in 1999. Enacted were preemption and shall issue concealed carry laws. Unrealized by most everyone is how many Democrats supported each of these bills. The CCW law received 16 House Democratic votes (out of 45). The preemption bill received seven Democratic votes, while losing three Republican votes between the two chambers.

2005-2012: Stalemate

After an intense campaign effort -- documented in the 2010 book, The Blueprint, by Adam Schrager and Rob Witwer -- Democrats took the House and Senate in the 2004 election. But gun reforms were kept in check by pro-gun rights Democrats and the Republican governor.

With the Democratic trifecta (House, Senate, and Governor) in the 2006 election, one might wonder: Why didn’t Democrats make a move on enacting stronger gun laws during the years 2007-2010? That’s easy to answer.

Colorado still had hardcore gun rights Democrats in both the House and Senate, as well as a good number of fence-sitter Democrats, many of whom viewed “gun control” as a third rail. With intraparty division on gun violence prevention, even a 2008 Safe Storage bill was unable to garner sufficient votes.

Republicans took the House in the 2010 elections with a one-vote majority, but that along with the pro-gun rights Democrats and fence-sitters made any GVP legislation impossible for the 2011 and 2012 sessions. On July 20, 2012, the Aurora Theater massacre occurred wherein 12 people were slaughtered at a midnight movie preview, and the issue of gun violence prevention rose in the minds of voters again.

2013: Post-Aurora Theater and Sandy Hook

Following the Aurora Theater mass murder, Ceasefire’s lobbyist, Annmarie Jensen, formed a stakeholders group of advocacy and law enforcement voices. The group negotiated over five months on what could be advanced in the following legislative session. In the 2012 election, the Democrats gained the trifecta. Additionally, there remained only one pro-gun Democrat in each chamber, along with a few fence-sitters. It was clear that gun violence prevention bills had a path this time.

The last meeting of the stakeholders group occurred the afternoon of December 14. But that morning, 20 first graders and six educators were murdered in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. Senate President John Morse sent word to the stakeholders that the legislature was going forward with the plank of bills being proposed. Of the eight bills introduced in 2013, five became law, including universal background checks, a large capacity magazine ban, and domestic violence relinquishment.

2013: Recalls

The pro-gun rights crowd was quite angered and immediately began recall efforts. The September 2013 voter turnout was poor, and Senators Morse and Angela Giron were removed from office and replaced by gun rights supporters. In November, a similar recall effort resulted in the resignation of Senator Evie Hudak.

In the 2014 election, Democrats were unable to retain their Senate majority, even with the recall replacements ousted. Democrats were feeling bruised by the recalls, and were averse to entertaining any discussion of additional measures.

2016 through 2019: ERPO

One of the bills that failed in 2013 dealt with mental health. Ceasefire went back to the drawing board, and in conjunction with the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, held a forum in May, 2016, focused on Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPO). With ERPO, law enforcement and family can petition the court to remove access to firearms for one who is dangerous to self or others. The forum was planned in hopes of Democrats regaining the Senate in the 2016 elections, which didn’t happen. But the conversation had begun.

The ambush murder of Douglas County sheriff’s deputy Zackari Parrish III on December 31, 2017, by a mentally unstable young man illustrated the need for an ERPO law. Ceasefire lobbyist, Anne McGihon, began lobbying for ERPO immediately and worked closely with leadership to craft a bill on the concept. After vigorous attempts to get a Senate Republican sponsor, Cole Wist did become a House prime sponsor. Wist and his family received death threats from pro-gun rights supporters. The bill passed in the House, but unsurprisingly failed in Senate committee. Nevertheless, the effort to enact ERPO brought a great deal of media attention to the policy.

In the 2018 elections, Democrats experienced a big blue wave and took all statewide offices on the ballot, retook the Senate, and increased margins in the House. Tom Sullivan, whose son was murdered In the Aurora Theater, defeated Cole Wist and became the prime sponsor of the ERPO bill in 2019. It passed both chambers, and Governor Polis signed it into law. All Republicans and a few Democrats voted against the bill. Thirty-nine counties declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries, and sheriffs across the state indicated they would not use the life-saving tool. Republicans and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO) took a page from 2013 and endeavored to recall the Governor and several legislators, starting with Tom Sullivan. To their embarrassment, all those campaigns fizzled.

2021: post-Boulder King Soopers

Relatively early in the 2021 session, several bills were introduced: Safe Storage, Reporting Lost and Stolen Guns, and Enhancements to the Domestic Violence Relinquishment legislation. But the psyche of the state was shattered on March 22, when a gunman shot and killed ten at a Boulder King Soopers grocery store. Three additional laws were enacted that related to that mass shooting: repeal of the 2003 preemption law, prohibiting violent misdemeanants from purchasing guns for five years, removing the Charleston Loophole, and establishing the Office of Gun Violence Prevention.

2023: post-Club Q

Democrats won overwhelmingly in the November, 2022 election, thereby gaining a supermajority in the House and nearly one in the Senate. Only two weeks later, five people were shot and killed at the Club Q nightclub in Colorado Springs. The shooter had been arrested the previous year for a bomb threat at his home, and had made threats of mass shootings, but the sheriff never sought an ERPO. That county is a Second Amendment sanctuary county, and the sheriff had been vigorously opposed to the ERPO law.

Democrats entered the 2023 session determined to tighten the state’s gun laws. Because of Club Q, a bill was introduced to expand the list of petitioners to include educators, health care and mental health professionals, district attorneys, and the attorney general. Simultaneously, three other bills were introduced: establish a minimum age of 21 for firearm purchase; establish a three-day waiting period; and repeal the 2000 gun industry immunity law and establish industry standards of conduct.

At the time of this writing, these bills are most of the way through their route to enactment. Several other gun reform bills are also on the legislative path, and a handful of others are waiting in the wings for introduction.

On March 22, 2023, a day when Boulder was remembering the victims of the King Soopers shooting two years prior, and while awaiting an ERPO expansion hearing, a student at Denver’s East High School shot and injured two administrators before taking his own life. The same school had recently suffered the fatal shooting of a student. After both events, students hiked 1.5 miles to the capitol to insist that legislators strengthen gun laws.

Because of the commitment of many members of the legislature, we are hopeful that these bills will become law.

Students from East High School and West High School during a rally outside the State Capitol in Denver, Thursday, March 23, 2023 (Image courtesy of Colorado Ceasefire)

Demographics

Colorado is an exceptionally beautiful state, and is a magnet for highly educated and progressive people. It gained a new congressional district following both the 2000 and 2020 censuses. Examining registration changes from 2004 to present:

Republican Democratic Unaffiliated Minor Parties

2004 37% 30% 32% 1%

2023 24% 28% 46% 2%

New and younger voters had already been trending towards registering as Unaffiliated, but the floodgates towards Unaffiliated status were opened by a 2016 voter initiative that allowed Unaffiliated voters to choose to vote in either party primary. That choice has had an especially disastrous effect on Republican registration numbers.

The trend towards Democratic victories was exacerbated by the Trump presidential years and the ultra-right wing bent of the state Republican party. Surprisingly, Republicans had more voters in the 2022 primary, leading many to believe that the Democrats were going to suffer in November. Rather the opposite was true, and it was a Democratic rout.

The interpretation is that the Unaffiliateds endeavored to keep the super crazies (election deniers, etc.) off the general election ballot, but still didn’t care for the choices offered by the Republican party. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement has been a serious impediment to Republican electoral success in Colorado.

Furthermore, the Denver suburbs have experienced a dramatic change in voting inclinations. In 2000, both Arapahoe and Jefferson counties were largely represented by Republicans at the legislature. Now, not one Republican in the House or Senate is from those counties.

Whither RMGO?

In Colorado the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO) is the most powerful pro-gun rights group in the state, eclipsing the power of the NRA. Labeling itself as “no compromise,” RMGO engaged in troublesome campaign tactics and was quite successful at energizing an ultra-right-wing base. Its power was largely derived by dominance in Republican primaries.

RMGO’s high point was in 2012 when all its supported primary candidates were successful. It helped oust a sitting state senator and blocked the ascension to the Senate of two House members. Unsurprisingly, Republican legislators were reluctant to get crosswise with RMGO.

In the 2014 elections RMGO began its losing streak, and by 2020 every one of their financially supported candidates lost. In 2018, they “shot themselves in the foot” by adamantly opposing the reelection of Cole Wist, thereby assisting in the election of Tom Sullivan, who has become the legislative champion of gun violence prevention. In 2022, no RMGO-supported legislative candidate won a contested primary election.

But one would be unwise to dismiss the impact of the RMGO. Although it has lost its electoral prowess, it has stepped up its lawsuit efforts. Empowered by the U.S. Supreme Court’s illogical and dangerous NYSRPA v Bruen decision in June, 2022, RMGO has made significant challenges to laws enacted in the state and several Boulder County jurisdictions. They were rewarded with injunctions in Boulder.

On the other hand, the gun violence prevention advocacy voice in the state has grown. Ceasefire has been joined by numerous other organizations, including Everytown and Giffords, in the ongoing GVP battle.

Eileen McCarron is President of Colorado Ceasefire Legislative Action

Capitol Building steps (Denver, CO) image by Leonardo Marchini from Pixabay

Pikes Peak image by egrivel2 from Pixabay