Colorado바카라s Democratic-controlled House on Sunday passed a bill that would ban the sale and transfer of semiautomatic firearms, a major step for the legislation after roughly the same bill was swiftly killed by Democrats last year.
The bill, which passed on a 35-27 vote, is now on its way to the Democratic-led state Senate. If it passes there, it could bring Colorado in line with 10 other states 바카라 including California, New York and Illinois 바카라 that have prohibitions on semiautomatic guns.
But even in a state plagued by some of the nation바카라s worst mass shootings, such legislation faces headwinds.
Colorado바카라s political history is purple, shifting blue only recently. The bill바카라s chances of success in the state Senate are lower than they were in the House, where Democrats have a 46-19 majority and a bigger far-left flank. Gov. Jared Polis, also a Democrat, has indicated his wariness over such a ban.
Last year, a similar bill died in committee, with some Democratic lawmakers citing concerns over the sweep of a ban and promises they made to their constituents to avoid government overreach affecting most gun owners바카라 rights.
Democrats last year passed and Polis signed into law four less-expansive gun control bills. Those included raising the age for buying any gun from 18 to 21; establishing a three-day waiting period between the purchase and receipt of a gun; strengthening the state바카라s red flag law; and rolling back some legal protections for the firearms industry, exposing it to lawsuits from the victims of gun violence.
Those laws were signed months after five people were killed at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs last year. Soon, the state will mark the 25th anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting that killed 13 people. Other mass shootings in Colorado include 12 people killed in 2012 at an Aurora movie theater and 10 people killed in 2021 at a Boulder supermarket.
바카라This is the state where the modern era of the mass shooting began with Columbine,바카라 Democratic Rep. Javier Mabrey said in urging fellow lawmakers to join other states that ban semiautomatic weapons.
Republicans decried the legislation as an onerous encroachment on the U.S. Constitution바카라s Second Amendment. They argued that mental illness and people who do not value life 바카라 not guns 바카라 are the issues that should be addressed. People with ill intent can use other weapons, such as knives, to harm others, they argued.
Democrats responded that semiautomatic weapons can cause much more damage in a short period of time.
바카라In Aurora, when the shooter walked in that theater and opened fire,바카라 Mabrey said, 바카라and in less than 90 seconds shot up a room full of people. That cannot be done with a knife, that can바카라t be done with a knife.바카라
