Why It Matters: Colorado Is Defying a National Trend
Mr. Polis signed the expenses 5 months after an assailant killed 5 other folks and injured greater than a dozen others in an L.G.B.T.Q. nightclub in Colorado Springs. The taking pictures happened remaining November, lower than two weeks after Mr. Polis, a Democrat, received re-election to a 2d time period.
While states with Republican-led legislatures were loosening restrictions on weapons, Colorado — the place Democrats keep watch over each chambers of the legislature and the governor’s place of work — is certainly one of a couple of states bucking that development. Maryland, which simply completed its legislative consultation and may be managed through Democrats, is some other.
Colorado has been house to a number of high-profile mass shootings and has the 18th easiest gun-death rate within the nation. The state additionally has one of the most easiest gun suicide charges within the nation, in line with the newest information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“There are shootings everyday in Colorado that don’t make the news; the majority of that is suicides,” mentioned Lisa Geller, state affairs director on the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.
Background: The State Has a History of Mass Shootings
The legislation that granted the additional protections for gun and ammunition producers and dealers in opposition to proceedings from sufferers was once handed in 2000, the yr after the mass taking pictures at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., outdoor Denver.
Mass killings at a film theater in Aurora in 2012, at a grocery store in Boulder in 2021 and the new assault in Colorado Springs have put the state within the highlight for the rustic’s gun carnage.
What’s Next: Pro-Gun Groups Are Already Challenging the Laws
The growth of the purple flag legislation is efficacious in an instant. The remainder of the rules might be put in force through later this yr, although they’re already being challenged.
Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, a gun-rights advocacy staff in Colorado, has filed lawsuits over the three-day ready duration and minimal age requirement. The staff mentioned that folks desiring to protect themselves may now not be capable to get a gun in time to take action.
Another invoice that will ban the manufacturing and sale of ghost weapons remains to be in entrance of legislators and is more likely to cross all through this time period, which ends up subsequent week.