The Second Amendment has come under attack by the Democrats in the Colorado General Assembly. A slew of gun regulation bills have been introduced and more are on the way. Not only are these bills proposing violations of every citizen’s right to bear arms, but they don’t promote the public’s safety as they propose.

Just last week, two of these ominous bills were introduced and have already passed through the committee stage. First is HB13-1224 which would limit gun magazines to a maximum of ten bullets. However, through the House Judiciary Committee, this standard was amended to fifteen bullets. Either way, it is a limitation on the Second Amendment.

While I personally don’t believe that the average citizen would need a gun that can hold fifteen bullets, if we start here, where do we stop? Ten bullets? Eight bullets? Five bullets? If we start limiting the amount of ammunition a legal gun can carry, then there is nothing stopping us from continuing down that path of further restrictions.

Further, I don’t see how this bill will be for the public’s safety. Undoubtedly, this bill, and others similar, to it are meant to prevent mass shootings like the ones in Aurora and Newtown, but it will not work. For events like those, it is way more complicated than simply pointing to the guns as the sole cause of the event. Many more factors including psychological well-being are necessary to try and understand, if possible, why events like those happen.

Instead of carrying one 30-round clip, a crazed murderer could simply carry several smaller magazines. This is similar to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s large soda ban. Instead of buying one extra-large soda, customers can buy two medium sodas.

This bill passed though the committee on a 7-4 vote, strictly down party lines. As both the House and the Senate are held by Democratic majorities, I expect it will become law.

Gun manufacturing companies are already beginning to worry.  The company Magpul, Colorado’s largest manufacture of high-capacity magazines, has threatened to leave Colorado if this bill passes.  If Magpul leaves, it would cost the state hundreds of jobs and close to $85 million dollars in projected spending.  So not only will this bill just limit our rights as citizens, it will be a burden to our state’s econony, which is something we cannot afford now.
In the same committee, and the same session, HB13-1229 also passed to the general legislature. This bill would require background checks for all private sales and transfers of firearms. At face value, this bill appears to actually contribute to the public’s safety. However, it is nothing more than a hindrance. Background checks for all private sales and transfers of firearms includes sales to friends and family members.

If my dad wanted to pass down a family gun to me once I’m older, I would have to go through the process of a background check before that could happen. This is nothing more than a bother and burden upon citizens who lawfully own guns.

The most frightening aspect of all this, though, is what has yet to be officially proposed. Senate President John Morse, a Democrat from Colorado Springs, has stated that he intends to introduce sales legislation that would hold firearm manufactures of military style weapons directly liable for the damages they cause. By doing so, it would be a sneaky and dastardly way of banning semi-automatic rifles. Manufactures could not risk the liability associated with this proposal and would inevitably stop producing these firearms. Military-style weapons are such a broad term that it could possibly be any gun that has the look of such a firearm or has a minimum ammunition count.

Taking away lawful citizens’ right to bear arms is not the way ensure the public’s safety nor to prevent tragedies like Aurora and Newtown. A bipartisan answer needs to emerge, but the Colorado General Assembly is shunning that. Democrats are taking advantage of having power in the legislature and having the executive branch. This is not the way to come up with workable solutions; this is the way to anger a large part of the community.

I can only hope that both the House and the Senate find a way to defeat these bills and start over in a bipartisan manner. But with Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate, I’m not very optimistic.