Editorial Urges Polis to Veto Assault Weapon Bill

It started as a semi-auto ban. It would have made some of the most popular firearms in the country illegal overnight. People who wanted certain rifles, namely things like the AR-15 and similar weapons, would have been unable to buy them legally.

That wasn’t going to fly. Gov. Jared Polis might not be a fan of guns, but he seems to be a fan of potentially seeking higher office and there’s no way he could run as a libertarian Democrat after signing such a bill.

So, it was modified. If the bill becomes law, you can still get them, but you have to jump through hoops in order to get a permit before you can buy such a firearm.

Now, an editorial is suggesting Polis veto the bill for the right kind of reasons.

Polis gave a cold shoulder to previous attempts by his party comrades to ban “assault rifles” and even seemed to have indigestion over earlier versions of the current bill. But he may feel a recent amendment to the measure could afford him an escape clause so he can sign it.

He would be wrong.

The amendment would let Coloradans who take a hunter-safety training course and firearm-safety training buy or sell semiautomatic rifles, shotguns, or handguns with detachable magazines. It would add an absurdly convoluted, costly and time-consuming complication to buying or selling a gun. And our guess is even the bill’s authors have no idea how it actually would work. And, given how the process is so onerous it likely would thwart legal gun sales by bureaucratizing them, it’s no surprise right-to-arms advocacy groups still oppose the bill.

Add to that the distinct possibility courts will find even the amended version of SB 25-003 an unreasonable restraint on Coloradans’ constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and it still could be radioactive for Polis’ presidential aspirations. That’s not to mention it will do nothing whatsoever to aid the crime fight, which in itself is reason enough for Polis to veto it.

It also turns out there’s another problematic feature of the legislation as it now stands. Lawmakers are trying to hustle it through the process without funding its enforcement and implementation out of the state’s overspent budget — instead making the self-funded Colorado Parks and Wildlife division pick up the tab. In other words, the many Coloradans who sustain the division through fees they pay for state parks passes, campsite rentals, hunting and fishing licenses and the like would have to subsidize a dubious new dose of gun control.

Polis hasn’t really committed one way or the other on the bill, which I guess is somewhat promising. Not saying he’ll veto it is less than ideal, but at least he hasn’t agreed to sign it, either.

But the truth of the matter is that there’s nothing that will be accomplished by a bill like this.

Those who represent a problem under the current system will still be a problem under the new system, namely those who acquire such firearms unlawfully or who plan something terrible and are willing to jump through the hoops necessary to acquire these particular firearms.

One more set of hoops won’t discourage someone who sees a firearm like this as necessary for their evil aims, nor will criminals bother with getting such weapons in a lawful manner.

What will happen, though, is many law-abiding citizens will have difficulty taking the time off from work to get the required training or will have some other difficulty in clearing the requirements being laid out.

Then there’s the fact that every burden they put in place will just make some people decide not to bother.

That’s largely the point, I think, of some of these measures, but that doesn’t make it acceptable. People shouldn’t be encouraged to not exercise their rights by any government. Colorado isn’t exempt from that, either.

Honestly, I don’t care why Polis decides to veto it. I only care that he’ll veto it, and I can’t accept that as a given as things currently stand, which sucks for our friends in Colorado.