Op-Ed Takes Shot at Colorado’s Proposed Permit-to-Purchase for ‘Assault Weapons’ Bill

Colorado desperately wants to ban so-called assault weapons. They want to enact as extensive of a ban as they possibly can. The problem for them is that while Gov. Jared Polis is a Democrat, he likes to present himself as fairly libertarian in his leanings. As a result, he’s vetoed such bans twice.

So, they’re trying something different this time around, but not without at least floating the previous ban attempt with a new bill number.

Now, they’re looking to just make it an unmitigated hassle to own something like an AR-15 that most people either won’t bother or won’t be able to deal with the hoops they’ll be required to jump through. 

An op-ed from the state takes issue with this.

In its original form, Senate Bill 3 would have barred any Coloradan access to most semi-automatic firearms that accept detachable magazines.

But Senate Democrats knew they had a problem in the fact that Polis, ever-mindful of his national political ambitions, pushed for the defeat of nearly identical measures in each of the last two legislative sessions.

Accordingly, in a poor excuse for moderation, Senate Democrats implemented a pricey licensing scheme, providing their well-to-do friends with exceptions and the Governor with an excuse to say “it isn’t ban.”

The new Senate Bill 3 will require a prospective gun owner to have sufficient disposable income to pay a to-be-determined sum in fees, the ability to take time off work to sift through a series of bureaucratic headaches, and a willingness to submit his or her name to a gun owner registry.

No doubt that’s a tall order for anybody living paycheck to paycheck and those who value their privacy.

And, undoubtedly, that’s kind of the point.

In even the most anti-gun nation, there’s a pathway for the elite to get firearms. No nation has completely banned guns. They just make it virtually impossible for regular folks to own them. The elites always have access to weapons should they want them.

Colorado’s proposal is little different. Even if the fees are only a few dollars in total, it’s still something that will add to the expense of owning and shooting such a weapon.

It also still does nothing to cover the time expenditure required to navigate through the requirements. That’s something that many hourly-wage workers can ill afford to do. This is, again, the likely point.

If the plebes cannot get a certain weapon, that’s good enough for lawmakers who will always be the kind of people who the law won’t apply to.

As for the registry, well, there are a lot of us who are less than thrilled at the prospect of our names being in government databases as a general rule, but especially when it comes to being a gun owner. Gun registries are largely useless for solving so-called gun crime, but they’re really great in helping confiscation efforts.

If Gov. Jared Polis is, in fact, libertarian in his leanings, he should still be stomping on this just as vehemently as if it were a total ban of these firearms. While it might not be an actual ban, the impact on regular folks in Colorado would be little different.