2LT International News

DENVER, Colorado: On April 14, Colorado’s Democratic-controlled House passed a bill by a vote of 35-27 banning the sale and transfer of semiautomatic firearms.

The bill is now on its way to the Democratic-led state Senate, and if approved, Colorado will follow ten other states, including California, New York, and Illinois, that have banned semiautomatic guns.

However, the bill’s chances of success in the state Senate are lower than in the House, where Democrats have a 46-19 majority and a larger proportion of far-left members.

Gov. Jared Polis, also a Democrat, has expressed reluctance about the ban. In 2023, a similar bill was blocked in committee, with some Democratic lawmakers citing concerns over the government potentially overreaching gun owners’ rights.

In 2023, Democrats passed law four less-expansive gun control bills signed into law by Polis, which included raising the age for buying any gun from 18 to 21, establishing a three-day waiting period between sale and receipt, strengthening the state’s red flag law, and rolling back some legal protections for the firearms industry and exposing it to lawsuits from the victims of gun violence.

The laws were signed months after five people were killed at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs in the same year.

Urging fellow lawmakers to join other states in banning semiautomatic weapons, Democratic Rep. Javier Mabrey said, “This is the state where the modern era of the mass shooting began with Columbine.”

However, Republicans criticized the legislation, arguing that it infringes on the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment and that mental illness and people who do not value life are the issues that should be addressed and not guns.

Semiautomatic weapons can cause much more damage in a short period, Democrats responded.