DENVER — Colorado’s Democratic-controlled House on Sunday passed a bill that would ban the sale and transfer of semiautomatic firearms, a major step for the legislation after roughly the same bill was quickly defeated by Democrats last year.
The bill, which passed by a vote of 35-27, is now headed to the Democratic-led Senate. If it passes there, it could bring Colorado into line with 10 other states — including California, New York and Illinois — that have bans on semiautomatic weapons.
But even in a state plagued by some of the nation’s worst mass shootings, such legislation faces headwinds.
Colorado’s political history is purple and only recently shifted to blue. The bill’s chances of success in the Senate are lower than in the House of Representatives, where Democrats have a 46-19 majority and a larger far-left flank. Gov. Jared Polis, also a Democrat, has indicated he is wary of such a ban.
A similar bill died in committee last year, with some Democratic lawmakers expressing concerns about the scope of a ban and promises they made to their constituents to prevent the government from overreaching on the rights of most gun owners.
Last year, Democrats passed and Polis signed four less comprehensive gun control bills. Those include raising the age for purchasing a gun from 18 to 21; establishing a three-day waiting period between the purchase and receipt of a weapon; strengthening the state’s red flag law; and rolling back some legal protections for the firearms industry, leaving it exposed to lawsuits from victims of gun violence.
Those laws were signed months after five people were murdered at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs last year. The state will soon mark the 25th anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting that left 13 people dead. Other mass shootings in Colorado include 12 people killed at an Aurora movie theater in 2012 and 10 people killed at a Boulder supermarket in 2021.
“This is the state where the modern era of mass shootings began with Columbine,” said Democratic Rep. Javier Mabrey, urging fellow lawmakers to join other states banning semiautomatic weapons.
Republicans criticized the legislation as a major violation of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. They argued that mental illness and people who don’t value life — not guns — are the problems that need to be addressed. People with malicious intent can use other weapons, such as knives, to harm others, they argued.
The Democrats responded that semi-automatic weapons can do much more damage in a short time.
“In Aurora, when the shooter walked into that theater and opened fire,” Mabrey said, “and shot a room full of people in less than 90 seconds. You can’t do that with a knife, you can’t do that with a knife.”