Colorado Governor inks gun control bills after massacre

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
29 Apr 2023 09:43

This comes just months after a mass shooting at a nightclub in Colorado Springs; the latest in the state's long history of bloody massacres.

Jared Polis applauds before signing four gun control bills. (AP)

In a state with a long history of widespread gun violence, including a mass shooting last year at a nightclub that left five people dead, Colorado's Governor signed four gun control laws on Friday.

The act was passed at a time when states all throughout the US are struggling to deal with a rise in violent crime and mass shootings, as well as a recent supreme court decision that broadened second amendment rights.

The laws in Colorado include ones that would raise the legal age to acquire a gun from 18 to 21, impose a three-day waiting period between the time a gun is purchased and received, and enact a new red flag statute.

Colorado's Governor Jared Polis said as he signed the measures, “Coloradans deserve to be safe in our communities, in our schools, in our grocery stores, in our nightclubs.”

The new regulations, which Democrats forced through despite late-night filibusters from Republicans, are intended to reduce teenage violence and suicide rates, stop mass shootings, and give victims of gun violence legal recourse against the historically well-protected firearms industry. They were put into effect just five months after a mass shooting at Colorado Springs nightclub.

According to Colorado Public Radio, the state experienced 13 mass shootings last year and more gun violence injuries than ever before.

Since the Columbine high school massacre in 1999, there have been several infamous mass shootings in Colorado.

A divided Colorado

Republicans blasted the proposals as burdensome violations of second amendment rights that would make it harder for Coloradans to defend themselves in the face of an uptick in violent crime across the state. Gun rights organizations moved to have two of the laws overturned before the ink had even dried. Legal challenges to these limits in other states are already being considered by the courts.

“It’s a sad day for Colorado; we are becoming one of the most anti-second amendment states in the nation,” said Mike Lynch, the Republican minority leader.

The assembly also passed a fourth bill that removes some legal safeguards for the arms business, leaving it open to legal action from victims of gun violence. The third bill will tighten the state's red flag statute.

Colorado had the sixth-highest suicide rate in the nation in 2021, with around 1,400 suicides, as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Opponents expressed fear that persons who require self-defense, such as domestic violence victims, might not be able to obtain a firearm in time.

There have been more mass shootings in 2023 in the United States than there have been days, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has lately said.

"We have had more mass shootings in this country in 2023 than we have days of the year," Mayorkas added.

The number of US children and teens killed by gunfire witnessed a drastic increase between 2019 and 2021, a publication by Pew Research Center revealed.

Since 2006, 2,842 people have died in mass killings in the US, the database, which counts killings involving four or more fatalities not including the perpetrator, showed. On average, a mass killing occurs every 6.53 days in the US in 2023.

Last year marked the most violent year in schools, with 46 shootings reported, The Washington Post revealed. The most recent shooting took four lives at the Covenant School in Nashville last month.