March 27, 2019 11:38 AM UTC

Will Leroy Garcia Scuttle "Red Flag?"

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Colorado Public Radio’s Bente Birkeland:

“This bill is supported by an overwhelming majority of Coloradans, and outside of this building, it is not controversial,” said Democratic Sen. Brittany Pettersen of Lakewood, the bill’s main sponsor. “We are going to pass this bill and do what’s right for our law enforcement, domestic violence survivors, our kids who just want to feel safe when they go to school, and the countless family members who have lost someone to unnecessary gun violence.”

She said she’s still confident it will pass its final vote in the Senate, even without Garcia’s support.

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As the Colorado Independent’s John Herrick reports, one of the major agenda items for Democrats in the Colorado General Assembly is in jeopardy after Democratic Senate President Leroy Garcia announced he will vote no on House Bill 19-1177, the “red flag” bill to enact a process for the temporary removal of firearms from people in a mental health crisis:

Garcia’s decision, first reported in The Pueblo Chieftain Tuesday, comes amid threats of recalls targeting Democratic lawmakers in vulnerable seats who support gun control legislation.

“I took a hard look at this bill, and while I strongly believe in its intent of preventing gun violence, this is simply not the right legislation for the people of Pueblo and southern Colorado,” Garcia said in a written statement Tuesday afternoon.

House Bill 1177, which passed the House 38-25 earlier this month, would allow police to temporarily confiscate a person’s firearms if the person is deemed a threat to themselves or others. Since the February 2017 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., over a dozen states have passed similar red-flag laws, also known as extreme risk protection orders…

Democrats control the Senate 19-16. If one more Democrat joins Senate President Garcia and decides to vote against the bill, it will fail.

We’ll try to summarize all of the moving parts in play: the briefest and easiest explanation is that Senate President Garcia remains haunted by the ghosts of the recalls that sacked his predecessor Angela Giron back in 2013. But there’s more to the story than that, in both mitigating and aggravating ways for Garcia personally. Garcia has been consistently less supportive of gun safety laws than many other Democrats, having voted to repeal the state’s 15-round magazine limit in previous years–a position he claims is in line with the will of constituents in Pueblo and Southern Colorado. As Senate President in 2019, Garcia has faced extreme intransigence from the Republican minority as they’ve sought to obstruct majority Democrats, leading to tough calls like the decision to keep the chamber open during the recent “bomb cyclone” blizzard.

This is all happening in the context of a bill that failed in 2018 despite bipartisan lawmaker support–support the bill lost this year, ostensibly due to changes made at the request of law enforcement that opponents say shift the burden of proof to the accused. But despite the gun lobby’s intense campaign against, we’re still talking about legislation that enjoys overwhelming public support. Could an amendment reverting to the 2018 language bring sides back to the table–or at least reveal the bad faith of opponents? Is Garcia pulling a safety valve to forestall another grassroots rebellion from the right by coming out against this bill, or caving in the face of bullying by the gun lobby? Right now there are more questions than answers.

History will record this moment either as an act of leadership, or something else.

We’ll have to wait and see how it ends.