March 08, 2013 08:15 AM UTC

"Gunmageddon" Discussion Thread

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE 10:35PM: Senate Bill 196, the always-longshot Assault Weapon Responsibility Act, killed by sponsor President John Morse.

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UPDATE 10:30PM: House Bill 1224, limiting magazine capacity to 15 rounds, passes.

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UPDATE 10:22PM: Sen. Rollie Heath reads a statement on gun violence and campus security, then announces the death of House Bill 1226.

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UPDATE 10:00PM: "Debate" continues on House Bill 1224, limiting magazine capacity, with an uninterrupted Republican filibuster now approaching five hours in duration. With several bills left to debate and the fate of the campus concealed-carry ban House Bill 1226 unknown, Democrats have already won a partial, if not yet fully resolved, victory.

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UPDATE 4:30PM: House Bill 1228, fee for background checks, passes the Senate on a voice vote.

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UPDATE 3:35PM: A key Democratic gun safety priority, House Bill 1229 closing the so-called "background check loophole," passes the Colorado Senate on a voice vote.

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PM UPDATE: House Democratic women wore pink today in solidarity with their Senate colleagues debating:

UPDATE 12:40PM: Sponsor Sen. Morgan Carroll just wrapped up opening arguments for House Bill 1229, closing the background check loophole, as the Senate settles in for the first GOP filibuster attempt of the day.

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UPDATE 12:15PM: Less than thirty minutes later, Senate Bill 195, banning online-only concealed-carry permit courses, passes on a voice vote.

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UPDATE 11:50AM: After a little under three hours of debate, Senate Bill 197, restricting gun possession for persons who commit domestic violence, passes on a voice vote.

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UPDATE 10:05AM: Some confusion now, Senate Democrats respond that House Bill 1226 is NOT dead as reported by multiple news outlets. Developing…

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UPDATE 9:50AM: House Bill 1226, the hotly controversial campus concealed carry ban that ensnared two Democratic lawmakers in public relations disasters, dies without debate as sponsor Sen. Rollie Heath pulls the plug. As reported by the Denver Post's Lynn Bartels and Tim Hoover.

Democrats believe this leaves them in a more defensible position, and at this point, they're probably right.
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​UPDATE: Watch live:

Here's our space in which to cover and discuss the epic debate scheduled today in the Colorado Senate on a large package of gun safety legislation. As FOX 31's Eli Stokols reports, this nationally followed debate is expected to grind on all day, and possibly into the weekend:

A word of advice: get comfortable.

Senate Republicans are planning a Rand Paul-esque filibuster on the legislation that could push the floor debate on the seven bills, which begins Friday at 9 a.m., into Saturday and possibly even Sunday.

It’s a high-stakes battle for many individual lawmakers, facing intense pressure from constituents in divided districts, and for advocates on both sides of this national debate over guns.

What happens in Colorado, a western, politically moderate state that’s been affected by two major mass shootings at Columbine in 1999 and in Aurora last July, has the potential to re-shape the national narrative about whether the country is ready for tighter gun control laws in the aftermath of the Newtown, Conn. shooting.

As Stokols reports, the most controversial bills have been scheduled for debate last. The first up will be a very strong bill for Democrats politically, Senate Bill 197, which denies firearms to persons who commit domestic violence. If Republicans are smart, they won't make their stand on that bill. The two most contentious gun safety bills, House Bill 1224 limiting magazine capacity and House Bill 1226 re-restricting concealed weapons on college campuses, are set to be debated last–and given the fierce and emotional opposition to these two bills from the right, as well as gaffes from Democrats regarding HB-1226 in particular that have aggregated into an undeniably serious PR problem, we can't say with any kind of certainty what will happen to them.

We do think that House Bill 1229, closing the background check loophole, will pass, along with the companion bill restoring a nominal fee to help cover the cost of performing them. At this point, a plausible victory scenario for Democrats can fairly be considered to be passage of those two bills, Senate Bill 195 ending online concealed-carry training (described by Stokols as "least controversial of the seven"), and SB-197's domestic violence gun restrictions. These are the bills that have consistently enjoyed the strongest public support, and best expose the weakness in opponents' arguments. Beyond that, it's anybody's guess–and a hard slog forecast.

We expect to update this post many times today and through the weekend (God help us all).