March 12, 2013 09:02 AM UTC

Welcome To The Big Leagues, Mike McLachlan!

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Durango Herald's Joe Hanel reports from yesterday's debate in the Colorado Senate of House Bill 1224, which limits gun magazine capacity to 15 rounds. In which Sen. Steve King made some telling remarks about a fellow Western Slope legislator:

“Please do not be confused that the goals and objectives of Barack Hussein Obama, of Joe Biden, of Michael Bloomberg, are the same goals and objectives of the majority of your constituents,” said Sen. Steve King, R-Grand Junction.

King made reference to a call that Biden made to Rep. Mike McLachlan, D-Durango, to lobby for several of the bills. Opponents are trying to recall McLachlan for his votes on gun control.

“I look forward to the vice president of the United States coming to Colorado and going to Durango to help the representative on his recall election. He owes him that,” King said.

In a similar manner to the highly vocal crowds that have descended on the Colorado Capitol, freshman Rep. Mike McLachlan of Durango has been aggressively singled out by the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and their supporters during the gun debate. McLachlan has been threatened with a recall for supporting the package of gun safety bills that passed the Senate yesterday, in particular House Bill 1224. That said, it was McLachlan who introduced the amendment raising the maximum capacity from 10 to 15 rounds; this has been widely viewed as a favorable accommodation for gun owners, as it allows many autoloading pistols to use their "standard" 15 round magazines. Since then, McLachlan has talked about, but not committed to, further raising that limit to 30 rounds, in an effort to accommodate what Republicans insist are "standard" magazines for rifles like the AR-15.

The problem is, proponents have nothing to gain from further wrangling over the details of this bill. The arguments against not just this, but all of the gun safety bills that have passed the Senate, have been sufficiently irrational and strident that further debate with the GOP and the gun lobby is useless. The changes made in the Senate, however, including the fix for the silly-season grade "shotgun ban," require House Bill 1224 go back to the House for one more approval. The margin is narrow enough that we expect McLachlan is very, very busy talking to lobbyists and "concerned citizens" today, and his email and voicemail boxes are chock-full of nastygrams.

But here's the bottom line: threats of a recall election against McLachlan are wildly overblown. In all likelihood, the daunting logistics of collecting over 10,500 signatures from McLachlan's remote and mountainous district in 60 days will stop it cold. And if they do get that many signatures? Rep. McLachlan was the one who compromised, folks. There just aren't enough voters in HD-59 upset about not being able to buy banana clips for their automatic rifles to offset the middle-road narrative McLachlan can put forward, no matter how much Dudley Brown wishes there were. The biggest thing McLachlan needs to do is not confuse activist anger with majority support.

This is not to say that Rep. McLachlan won't face a spirited Republican challenge for his seat in 2014. As a drawn-competitive swing district, every election cycle is sure to be lively here. But it's clear to us that McLachlan has much more to gain by sticking with his caucus than he does caving to a small, if really loud, segment of voters.

We expect that's what he'll do.