March 19, 2013 08:11 AM UTC

Hickenlooper To Sign Gun Bills Tomorrow

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• by: Colorado Pols

FOX 31's Eli Stokols:

Gov. John Hickenlooper will sign three Democratic gun control proposals into law this week, including the controversial ban on high-capacity magazines that has outraged gun owners threatening a recall effort against the governor and ballot measures to reverse the ban.

Hickenlooper will sign the three gun control bills Wednesday morning in his office and take questions from the press, as FOX31 Denver first reported Monday afternoon and the governor’s spokesman, Eric Brown, later confirmed…

Wednesday’s signing ceremony will solidify a huge political victory for gun control advocates in Colorado and across the nation, many of whom view this moderate, western state as a sudden vanguard on the issue, one that could even impact what proposals are eventually adopted in Washington.

Opponents seized on any sign, however wishful, that Gov. John Hickenlooper might be wavering on support for House Bill 1224 to limit magazine capacity. Hickenlooper had called for closing the so-called "background check loophole" in his State of the State address, so there was never any realistic chance he would veto House Bill 1229. Likewise with 1224–a few trademark Hickenlooper foot-in-mouths notwithstanding, he was always supportive, and helping communicate that during the bill's final votes may have made the difference.

Tomorrow's bill signing will cement a major political victory for Democrats, and a model of successful action in the face of all the pressure Republican opponents and their grassroots allies could muster. The next event after that, however, could prove the greatest win for Democrats and credibility hit for Republicans. On July 1, when House Bills 1224 and 1229 take effect, there will be a massive gap between reality and the hysterical predictions from conservative lawmakers and the gun lobby about the "unintended consequences" of these bills. When the breathless predictions that "almost all magazines will be banned" and "private transfers will be prohibited" fail to materialize…well, the explanations are going to be pretty rich we expect.

The gap between opponents' hysterical rhetoric and a much less controversial reality, not to mention the enduring public support for these bills shown in public opinion polls, is why it was so important for Democrats to actually get them passed. The mobs of angry, misinformed gun activists at the Capitol were hardly representative of majority opinion on this issue, and their low-information belligerence became a huge liability–assuming the goal was ever to persuade Democrats to kill these bills. Repetition of the same nonsense doesn't make it more persuasive.

Against that campaign of unfocused anger and misinformation, proponents brought in astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, to testify. They brought in families from the Columbine High School massacre, the shootings in Aurora last summer, and at Newtown, CT in December. Do you want to know why Democrats held together and passed these bills? Listen to Mark Kelly for five minutes, or Jane Dougherty, whose sister Mary Sherlach was gunned down trying to save little kids at Sandy Hook Elementary.

And compare them to Dudley Brown of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.

Yes, folks, this is a big win for Democrats politically. But it's also a win for, in broad philosophical terms, the truth.