January 11, 2014 05:43 AM UTC

Bill of the Week - Hidden Guns for Everyone!

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• by: IndyNinja

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Wasting no time with their pledge to make every day about guns during the 2014 session, Reps. Wright and Holbert are first up to bat with HB14-1041, a bill for an act:

"CONCERNING ALLOWING A LAW-ABIDING PERSON TO CARRY A CONCEALED HANDGUN WITHOUT A PERMIT, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, PRESERVING CURRENT LAWS RESTRICTING THE CARRYING OF CONCEALED HANDGUNS ON CERTAIN PROPERTY INCLUDING SCHOOL GROUNDS."

This bill does two things. I'd address them in order of crazy, but I can't honestly decided which is which. 

First, the bill basically says that anyone who would be able to lawfully possess (notice: "Possess", not "purchase") a gun in the State of Colorado automatically has the right to concealed carry without a permit. 

The word possess is key here, especially as the Republicans work to loosen the Universal Background Check restriction put in place in 2013. If the bill limited the provision to people who could legally purchase a gun in Colorado, this would be slightly less insane, but only slightly.

Then you move onto the second section. Now, the title of the bill might lead you to believe that the second section would strengthen the laws in place to keep guns out of schools, but you'd be wrong. 

Section 2 says that any person who is authorized by the first section to carry a concealed weapon may also do so on school grounds. It amends 18-12-105.5 which is titled: "Unlawfully carrying a weapon – unlawful
possession of weapons – school, college, or university grounds." and adds an exemption to the restriction which allows anyone who can possess a gun in a normal circumstance can carry it concealed on school grounds. 

I'm not sure what "current restriction" is being preserved there. 

So now let's all watch while the Democrats screw up the messaging while they kill this obviously horrible bill.