By Paul Lathrop | Contributing Editor
Colorado Democrats are proposing a new five-day waiting period to purchase a firearm along with other gun control regulations.
The Colorado Sun is reporting that three gun control measures are up for consideration in the Colorado Legislature this year.
The first of these is a mandatory five-day waiting period from the time a purchase is made to when the person purchasing the firearm can take possession. Also up for consideration are a safe storage law and a law that would require reporting of a lost or stolen firearm.
“This isn’t going to end the crisis of gun violence in our society,” said state Rep. Tom Sullivan, a Centennial Democrat. “But it will help to curtail it.”
TGM reached out to Laura Carno, Executive Director of Coloradans for Civil Liberties, and the author of The Government Ruins Nearly Everything to ask her opinions on the pending legislation.
“Here they go again,” Carno observed. “The Colorado General Assembly, both houses currently controlled by Democrats, is proposing bills that they think sound good to voters, but have had no positive impact on crime where they have already been tried elsewhere.”
“First, they are considering a 5-day waiting period on purchasing firearms,” she explained. “There are high-profile cases of how these laws work against women seeking a means to protect themselves from abusive partners. Just like background checks, criminals will not abide by a waiting period. This proposal will have no impact on crime.
Second, lawmakers are considering a mandatory safe storage bill, Carno continued. Before we see the details of the bill, we would ask what their enforcement method would be. And would government agents be also tasked with swimming pool safety which accounts for 5 times the accidental deaths of firearms accidents? We note that the Highlands Ranch STEM school shooter stole the guns he used by breaking into a pistol safe at home.
Finally, Colorado lawmakers are considering a bill that would require mandatory reporting of lost or stolen firearms. The bill sponsor is calling this an “awareness bill,” effectively admitting that if it became law it would have no discernable impact on crime. This is another example of a bill that would do nothing to reduce crime. If someone’s firearm is stolen, the criminal is the thief, not the person whose property was stolen.”
