Colorado Senate voting on gun control bills
Mar 11, 2013, 4:50 PM
DENVER (AP) – Colorado senators were expected to take final votes Monday on several gun-control measures, including on magazine ammunition limits and expanded background checks.
The chamber was debating five of seven bills in the Democrats’ gun-control package. Other measures included a gun ban for people accused of domestic violence crimes and a ban on online-only gun training for a concealed carry permit. The final measure would revive background check fees for gun purchasers.
Republican Senate Leader Bill Cadman said the Democrats have an “anti-gun agenda” and that the measures they sponsored wouldn’t make Colorado safer. Speaking against the domestic-violence bill, Cadman said Democrats believe “guns are the problem in society and not the people that use those guns.”
The gun measures were given initial approval Friday after more than 12 hours of debate.
Two parts of the Democratic gun package were pulled because of lack of support. Those were a liability measure for gun owners and a concealed-weapons ban on college campuses.
Even without the two most divisive Democratic proposals, the gun-control package attracted plenty of opposition. Gun-right supporters were especially steamed about the magazine ammunition limit, which has prompted at least one company to threaten to leave Colorado. Magpul, an accessories maker in Erie, has said it will ship hundreds of jobs out of state, even though the ammunition bill was amended to allow Magpul to keep making the magazines for out-of-state sale.
Republicans have complained that Democrats are wrong to limit ammunition magazines over Magpul’s threats.
“Jobs, jobs, jobs _ all leaving Colorado,” Republican Sen. Scott Renfroe said last week.
Republicans are also deeply opposed to the bill to expand required background checks to private sales. Democrats changed that bill to exempt short-term loans among relatives. But Republicans insist that any move toward universal background checks is a move toward gun ownership registration.
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