Colorado: "Legislator abruptly pulls gun-rights bill"

[cuchulainn]

from the Rocky Mountain News

http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/legislature/article/0,1299,DRMN_37_1711794,00.html

Legislator abruptly pulls gun-rights bill
House leader urges compromise on bid to alter amendment

By Peggy Lowe, Rocky Mountain News
January 31, 2003

In a surprise move Thursday, a House leader abruptly shelved a bill that would change Amendment 22, the voter-approved measure requiring background checks on buyers at gun shows.

Rep. Bill Sinclair, R-Colorado Springs, pulled House Bill 1119 after more than two hours of testimony.

Sinclair, who chairs the State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, told bill sponsor Rep. Ray Rose to work with the bill's opponents, SAFE Colorado, on a compromise.

At issue is whether the legislature will alter Amendment 22, which voters overwhelmingly approved in 2000. The law closed the so-called gun-show loophole, which allowed felons to buy weapons at gun shows. Before Amendment 22, only customers of licensed firearms dealers had to undergo background checks.

Arnie Grossman of SAFE Colorado said Rose's bill would "weaken, subvert and once again open the gun-show loophole." SAFE Colorado is headed by Tom Mauser, whose son was killed at Columbine High School in 1999.

But Rose, a Montrose Republican, denied that he wants to rewrite the amendment. He said he simply wants to clarify it so honest people won't unwittingly break it.

"It is not my intention to do away with the spirit and the body of Amendment 22," Rose said. "I wouldn't dream of going beyond the people's wishes."

House Bill 1119 would change the definition of gun-show premises to exclude the parking lot of any place where a show is taking place. Amendment 22 specifically included parking lots because supporters wanted to end the popular practice of selling weapons out of car trunks without any checks.

The bill would also require that a gun show be defined as one that is publicly advertised, so any private gathering wouldn't require the checks.

Rose also wants to eliminate the requirement that a check be run even if a vendor "attempts" a transfer. Under current law, Rose said, three guys riding in a pickup truck and talking about more than 25 weapons could be prosecuted for it as an "attempt" to transfer.

The law as now written "turns duck blinds, hunting camps, gun club meetings, neighborhood yard sales or innocent displays of large individual collections into gun shows if anyone merely mentions the transfer, let alone sale, of firearms," said Tony Fabian, president of the Colorado State Shooting Association, the state NRA affiliate.

Sinclair said he tabled the bill because opponents' testimony ran so long that the measure's supporters didn't have time to speak. And, he said, Rose should try to reach a deal with Grossman and Dave Thomas, Jefferson County district attorney.

Thomas testified that the state district attorneys' council opposes House Bill 1119, the first time the council has agreed on a firearms issue. The measure would "diminish and open the loopholes even larger," he said.

"It is our belief that this bill reduces the protections for the public," Thomas said. "Our solitary goal . . . is public safety."

Whether a compromise can be reached is questionable. After the hearing, Grossman said he doesn't want Amendment 22 altered because there have been no problems with it.

Sinclair said he wants to allow Rose time to work on the bill, so it may not be heard before the committee again for several weeks.

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2003 © The E.W. Scripps Co.