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Second Amendment Under Attack in Colorado

Posted on Monday, May 15, 2023
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by Neil Banerji
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AMAC Exclusive – By Neil Banerji

Second Amendment

Late last month, Colorado Democrat Governor Jared Polis signed four gun control bills into law, the latest in a wave of anti-Second Amendment legislation following several high-profile tragic shootings this year. But as the left moves once again to restrict access to firearms, gun advocates are pointing out that much of the legislation making its way through Democrat-controlled state legislatures will do little to keep guns away from criminals or prevent mass shootings, and will instead only infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners.

Perhaps the most alarming of the four bills Polis signed is Senate Bill 23-170, a variation of “red flag laws” in other blue states which allow the government to confiscate guns from individuals deemed a threat to themselves or the public.

Under Colorado’s old red flag law, so-called “extreme risk protection order petitions,” which empower law enforcement to seize firearms from someone, could only be initiated by a family or household member or a law enforcement officer. Thanks to SB 23-170, that list now also includes healthcare providers, educators, and even district attorneys.

In practice, this means that activist-minded left-wing prosecutors can order police to seize guns of anyone they deem a “threat” – even if they have no actual evidence. Second Amendment advocates have pointed out that anyone who has their guns confiscated has no option for legal recourse and is effectively denied due process.

Colorado Senate Bill 23-168, which Polis also signed into law, permits lawsuits by victims of gun violence against gun manufacturers – a tactic long employed by the left to drive gun makers out of business by burying them in legal fees. Although the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), a 2005 law passed by Congress, is supposed to shield gun manufacturers from liability, activist judges have in recent years adopted an extraordinarily broad reading of the PLCAA’s exceptions to allow several high-profile court cases against gun makers to advance – most notably a $73 million lawsuit against Remington.

The two other bills Polis signed, Senate Bill 23-169 and House Bill 23-1219, are also reflective of the methods employed by Second Amendment opponents throughout the country to restrict access to firearms. SB 23-169 raises the minimum age requirement for gun ownership from 18 to 21, while HB 23-1219 mandates a three-day waiting period between the purchase of a firearm and its delivery.

In both cases, supporters of the legislation have failed to demonstrate how such measures will prevent gun violence. As many commentators have pointed out in regard to other waiting-period laws, if a person is in legitimate danger (such as a woman who fears a retaliatory ex-boyfriend) a three-day waiting period could mean the difference between life and death. There is also no evidence that raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm would do anything to stop gun violence.

Second Amendment advocacy groups have moved quickly to voice their opposition to these restrictions. In a public release, the NRA pledged to swiftly challenge the constitutionality of the bills in court, stating that “Governor Polis has disregarded the voices of concerned citizens who oppose gun control. He signed four bills that will harm law-abiding Coloradans’ Second Amendment rights… The NRA is exploring all options to challenge these unconstitutional restrictions.” 

Another group, the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, has already sued both Polis and the state government of Colorado over the new restrictions. In a statement, Taylor Rhodes, the group’s executive director, blasted Colorado Democrats, saying, “They will not be happy until all law-abiding gun owners are disarmed and only the criminals have guns.”

Opponents of the new gun control laws believe that some parts of the new Colorado laws may run afoul of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a 2022 Supreme Court case which held that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect the right to carry firearms outside the home, and District of Columbia v. Heller, a 2008 case which found that the Constitution guarantees the right to keep and bear arms within the home for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense.

The Court notably ruled in New York State & Rifle v. Bruen that states may require gun owners to meet certain objective criteria, like passing a background check, but that the government cannot employ “arbitrary” evaluations of whether or not someone “needs” a gun. That might mean that SB 23-170 runs afoul of the Court’s decision in the case.

Nonetheless, Democrats in Colorado and elsewhere seem, if anything, even more determined to restrict access to guns. With a slow-moving court system bogged down by piles of litigation, the most expedient path for gun owners to protect their Second Amendment freedoms may be to oust the politicians responsible for infringing on them in the first place.

Neil Banerji is a proud Las Vegas resident and former student at the University of Oxford. In his spare time, he enjoys reading Winston Churchill and Edmund Burke.

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Nobody’s Business
Nobody’s Business
1 year ago

Not as bad as it sounds, if someone tries to take someone’s gun without due process the person who puts this in motion will meet his maker without due process. Read these type of forums you will find out right of way that a lot of people will refuse giving up their guns. Law enforcement refuses to go after criminals with guns because they are scared, that’s why it’s easier to go after the law abiding people with guns. So they want to make criminal out of the law abiding.

Rik
Rik
1 year ago

They CAN’T HAVE THE CITIZENS be ALLOWED GUNS because these DEMOCRATIC COMMUNISTS fear the People rising up to REJECT COMMUNISM!

Tim Toroian
Tim Toroian
1 year ago

When will we begin emphasizing that these people are anti-Constitutional and attacking the Bill of Rights? And then threaten to go after the other nine amendments?
Of course, they should re-read the second paragraph of the Declaration of the Constitution and that removing any part of the second amendment DOES NOT invalidate the right.

Brian
Brian
1 year ago

The only way to stop the Californication of Colorado is to remove every democrat from public office at all levels of government AND our schools!

MJB
MJB
1 year ago

Lieutenant Beale is absolutely correct in his vision of gun control.
People that have no experience with firearms and firearms training are the ones that always make the most noise about gun control!
I don’t have any experience flying an F- 22 fighter jet that can kill hundreds of combatants in one sortie run, but I’m sure not going to criticize the pilot that flys and controls the weapons system because it keeps us safe from invaders. Until one fully understands something, don’t criticize it.
Oh yes, Gunsite Academy is an excellent place to learn firearms operation, training, and self defense!

Larry
Larry
1 year ago

Good luck with voting him/her/she out … this plague of wokust sweeping the land, infesting us from California, Portland, Seattle. Driving up real estate and ruining what was once a nice state. The votes of normal law abiding people are drowned out by these pests. We would have loved to have voted Polis out, but they just re-elected him ! If it’s hard working .. working class, law abiding people moving in, they are welcome and it would help, but unfortunately it’s all the votes from Denver and Colo Springs drowning out everyone else. Plus places like Telluride, Aspen, Vail smothered by rich elites who think they are royalty … they not even worth visiting anymore. It’s really, really sad. It’s literally becoming “Colofornia”

John
John
1 year ago

Kinda funny in a sick way that DA’s and judges do nothing about the criminals with long rap sheets and criminally mentally insane and only chose to chase after those that defend themselves and others. A commie/fascist concept.

Tom
Tom
1 year ago

Ok get good and mad at me !!’ Instead of complaining about gun control in Colorado or anywhere else consider how to keep these laws not coming to our state and how to stop them!! Also gun laws are not to protect the public. That’s the story they tell us while they really want to control the masses and disarm us. Talk to any and I mean any German Jew from ww2. First thing Hitler did was get the guns. All opposition can be eliminated and sent to camps. Can’t happen here??? Can’t steal elections or convict innocent people with lies from DA.Support the politicians that agree with gun ownership and a donation helps also. Our freedom has a price that requires all of us to donate money, time and motivate others. The game of waiting for others to do the job won’t work anymore.Vote and fight at the ballot box or fight in the streets. It’s up to us!!!

Jeane
Jeane
1 year ago

Does that also mean that persons or family members of a victim of a drunk driver can sue not only the auto manufacturer but also the brewery, winery, or distiller of the alcohol as well as the establishment that served the beverage?

tlanger
tlanger
1 year ago

The first bill also notes that “healthcare providers” will be able to turn people in as a red flag. Seems this means that one can no longer trust sharing with someone that has always offered confidentiality since the providers fear state reprisal license and malpractice suits from patient families if they don’t turn in someone and there is an issue. So, the very mental health services needed by someone who is on the balance are no longer available.

anna hubert
anna hubert
1 year ago

Only free citizens not slaves were allowed weapons

Morbious
Morbious
1 year ago

Hmmm… i wonder if we should try to set up red flag laws in blue states stopping women from having abortions on the basis of a single objection. My guess is that there would be many who would volunteer to object. So every abortion clinic would be forced to have on staff someone to evaluate and object if he/ she found the request for abortion morally abhorrent.

Enuf Said
Enuf Said
1 year ago

Biden probably doesn’t have a gun–except a double barreled shotgun, but he definitely should be arrested, as he is certainly a threat to the public and himself!!

PEH
PEH
1 year ago

THE TRUTH IS IN ACTION WHICH A 6-YEAR-OLD COULD UNDERSTAND!! By simply tracking the long list of mass shootings since Columbine which has continually escalated over time, and tracking the coinciding ongoing legislation by the politicians during the same period of time (which obviously in action is targeting only law-abiding citizen gunowners) these ‘people control’ bills according to ongoing reports/statistics are obviously totally ineffective in solving the problem of lawlessness/violence of which the use of guns is a symptom — not the problem. There were two mass shootings the same week the Colorado Governor was signing the four bills which made the signing of those four laws look rather ridiculous, but another example about their ineffectiveness. It simply doesn’t make sense.
Turning to the national level, there were recently media news reports that President Biden is proposing the registration of firearms for all citizens across the nation. If this were to become legislation (??), and for anyone that cares to check, in action it exactly matches #10 of the ‘Communist Rules for Revolution’; i.e., “Cause the registration of all firearms on some pretext, with a view to confiscating them and leaving the populace helpless.”  With this piece of info, the purpose of those so-called ‘guns laws’ do make sense, but there are obviously plenty of patriotic Americans recognizing the reality of it!   “SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED”

Centurion
Centurion
1 year ago

The 2nd Amendment is clear. It shall NOT be infringed. ALL gun control laws are therefore null and void. The problem is there are way too many LEO’s who do not understand this and who are too willing to arrest anyone and everyone who owns a gun. We need a president who will make democrat states pay heavily for their laws.

Nancy Pace
Nancy Pace
1 year ago

I’m so concerned that leftist are socialist wanting to take guns from Law abiding American so that one asap communist foreign ppls will take over our country cause we have no guns to protect us from invasion
Boeder patrol caught almost 100 communist national chinese men how many have stuck in who allowing this Biden and cohorts
why has Biden allowed Chinese buying empty house farmland etc
are these Chinese men living in empty houses are digging bunkers in our farmland hiding weapons etc ????
I am frankly frightened for my family and fellow Americans
American need to wake up less we become invaded lose our country
Biden has proved a president can become a dictator
we must keep these socialist from taking our guns !!!
I send this statement in caution but worried for my family and Americans so I state how I feel
what concerns me America leadership has become so foreign minded they are of no American good anymore ???
Thank you for u news for your fight for America for truth !!!

Kyle Buy you some guns,and learn how to shoot
Kyle Buy you some guns,and learn how to shoot
1 year ago

How many of you out there are willing to go to Jail,rather than give up your leagely owned gun?? Think about this. Where in Hell are they gonna put several million gun owners. Plus the taxpayers gotta feed us. Think about it. I’m willing. Kyle L.

tika
tika
1 year ago

boycott everything colorado

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