The Colorado chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety’s grassroots network, released the following statement after the Colorado House State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs Committee voted to reject three dangerous gun bills, HB22-1106, HB22-1105, and HB22-1145, that would have dismantled some of Colorado’s key gun violence prevention laws and put communities at risk.
“Once again, our lawmakers have proven to be strong allies in the fight to end gun violence, and rejected these life-threatening bills,” said Emily Suyat, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action in Colorado. “While we’re proud that our state continues to lead the way in advancing legislation to protect communities from gun violence and halting bills that would dismantle gun safety measures, there’s still more work to be done. We’ll keep fighting to keep Colorado communities safe.”
Following testimony from Colorado Moms Demand Action volunteers in today’s hearing, lawmakers rejected:
- HB22-1106, which would have forced K-12 public schools to allow some individuals to carry concealed firearms on school grounds and prevent local governments from prohibiting carry on local K-12 public school grounds.
- HB22-1105, which would have allowed employees of businesses to use deadly physical force to prevent even minor property damage, even when such force could be avoided. Shoot First bills are dangerous and make murder legal – letting people use deadly force as the first option rather than the last, even when they can clearly and safely walk away.
- HB22-1145, which would have weakened the state’s common sense large capacity magazine restrictions and allowed individuals to possess large capacity magazines for competing in state-sanctioned firearm shooting competitions.
According to Everytown’s new gun law rankings report, Colorado is among the top ten states with the strongest gun laws in the country. In an average year, 850 people die and 360 people are wounded by guns in Colorado. Gun violence costs Colorado $5.6 billion each year, of which $170.2 million is paid by taxpayers. Learn more about gun violence in Colorado here.