Colorado’s governor signed four gun control bills Friday, edging the once-purple state closer to liberal-leaning governments in California and New York just months after a shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, the latest in the state’s long history of notorious massacres.
The new laws, which Democrats pushed through despite late-night filibusters from Republicans, are aimed at quelling rising suicides and youth violence, preventing mass shootings and opening avenues for gun violence victims to sue the long-protected firearm industry.
Republicans decried the bills as onerous encroachments on Second Amendment rights that would impede Colorado residents’ ability to defend themselves amid a rising statewide crime rate.
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Two of the new laws will raise the age to buy any firearm from 18 to 21 and install a three-day waiting period between the purchase and receipt of a gun. A third will strengthen the state’s red flag law, which allows a judge to temporarily remove someone’s gun if the person poses a threat to themselves or others. A fourth rolls back some legal protections for the firearm industry, exposing them to lawsuits from the victims of gun violence.
A fifth proposal, a sweeping ban on semi-automatic firearms that includes certain pistols, shotguns and rifles, was killed by Democrats last week — illustrating that the Democratic majority was only willing to go so far when it came to gun restrictions.
The new laws will likely be tested in court, with gun advocates threatening lawsuits and citing a Supreme Court decision last year in New York that expanded Second Amendment rights and opened the door for challenges to gun restrictions nationwide.
The new red flag law, also called an extreme risk protection order, empowers those working closely with youth and adults — doctors, mental health professionals, and teachers — to petition a judge to temporarily remove someone’s firearm. Previously, petition power was limited mainly to law-enforcement and family members.
Republicans argued that the law would discourage people from candidly speaking with medical doctors and mental health professionals for fear of having their weapons temporarily seized.
The law requiring a three-day delay between buying and receiving a firearm — an attempt to curtail impulsive violence and suicide attempts — puts Colorado in line with nine other states, including California, Hawaii and Florida.
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Colorado has the sixth-highest suicide rate in the country, with nearly 1,400 in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A RAND Corporation analysis of four studies found that waiting periods are linked to lower suicide-by-gun deaths.
Republicans raised concerns that people needing to defend themselves — such as victims of domestic violence — may not be able to get a gun in time to do so.
In raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21, Colorado joins California, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, New York and Rhode Island. Proponents point to now oft-cited data from the CDC showing that gun violence has overtaken vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in recent years.
Colorado is also rolling back long-standing legal protections for gun manufacturers and dealers — laws that have kept the industry at arm’s length from questions of blame, especially following mass shootings. California, Delaware, New York and New Jersey have passed similar legislation over the past three years.
Colorado’s bill repeals the state’s 2000 law, which broadly kept firearm companies from being held liable for violence perpetrated with their products. While the industry is still largely shielded from liability under federal law, the rules make it easier for victims of gun violence to lodge suits.
Last year, for example, Remington, the company that made the rifle used in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, settled a lawsuit filed by the families of those killed for $73 million. The families accused the company of targeting younger, at-risk males in advertising, and placing their products in violent video games.
Opponents of the bill argued that it would merely bog the firearms industry down in bogus lawsuits.