Colorado’s Democratic-controlled House has passed a bill that would ban the sale and transfer of semiautomatic firearms.
Colorado’s Democratic-controlled House on Sunday passed a bill that would ban the sale and transfer of semiautomatic firearms, a major step for the legislation after roughly the same bill was swiftly killed by Democrats last year.
The bill, which passed on a 35-27 vote, is now on its way to the Democratic-led state Senate. If it passes there, it could bring Colorado in line with 10 other states — including California, New York and Illinois — that have prohibitions on semiautomatic guns.
But even in a state plagued by some of the nation’s worst mass shootings, such legislation faces headwinds.
Colorado’s political history is purple, shifting blue only recently. The bill’s chances of success in the state Senate are lower than they were in the House, where Democrats have a 46-19 majority and a bigger far-left flank. Gov. Jared Polis, also a Democrat, has indicated his wariness over such a ban.
Charles Witman yeah, and he was a former Marine. To be fair, he used like 7 guns one or two of which were bolt actions. I think the most damage he did was with the M1. Lee Harvey Oswald used a bolt-action rifle and was also trained to shoot in the Corps. The range officers/instructors when I was going through boot camp were oddly proud of and eager to pass on both these facts.
Precise, accurate, effective fire outweighs volume of fire. It’s why the Corps (and the Army I think?) are moving away from the M249 to the IAR. At the end of the day someone who drills bolt action cycling and reloading, and can bring precise and accurate fire to bear on target is going to do a fuck ton more damage than some fuckhead who walks into a gun shop and buys an AR pattern rifle then goes to shoot up some school or mall or whatever the next day.
The overlap of people who have the mental wherewithal to actually put in the work before hand and who think doing a mass shooting is a good idea have been like 2 or 3 guys, but this is why the right wing militias that sprung up during Trumps first campaign and his presidency are so concerning to me. Like one psychopath isn’t going to put in the work alone, but when he’s going out into the woods every weekend with the boys running drills with their one vet friend he’ll stay doing the work because it’s fun and he’s with his boys.
As an aside, the Whitman story is kinda sad. By all accounts he was a pretty decent dude and just went nuts. I guess a big theory is that a tumor in his brain caused his behavior to gradually become completely unhinged, ultimately leading to the mass shooting he perpetrated.