Two Colorado Democrats on Friday evening introduced a bill that would define assault weapons and ban their sale and transfer.
House Bill 1230 is sponsored by Rep. Elisabeth Epps, D-Denver, and Sen. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora. It has seven cosponsors in the House and one in the Senate, all of them Democrats.
The legislation was introduced, without fanfare, hours after East High School students marched to the Capitol to call for gun control measures. The bill has been in the works for months, but its future was in doubt recently after Rep. Andrew Boesenecker, a Fort Collins Democrat, decided to remove his name as a lead sponsor.
Fields also warned at a gun violence-prevention town hall in early February that the bill might not be introduced if the policy details couldn’t be nailed down. “If we do get the language right, you’ll see it. If we’re not able to get the language and the content right, you won’t see it,” Fields said. “We’re going to make sure that it gets right because the governor has to be on board with what we’re trying to do.”
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Epps refuses to speak to The Colorado Sun. The bill’s legislative declaration says the measure is aimed at preventing mass shootings.
“Assault weapons in civilian hands endanger Colorado’s streets, stores, restaurants, places of worship, music venues, schools, movie theaters and communities at large,” it says. “With an assault weapon, even a firearms novice can perpetrate a mass-casualty incident.”
The legislation’s introduction comes about a week after Democrats rolled out a slate of four other gun control measures at a news conference. Those bills would raise the age to purchase all guns to 21, create a three-day waiting period between when someone can purchase a firearm and access it, and expand the state’s existing red flag law, which lets judges order the temporary seizure of firearms from people deemed a significant risk to themselves or others.
Gov. Jared Polis is a skeptic of the assault-weapons measure, as is House Democratic leadership.
“I may have some questions, to be honest with you,” House Majority Leader Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge, told reporters in January. Duran has worked on several gun control measures in the past.
House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, has declined to take a position on the bill. McCluskie and Duran’s support of the measure isn’t needed for it to pass, but their trepidation is an indication that other Democrats may not support the measure either.
The latest 13-page bill defines assault weapons by their features rather than by specific makes and models.
An assault weapon is considered by the measure to be a semi-automatic rifle that has the capacity to accept either a detachable magazine or has the capacity to be modified to use a detachable magazine along with one or more of several additional features, including:
- A pistol grip or anything that could function as a grip by the user’s nontrigger hand
- Any type of changeable stock — folding, telescoping, thumbhole or detachable — that would reduce the size of the firearm to conceal it
- A tool to suppress the muzzle flash
- A functional grenade launcher
- A barrel shroud to protect a user from being burned if they hold it with a nontrigger hand
- A threaded barrel
The bill also defines an assault weapon as a semi-automatic pistol that has the capacity to accept either a detachable magazine or the capacity to be modified to use a detachable magazine along with one or more of several additional features, including:
- A threaded barrel
- A second pistol grip or anything that could function as a grip by the user’s nontrigger hand
- A barrel shroud to protect a user from being burned if they hold it with a nontrigger hand
- A tool to suppress the muzzle flash
- The capacity to accept a detachable ammunition-feeding device at some location outside of the pistol
- A manufactured weight of 50 ounces or more if unloaded
- A buffer tube, arm brace or other feature that protrudes horizontally behind the pistol grip
The sale or attempted sale of shotguns with revolving cylinders and semi-automatic firearms that can accept a belt ammunition feeding device would also be banned, as would the sale or attempted sale of .50-caliber rifles and semi-automatic rifles with a fixed, large-capacity magazine.
Finally, the ban would also include semi-automatic shotguns with one or more of the following features:
- A pistol grip or anything that can function as a grip by the user’s nontrigger hand
- Any type of changeable stock — folding, telescoping, thumbhole or detachable — that would reduce the size of the firearm to conceal it
- A functional grenade launcher
- A fixed, large-capacity magazine
- The capacity to accept a detachable magazine
The ban wouldn’t apply to antique firearms made before 1899, replicas of antiques or permanently inoperable firearms. It also wouldn’t include firearms that are manually operated by a bolt, pump, lever or slide action — unless the firearm is a shotgun with a revolving cylinder — or firearms that can only fire rimfire ammunition.
The ban also wouldn’t apply to the military, police or armored vehicle businesses.
Possession of firearms defined as assault weapons wouldn’t be banned, meaning people could purchase the guns in another state and bring them to Colorado legally. The possession of so-called assault weapons purchased before the ban goes into effect also wouldn’t be outlawed.
Under the bill, selling or attempting to sell a so-called assault weapon would be a Class 2 misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to 120 days in jail, a fine of up to $750 or both.
Violators would also be subject to civil penalties. Individual violators could be fined $1,000 for an offense between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2024, and $5,000 for an offense on or after Jan. 1, 2025. Licensed firearms dealers would be subject to a fine starting on July 1 of $250,000 for a first offense and $500,000 for second and subsequent offenses.
The bill is modeled after legislation that has been passed in other parts of the country. According to Giffords, a group that advocates for tighter gun regulations, there are fewer than a dozen states with so-called assault weapons bans. They include California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.
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Republicans and gun rights groups are expected to put up fierce and uniform opposition to the bill. But the GOP is in the minority in the Colorado House and Senate, meaning that Democrats will ultimately decide if the measure passes or fails.
The bill will need the support of 33 of the 46 Democrats in the House and 18 of the 23 Democrats in the Senate to pass.
House Bill 1230 was assigned to the House Judiciary Committee. Its first hearing hasn’t been scheduled yet.