When it comes to preventing gun violence in Colorado, there’s not much Democrats and Republicans agree on.
Getting gun rights and pro-gun regulation groups on the same page? That’s unheard of.
So when a bill was introduced in the legislature this year to increase penalties for stealing guns that brought those groups together, it seemed like a slam dunk. But the measure, House Bill 1162, was rejected in the House Judiciary Committee last week in a collision of two priorities for the Democratic majority at the Capitol: its desire to curb gun violence and its push to reduce the number of people being sent to prison.
“We’re not going to incarcerate ourselves out of this,” said state Sen. Tom Sullivan, a Centennial Democrat and one of the legislature’s fiercest gun safety voices. His son, Alex, was murdered in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting.
The penalty for stealing a firearm in Colorado depends on how valuable the weapon is. Stealing a gun that’s worth less than $300 is a petty offense, punishable by up to 10 days in jail. Gun theft becomes a felony, and carries the possibility of prison, only when the weapon stolen is worth more than $2,000.
As introduced, House Bill 1162 would have made stealing a firearm of any value a Class 6 felony, punishable by up to 18 months in prison. Stealing a subsequent gun or multiple guns in one instance would have been a Class 5 felony, punishable by up to three years in prison.
The increased penalties were estimated to cost the state an extra $1 million to imprison those convicted. That stoked concerns among the Democratic majority on the House Judiciary Committee about putting more people in prison, particularly people of color.
To assuage those anxieties, the bill’s main sponsors, Democratic Rep. Marc Snyder of Manitou Springs and Republican Rep. Ryan Armagost of Berthoud, amended the measure during its first hearing on Feb. 14 to make it a Class 2 misdemeanor, punishable by up to 120 days in jail, to steal a firearm valued at less than $1,000.
Snyder and Armagost hoped by taking the new felony offense off the table — and the prison term that accompanied it — the committee’s Democratic majority could be persuaded to advance the bill.
“Theft of firearms is an epidemic that tracks with our gun violence epidemic right now,” Snyder said.
But watering down the bill didn’t work.
“For me, just philosophically, it is hard for me to vote for any law that increases a criminal penalty without evidence that there’s a direct link to a deterrent effect — without evidence that we will see a decrease in people who are stealing firearms,” Rep. Javier Mabrey, a Denver Democrat on the committee, said during the bill’s first hearing.
Mabrey added that “of course I want fewer instances of people stealing firearms,” but he said stealing a gun would still be illegal whether or not the bill became law.
“There is nothing in this bill nor in the fiscal note … that says this increased penalty will have any impact on the number of guns on the streets or that it will reduce the amount of people that possess stolen firearms,” said Rep. Leslie Herod, a Denver Democrat on the committee.
She and others raised concerns about the financial cost of the bill and feared the measure would disproportionately affect Black and brown men.
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Rep. Judy Amabile, a Boulder Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, disagreed, saying that gun theft needs to be taken seriously given the threat to the public a firearm poses.
“I don’t think we’re going to be sweeping up a lot more kids into jail,” she said.
Ceasefire Colorado, a pro-gun regulation group, and the National Shooting Sports Association, a gun-rights group, supported the bill.
“Stolen firearms are wreaking havoc in terrible acts of violence,” said Eileen McCarron, who leads Ceasefire Colorado. “The consequences of a firearm theft are far greater than that of a comparably priced lamp.”
Cmdr. Doug Trainor of the Colorado Springs Police Department said a stolen gun valued at $400 was used in a fatal shooting in his city. “Since most stolen firearms are pistols, the average value is far below $2,000,” he said.
The bill was rejected on a 6-5 vote, with Amabile and Snyder joining the three Republicans on the committee in voting “yes” on the measure. Mabrey and Herod voted “no,” as did Denver Democratic Reps. Steven Woodrow and Jennifer Bacon, as well as Reps. Mike Weissman, D-Aurora, and Lorena Garcia, D-Adams County.
Other gun bills passed by the legislature’s Democratic majority in recent years — or being pursued now at the Capitol — increase penalties or enact new ones for firearm-related crimes.
For instance, violating a new law requiring Coloradans who own guns to store their weapons in a gun safe or with a trigger or cable lock when the owner knows or should reasonably know that a “juvenile or a resident who is ineligible to possess a firearm can gain access to the firearm” is a Class 2 misdemeanor offense.
(The failure of House Bill 1162 means it remains a lesser offense to steal a gun valued at less than $300 than to improperly store a gun.)
But increasingly the gun control measures being introduced by Democrats in the Colorado legislature would carry no jail or prison time and rather levy only fines.
A prime example: Colorado’s new law imposing a three-day waiting period on gun purchases carries a fine of no more than $5,000, and it’s only that high for repeat offenders.
House Bill 1270, introduced recently in the legislature, is another example. The measure would impose a $500 to $1,000 fine on gun owners who don’t obtain firearm liability insurance.
Another measure introduced at the Capitol this year, House Bill 1292, would ban the purchase, sale and transfer in Colorado of a broad swath of semi-automatic firearms, defined in the legislation = as assault weapons. It would carry a $250,000 fine for a first offense and a $500,000 fine for subsequent offenses.
House Bill 1162, the firearm theft measure, wasn’t the first time Democrats’ push to reduce gun violence and criminal justice reform efforts collided.
Over the past few years, the legislature has rolled back a blanket prohibition on people convicted of felonies from purchasing or possessing guns. Instead, only those convicted of committing the state’s most serious crimes, like murder, rape, assault, robbery, arson and child abuse, can’t have a firearm. Felony convictions for drug crimes and car theft, for instance, no longer trigger the ban.
Herod, however, said the failure of House Bill 1162 isn’t a collision of Democratic priorities. She sees it as a matter of only supporting measures that increase criminal penalties if there’s proof they will work to reduce gun violence.
“I don’t think there is enough to prove that that would work,” she said of the gun theft bill.
Herod also worried that the bill would be changed later in the legislative process to revert back to its original version — making it a felony to steal any gun. Snyder and Armagost tried to reassure her that wasn’t the case.