It could have happened to anyone, I guess.
I mean, who among us has not left a loaded, semi-automatic, 9mm Glock handgun in a public restroom?
OK, I never have. I’m pretty sure no one I know ever has.
And, just a guess here, you also probably don’t hang out with the kind of person who is likely to leave a loaded gun where someone — you know, even a 6-year-old kid — could just pick it up and shoot someone, either accidentally or intentionally.
But apparently, those most likely to do something like that — as state Rep. Don Wilson did Tuesday night, leaving his loaded Glock in a state Capitol bathroom, where a janitor found it — are Colorado Republican legislators who routinely oppose any gun-safety legislation.
Wilson’s dangerous blunder couldn’t have been better timed, however, because we’re in the midst of the annual gun-safety-bill hour at the state legislature. And one of the gun-safety bills — there are a handful up for consideration, including another try at banning assault-style weapons — would prohibit guns in “sensitive spaces,” including the state Capitol.
Visitors are already prohibited from bringing guns into the Capitol, but legislators, like Wilson, are exempt because, well, I have no idea why. It couldn’t be because anyone believes legislators are somehow more responsible than the rest of us. I remember when state legislators voted to kick out serial sexual harasser Steve Lebsock from the House, several said they felt the need to wear bullet-proof vests to the Capitol.
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In his case, Wilson, R-Monument, took to social media to issue an apology, saying he took full responsibility for leaving his gun unattended, calling his irresponsible action a “humbling experience” and promising to do better.
He also insisted that he takes “firearm safety very seriously.” To which, the obvious response is, “Seriously, seriously?”
I mean, how serious can you be when you leave a loaded gun in a bathroom?
But Wilson is just the latest GOP gun-control opponent who seems to have a problem with the concept of gun safety, not to mention simple responsibility.
It was just a year ago that Rep. Ron Weinberg had two guns stolen from his truck parked outside the Capitol. He said the guns were unloaded. He also said he couldn’t remember whether he’d locked the doors.
It was just two years ago that Rep. Richard Holtorf, now running in the GOP primary in the 4th Congressional District, dropped his gun out of his pants pocket while rushing to vote. The gun hit the floor but did not fire. We don’t know if it was loaded.
And 10 years ago, Rep. Jared Wright left a gun in an open bag in a committee hearing room. Interestingly, the subject of the hearing was concealed-carry permits.
And so it goes. We hear a lot about the misguided notion that more guns make us safer, but I want to hear from Republican legislators about whether you can be a good guy with a gun if you’re also an irresponsible guy with a gun.
None of the legislators was charged in any of these cases. No laws had apparently been broken.
The sensitive-spaces bill, which includes not only the Capitol but schools and courtrooms and polling places, has already passed the Senate on a party-line vote — you can guess which party voted which way — and will almost certainly pass in the House. Gov. Jared Polis seems to be in favor.
I wish I could say the same about the assault-style weapons bill, which, as I write this, was scheduled for all-day debate Friday before the full House. The heavily Democratic state House was expected to pass the bill. But its fate in the Democratically controlled state Senate is tenuous at best.
And Polis, who voted for an assault-style-weapons ban when he was in Congress, apparently opposes the ban — although he usually dodges the question — noting that a state ban wouldn’t work without a nationwide ban from Congress.
Polis is right that a state-centered assault-style-weapons ban — one that, as in the latest Colorado bill, would preclude new sales but allow possession of an already purchased weapon — might not solve the problem. But he is wrong — dead wrong — in opposing the bill. Ten states have already passed laws concerning assault-style weapons, knowing that momentum is necessary to get any action from Congress.
When blue states like Colorado, which has passed a number of gun-safety bills, don’t act, it gives a message to Congress to continue to continue to block similar legislation, despite the fact that assault-style weapons have long been the weapon of choice in school shootings and most other mass shootings, including far too many in Colorado.
Polls show increasing support for gun-safety legislation, although support for a ban on assault-style weapons slips once the latest gun massacre is forgotten. It’s also not clear whether this Supreme Court, in this time, would eventually knock down state laws on assault-style weapons.
I read an interesting piece the other day from a University of Baltimore School of Law professor about punishing adults for murderous acts of their children. As you probably know, a Michigan judge has sentenced the shooter’s parents — who were each convicted in separate trials for manslaughter — a minimum of 10 years in prison for their failure to prevent their then-15-year-old son from killing four children at his high school.
It was no small failure by the parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, who not only missed every red flag, but seemed to wave a few of their own. If you remember the case of Ethan Crumbley, who was sentenced to life without parole for the 2021 shooting, he was a mentally disturbed young man whose parents took him to a shooting range just days before the shooting. The shooting-range adventure came not long after Ethan’s parents had refused his request to see a doctor about his violent hallucinations.
And on the day of the shooting, when a teacher found Ethan’s drawing of a bleeding person with an accompanying plea from Ethan for help, his parents refused to take him out of school. Later that day, Ethan would wield a gun — one he had removed that morning from an unlocked container in his house — and kill four students while wounding six others and a teacher.
So, yes, the parents’ failures went well beyond negligence. But, it also should be noted that before the mass killing, Michigan had no law requiring guns to be safely stored in the home.
And so, Professor Kimberly Wehle writes that the parents were being scapegoated for America’s failures, arguing that a “society that has refused to regulate guns is now punishing parents for not doing so on their own at home.”
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She blames the Supreme Court, thoughts-and-prayers Congress, state legislatures and gun manufacturers for the real failure. She writes that as society seeks to punish parents or teachers or school guards when a disturbed kid kills his classmates, the true culprits “now have in their hands a new means of pointing blame and evading accountability.”
It’s a provocative piece. I’m not sure the parents are actually scapegoats — to her credit, Wehle points out their many failures — but I must agree with her about where the egregious evasion of responsibility lies.
And I agree, too, with Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie, who issued a statement about the loaded gun Rep. Wilson left in the Capitol bathroom and the potentially “dangerous situation” it created.
She wrote, “This should not have happened and cannot happen again, and this is why our caucus is pursuing legislation to prohibit carrying firearms in the Capitol.”
Meanwhile, some Republicans have said they would bring guns to the Capitol even if the bill passes because, you know, what legislator doesn’t need to take his Glock to work? One Republican noted that current state law says members cannot be arrested when working in, or traveling to, the Capitol — with the only exceptions being if the charge is treason or a felony.
The new law, it turns out, would be a misdemeanor, not a felony. And while those voting to block the law might not be treasonous, that does not mean they wouldn’t be guilty, once again, of seriously evading accountability.
Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.
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