Dave Kopel, Elections, Right To Arms

Recalls set stage for magazine ban repeal effort

The Colorado vote to recall two Democratic state senators is a major win for the Second Amendment and for responsible law-making. Although guns were the reason for the recall campaign, Senate President John Morse of Colorado Springs and Sen. Angela Giron of Pueblo lost primarily because they misused their powers, not for any stand on principle.

Their misjudgments may mean the end of the state’s new gun control laws.

As of today, those laws are still on the books. The Senate used to be split 20-15 with a Democratic majority. The majority is now reduced to 18-17. More important, because the Senate’s two pro-Second Amendment Democrats voted against it, the magazine ban passed by only a single vote. After the recall, the Colorado Senate has a pro-Second Amendment majority — enough to repeal the ban on magazines holding more than 15 rounds.

In the state’s House, there may already be a majority for repeal. The magazine ban passed there in February by only three votes, and by March widespread buyer’s remorse had spread among Democrats who voted in favor of the ban. That’s a reason the bill’s managers couldn’t let the bill go back to the House for amendments, even after it became clear that it had major drafting defects.

The bill only passed the House in the first place because Vice President Joe Biden called undecided state Democratic representatives and essentially ordered them to vote for it. After the recall, White House promises of electoral protection for legislators who vote against guns no longer have credibility.

There’s no expectation that Gov. John Hickenlooper would sign a bill repealing the law. But he might not be governor for much longer. His approval ratings are underwater, with 48 percent of voters saying he shouldn’t be re-elected in 2014. One big reason for Hickenlooper’s lackluster polling numbers is his stance on guns. Coloradans disapprove of his handling of the issue by 17 points. Hickenlooper made the situation worse in August by blocking the execution of Nathan Dunlap, who killed four people during a 1993 robbery of a Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurant. After the recall vote, Hickenlooper said, “Obviously, I’ll have to do a better job of getting the facts out there” about gun control bills. The voters’ message, however, wasn’t that gun control advocates don’t talk enough. The problem was how little they listened during the legislative process.

icon_op_edIn the last half-century, the Colorado legislative leader who had been the most notorious for abusing the rights of the minority party was Republican Carl Beverly Bledsoe, speaker of the House from 1981 to 1991. Things became so bad that Colorado voters in 1988 took the extraordinary step of adopting a constitutional amendment to reform the legislative system, curbing Bledsoe’s power.

The only legislative leader in the last half century who may have exceeded Bledsoe’s abuses of power was Morse in 2013. He was elected Senate president by his party’s left wing, and treated moderate Democrats almost as badly as he treated Republicans. As with the gun legislation, he rammed complex bills on education finance, wind-power mandates and election law revisions through the Senate so quickly that errors were often overlooked. Later, when the mistakes became obvious, corrections weren’t allowed. Giron was a reliable supporter of Morse, and he appointed her to be chairman the State Affairs Committee.

The Colorado legislature has a long-standing tradition of allowing every citizen who wishes to testify the opportunity to be heard, at least briefly. Legislators have endured many long committee hearings listening to citizens argue for and against gay rights, motorcycle-helmet mandates, immigration and other hot topics. During the gun bill hearings this year, Giron followed Morse’s orders to limit testimony to 90 minutes per side. Hundreds of Colorado residents were turned away.

Back in Pueblo (where the Democratic sheriff was among the opponents of the gun bills), Giron compounded the problem, declaring that because she had taken questions about guns at one town-hall meeting, she didn’t want to talk about the subject at any other town halls. Giron’s district has a 24-point Democratic advantage among registered voters and voted for President Barack Obama by a 19-point margin in 2012. She was ousted by 12 points.

The recall of Giron and Morse was partly a repudiation of substance of the gun laws, but more so, it was a rejection of their political high-handedness. In Colorado, and elsewhere in the U.S., the process matters — even, or especially, if you disagree on principles.

Now, many Americans are seeing one of the problems that led to the recall: the determination to make a decision without bothering to learn the facts. After the murders at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., last week, Giron told MSNBC that the murderer “probably would not have passed a background check.” In fact, he not only passed a background check to buy a shotgun, he also passed a background check for a security clearance.

She also derided defensive gun use, claiming that “you couldn’t have any more armed people than were” at the Navy Yard. To the contrary, almost all the armed forces are unarmed while they are on base, except for military police. As CNSnews reported, Marines at the Navy Yard barracks had rifles, but were not allowed ammunition. If they had ammo, the Marines could have stopped the killer after three fatalities, saving more innocent lives.

David Kopel is research director of the Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.  A version of this op-ed originally appeared at the Denver Post.

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