Guns are Up – Colorado

Colorado Democrats are moving their full complement of gun bills on party line votes and in the face of an organized vocal opposition.

The Governor remains in the background, offering public support for universal registration, which he proposed in his State of the State speech, and recently for fees for permits and a compromise on magazines.

The most recent Colorado survey was a Denver Post robo poll conducted in mid-January that showed considerable support for the Second Amendment, the NRA’s views and strict enforcement of existing laws over adding more laws.

• 50% favor protecting right to own guns vs. 45% controlling gun ownership
• 56% support views of NRA (25% strongly support vs. 15% strongly oppose)
• 56% for stricter enforcement of existing laws vs. 35% pass stricter laws

Also, about 36 percent of the respondents claim to have one or more guns in their households. However, the public also likes some of the proposed additional state- and national-level regulations, including:

• 80% support state and national universal registration
• 60% support state and national assault weapons ban
• 59% support state and national 10-round limit on magazines

Both the assault weapons ban and magazine limit were worded as reinstatements or restorations of previous legislation, which confused the issue since Colorado did not have bans or limits. Plus, the use of language implying a continuation of an existing law causes support to increase.

Democrats are correct that they have majority support for some of the legislation they propose. Their problem is twofold. Their advocates and some of their leadership sound anti-Second Amendment. And secondly, legislators are elected in districts, and some Democratic legislators may be in for a difficult re-election in 2014.