Colorado Democrats Bring a Knife to a Gunfight

I’m just a plainspoken Colorado criminal defense lawyer, but the way I see it…

I suppose it’s a paradox, but the only way to achieve any real gun management in my state is to find a legislator who knows how to pull a trigger.

No matter how many children die, no matter how many Presidents of the United States, the charge surely won’t be led by a Republican. It won’t be led by a Democrat, either, not in Colorado.

There is a straightforward response to our dead children, our dead Presidents. Guns that can be used as personal weapons of mass destruction should be banned for personal use. They should not be manufactured for personal use. They should not be sold for personal use. Period. A ban on such weapons is not a Second Amendment issue, any more than are laws that prevent private citizens from buying and deploying Abrams tanks, or cruise missiles.

Yet our Colorado Democrats, apparently still afraid the NRA will paint targets on their yellow backs, avoid the straightforward. Instead they propose new laws that say, you can kill our children, you can kill our Presidents, you just have to pay a price. The cost of doing business. If you manufacture this kind of gun, the proposed laws say, if you sell it, you will be legally liable if the gun is used for its intended purpose — that is, to kill people.

Never mind that this law can’t pass Constitutional muster, and that these Democrats know it. It betrays a timid response from lawmakers who talk big about making gun manufacturers and dealers responsible, while ducking their own responsibility to stand up to the gun lobby and say plainly: no more Columbines, no more Littletons, no more Sandy Hooks.

And that’s like bringing a knife to a gun fight.

It just don’t cut it.