Democratic state lawmakers on Wednesday rejected three GOP bills to loosen gun regulations in Colorado during an emotional hearing that spanned more than eight hours late into the night and followed a protest from gun-control advocates.
The legislation would have allowed people with concealed-carry permits to take guns onto school grounds, repeal the state’s contentious 2013 ban on high-capacity magazines and allowed business owners and employees to use deadly force against intruders, similar to the “make my day” law for homeowners.
Republicans have brought up all three measures before and Democrats reject them.
The renewed national debate about guns, however, sparked by last week’s south Florida high school shooting inflamed tensions about the legislation, which had been introduced before the massacre happened.
Pro-gun advocates, gun-control activists, everyday citizens and young people — including high school and elementary school students — were among those to testify.
Republicans argued that the bills sought to make Colorado kids and residents safer. Democrats and firearm-control advocates said the answer to gun violence is not more guns.
The legislation was heard in the Democrat-controlled House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.