July 20, 2012: A gunman opens fire in a movie theater in Aurora, killing a dozen people and injuring 70.

Dec. 14, 2012: A mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, kills 20 first-grade students and six educators.

More than two dozen gun laws in Colorado have reshaped firearm ownership — and added barriers

March 20, 2013: During the Colorado legislative session following those incidents, then-Gov. John Hickenlooper signs three landmark gun laws: a 15-round limit for firearm magazines, a universal background check requirement and a new fee on gun buyers to pay for the checks.

Sept. 10, 2013: Two Democratic state senators are recalled by voters in a campaign by gun-rights advocates who are furious about the gun legislation. A third resigns later in the year.

November 4, 2014: Republicans win control of the state Senate, breaking Democratic trifecta control of both legislative chambers and the governorship. The party holds the Senate through 2018.

June 12, 2016: A gunman kills 49 people at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, in what at the time is the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Oct. 1, 2017: In Las Vegas, a gunman fires on a crowd of fans at an outdoor country music concert, killing 60 people and injuring hundreds.

Feb. 14, 2018: A former student kills 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook.

Nov. 6, 2018: Colorado Democrats win a majority in the state Senate and regain trifecta control of state government as Gov. Jared Polis also wins election.

April 12, 2019: Polis signs the extreme risk protection order bill into law. Commonly known as the red-flag law, it allows judges to order the temporary confiscation of firearms from people suspected to be a danger to themselves or others.

March 22, 2021: A gunman kills 10 people at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder.

2021 legislative session: Colorado lawmakers pass, and Polis signs, five new gun laws: setting storage requirements for firearms, expanding background checks and adding disqualifying misdemeanors, establishing , setting requirements for reporting lost or stolen firearms, and allowing local jurisdictions to pass more restrictive gun laws than the state.

May 9, 2021: A gunman opens fire on a birthday party in Colorado Springs, killing six people and then taking his own life.

2022 legislative session: Lawmakers pass a law banning the open carrying of firearms within 100 feet of a polling place.

November 19, 2022: A shooter kills five people and wounds 22 others at Club Q, a LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs.

2023 legislative session: Lawmakers pass, and Polis signs, four new gun laws: establishing a three-day waiting period to purchase a firearm; making the minimum age 21 to purchase a firearm; expanding who can file an extreme risk protection order petition; and banning the sale, possession and creation of unserialized firearms, or so-called ghost guns.

2024 legislative session: Lawmakers and Polis enact seven new gun laws: setting new training requirements for concealed-carry permits; setting new requirements for storing firearms in a vehicle; adding a new tax on firearms, ammunition and certain parts (subsequently adopted by voters 54%-46%); adding new state licensing for firearm dealers; expanding authority for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to investigate firearm-related crimes; adding a new merchant code to track sales of guns and ammunition; and banning the carrying of firearms, including those that are concealed, in government buildings, near polling places and in educational institutions.

2025 legislative session: Lawmakers pass, and Polis signs, seven gun laws: making the theft of a firearm a felony, regardless of the weapon’s value; setting the minimum age at 21 to purchase ammunition in most circumstances; adding new requirements for gun shows; increasing enforcement capabilities for the Department of Revenue related to firearms dealers; adding permitting requirements for the purchase of certain semiautomatic firearms; creating a voluntary do-not-sell list for firearms; and establishing requirements for the Department of Public Safety to seek additional grant money for the state’s response to mass shootings.

Four groups and a Colorado physician filed the lawsuit in Denver’s federal court Monday. The suit seeks to invalidate , which the legislature passed earlier this month and Gov. Jared Polis signed Friday. The groups are asking a judge to rule that an underlying part of the state’s anti-discrimination law — prohibiting people from publishing statements that make specific groups of people feel unwelcome — is unconstitutional.

The plaintiffs — Defending Education, Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, Protect Kids Colorado, Do No Harm and dermatologist Travis Morrell — argue the law will unconstitutionally block them from using transgender people’s previous names and pronouns. The lawsuit specifically lists a transgender state legislator whom the advocacy network wants to continue describing by an incorrect name without fear of litigation or financial penalties.

The suit alleges that the law “punishes Coloradans for their speech” and places “a thumb on the scale to favor one side of a contentious public debate.”

Among other protections for transgender people, HB-1312 expands the state’s antidiscrimination law to include provisions related to using a person’s chosen name and referring to them how they wish. It was named after Kelly Loving, a transgender woman killed in the Club Q mass shooting in Colorado Springs.

The lawsuit was filed against officials from the Colorado Civil Rights Division, which investigates alleged violations of the state’s anti-discrimination law, as well as against Attorney General Phil Weiser. It was filed by Virginia law firm Consovoy McCarthy, best known for winning a U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down race-based college admission policies.

Weiser spokesman Lawrence Pacheco declined to comment on the pending litigation Tuesday.

The suit in part leans upon another Colorado-based Supreme Court case: the 303 Creative decision, in which the court determined that a Colorado designer could refuse to create a wedding website for a same-sex couple under the First Amendment.

— which would apply the new restrictions to the gun used in the Boulder attack — passed the House 36-28 on Monday. The bill’s Senate sponsors next will move to accept changes made in the House and then send the bill to Gov. Jared Polis.

The governor is expected to sign the measure. At Polis’ behest, lawmakers agreed to weaken the bill’s initial intent of fully banning the sale or purchase of the targeted weapons, unless they were altered to have a fixed magazine — meaning that they could not be reloaded as rapidly.

Still, the measure represents the strongest gun-control legislation passed by Colorado lawmakers since they began undertaking firearm regulation in earnest more than a decade ago.

The bill, which would take effect Aug. 1, 2026, broadly would prohibit the sale, purchase or transfer of gas-operated, semiautomatic firearms that accept detachable magazines — a definition that captures most firearms colloquially known as assault weapons.

Under the bill, the guns could still be purchased by people who’ve passed a background check and completed a training course. The legislation does not ban the possession of any weapon, and it would not apply to common pistols and shotguns. It also exempts , some of which are used for hunting.

The restrictions would apply to the gas-operated pistol used by the King Soopers shooter in March 2021. It would also cover the weapons used in the December 2021 Lakewood and Denver shooting spree; the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting; and some of those used in the 1999 Columbine High School shooting.

The bill’s sponsors — Democratic Reps. Andy Boesenecker and Meg Froelich — said the bill regulates weapons with a “unique lethality” that have been used in mass shootings across Colorado and the United States.

“A generation after Columbine — (a time) of active shooter drills, of lived experience of mass shootings — you bet I have emotions,” Froelich, an Englewood legislator in her final term, said before the vote Monday. “I’m heartbroken. I’m also determined.”

“The core root of the issue”

Republicans uniformly opposed the bill in the House and the Senate. On Monday, House Republicans questioned the measure’s constitutionality and its usefulness, and they said the law wouldn’t be followed by the people most likely to commit violent crimes.

“Deal with violence,” said Rep. Anthony Hartsook, a Parker Republican. “… The tool that is used is an extension of that violence. Until you address the crimes and the people and the mental health that’s dealing with (violence), you’re not going to get to the core root of the issue.”

SB-3 is the product of months — and, in some ways, years — of debate, negotiation and broader political shifts, all against a backdrop of seemingly ceaseless mass shootings. After two years of failed attempts to pass assault weapons bans, lawmakers introduced the measure in early January with a different approach: banning the sale of many guns that accept detachable magazines.

It’s sponsored by Sen. Tom Sullivan, a Centennial Democrat whose son, Alex, died in the Aurora theater shooting. Sullivan had at more explicit assault weapons bans, but he provided pivotal support for SB-3. He cast it as a way to ratchet up enforcement of the state’s high-capacity magazine ban — which lawmakers passed after the theater shooting.

When the bill was introduced, it had enough House and Senate co-sponsors to clear both chambers. But Polis sought a loophole, a desire enabled by a group of holdout Senate Democrats and the absence of a would-be supporter, then-Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, for the vote.

After acceding to the training and background check changes, Sullivan and co-sponsor Sen. Julie Gonzales shepherded the bill out of the Senate. It was then heavily amended in the House, largely to cut costs in a tight budget year.

Once the Senate’s sponsors accept the House’s changes, the bill goes to Polis. Earlier this month, Polis said he was “confident the improvements made to the bill will … protect our Second Amendment rights here in Colorado and improve the education and gun-safety knowledge of gun owners.”

Significant new gun regulation

Should Polis sign it, SB-3 would be a cornerstone of Colorado’s growing foundation of gun control legislation, and its passage shows just how far the state has moved in the last decade.

In 2013, Democratic lawmakers passed a package of gun-control bills, including the magazine ban. That prompted a successful campaign to recall two Democratic legislators, which then chilled additional gun legislation.

That attitude has changed as voters have increasingly sent Democrats to the statehouse. Those Democrats have grown more comfortable pursuing firearm regulation in a state plagued by mass shootings.

In the past several years, the state has adopted age limits, waiting periods, storage requirements, state permitting for gun sales, and a red-flag law allowing for the temporary removal of a person’s firearms.

Still, SB-3 prompted extensive and heated debate in both chambers, including for several hours before the final vote Monday.

The state’s history of mass shootings was also omnipresent: In response to Republican criticism that the bill would limit “law-abiding citizens” from purchasing firearms, Denver Democratic Rep. Jennifer Bacon read the names of people killed in schools and grocery stores.

Each of them, she said, was a law-abiding citizen who “died of the crime of mass shooting.”

“I want us to recognize,” she said, “that we can prevent the crime of mass murder by gun.”

The man’s leg was nearly severed, Lopez said, and he was bleeding at “a pretty lethal rate.”

“I remember saying to my () bandmate, ‘That����ap too much blood. That����ap a lot of blood,’ ” Lopez said.

Denver police said the and East lowa Avenue happened about 10:20 p.m. when the driver of a lime green Dodge Ram hit a motorcycle rider, who then slid and hit a pedestrian. Both the motorcyclist and the pedestrian had life-threatening injuries.

Lopez’s next moves were almost automatic, he said. He ran to his truck and grabbed the trauma kit he started carrying after his friend Alicia Cardenas was fatally shot in December 2021 at her shop, Sol Tribe Custom Tattoo and Body Piercing.

He remembered the he signed up for while processing Cardenas’ death and immediately applied a tourniquet to the man’s leg and tried to comfort him until an ambulance arrived.

“I tried to tell him he was going to survive, he was still alive, he was going to make it to the hospital,” Lopez said.

The man did survive, and Lopez said he hopes his experience inspires others to get Stop the Bleed training so they can help save lives in a crisis.

Lopez was at Sol Tribe on Dec. 27, 2021, shortly before Cardenas and Alyssa Gunn Maldonado were fatally shot by a gunman who also killed three others in a shooting spree across Denver and Lakewood.

Cardenas was working on a large tattoo on Lopez, but he stopped the session early because of pain, he said.

In the aftermath, Lopez found himself wishing he had been there and could have helped.

“But then what would I do if I was there? What could I have done?” Lopez said. “That caused me to go out and get that training and be passionate about emergency response.”

He first got certified in , a trauma course through the American College of Surgeons and Department of Defense, when some friends organized a certification in the wake of the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs, and he took a refresher course last year.

“I had always hoped I would never use that training,” Lopez said. “But if you are in a place where it����ap life or death… it serves us to be prepared, especially from a community, mutual aid standpoint.”

For anyone who worries they wouldn’t be able to respond like he did in an emergency, Lopez said no one will know until they try.

“I think we’re braver than we think we are. When the time comes and we’re called, that training is very important,” he said.

The crash is still under investigation, according to the Denver Police Department. Anyone with information can call Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.

Laura Voepel alleges in the federal lawsuit that officers violated her constitutional rights when they searched her home — which she shared with her child, Anderson Aldrich — on Nov. 19, 2022. Aldrich earlier that night carried out a mass shooting at Club Q, killing five people and wounding 18.

The lawsuit refers to Aldrich as Voepel’s son; Aldrich has publicly said they identify as nonbinary and prefer they/them pronouns.

Voepel claims she initially invited officers inside her home that night, but then revoked that permission when they started to search through the apartment. The officers did not leave, despite not having a search warrant, and instead kicked her out of the home, the lawsuit alleges.

When she became upset outside, they arrested her on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest to “get rid of the nuisance that she was causing them by not allowing them to search her home,” the lawsuit alleges.

Colorado Springs police Chief Adrian Vasquez said in a statement Wednesday that he could not comment specifically on the lawsuit’s allegations since the litigation is ongoing.

“CSPD stands by the response of our officers and the comprehensive work of our department to bring justice to the victims of this mass shooting,” he said in the statement.

In the subsequent criminal case against Voepel on the misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, she was found incompetent to proceed — meaning she was too mentally ill to participate in the court process — for about two years.

That determination halted the criminal case while Voepel underwent treatment, and the charges against her were ultimately dismissed after multiple doctors found she was consistently incompetent, according to the lawsuit.

“In their zeal to investigate the tragic events of the night, the defendants ran roughshod over Ms. Voepel’s constitutional rights,” the complaint reads. “…Ms. Voepel hopes that this case brings her some justice and sends a message that no matter how tragic the events leading to a police investigation may be, the police may not disregard the constitutional rights of any citizen.”

The new bill spearheaded by Democrats is aimed at building upon existing gun laws by prohibiting the sale, manufacture or purchase of semiautomatic weapons that use detachable magazines. It is set to be introduced in the early days of the legislative session, which begins Wednesday.

Detachable magazines feed ammunition into the gun and can be swapped out when empty. The measure would also ban rapid-fire trigger activators and bump stocks, which are components that increase the fire rate of semiautomatic rifles and were infamously used in America’s deadliest mass shooting, in Las Vegas in 2017.

The bill, sponsored by Centennial Democrat Sen. Tom Sullivan, would not prohibit possession of the targeted firearms, and anyone who possessed the weapons before a ban went into effect could keep them. The measure would level criminal penalties — as well as the loss of licensure — against sellers who violated it.

Sullivan cast the bill as a way to enforce the state’s 11-year-old ban on high-capacity magazines — which, he said, are still sold in Colorado despite the prohibition. The components were used in both the Boulder King Soopers shooting and the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs, Sullivan said.

“So instead of walking into the King Soopers with multiple magazines that (the shooter) just switched out and kept on firing, he would either have to stop and manually reload, which gives law enforcement and the public the ability to take some kind of an action … or he would have to walk in there with multiple AR-style weapons with attached magazines,” said Sullivan, whose son, Alex,  was killed in the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting, in an interview.

The proposal is not a ban on certain semiautomatic rifles referred to as assault weapons, though its parameters would prohibit the sale of a wide swath of high-powered guns colloquially considered to be in that category. Sullivan has previously opposed efforts by Democratic lawmakers to ban assault weapons at the state level, and one such attempt passed the House before dying in the Senate last spring.

Sullivan reiterated his opposition to a state-level assault weapons ban, though he said he supported a nationwide prohibition.

Those types of firearms could still be sold under his bill, albeit in different form: If manufacturers and gun owners want to continue selling and using the weapons, Sullivan said, they would need to adjust to firearms that can only be loaded slowly, bullet by bullet, from the top of the weapon — not through detachable magazines.

Sullivan criticized firearm manufacturers and dealers for continuing to sell high-capacity magazines in the state, and he questioned why law enforcement had not done more to proactively crack down on their sale. The effort to ban bump stocks comes after , which drew national scrutiny after the in 2017.

The proposal does not cover standard handguns or shotguns, though the prohibition would include the type of pistol used in the Boulder King Soopers shooting that left 10 people dead in March 2021.

The bill is a new approach to limiting the type of high-powered weapons frequently used in mass shootings, which have become a grimly frequent occurrence in Colorado and in America. While other states have banned certain semiautomatic rifles outright, Sullivan said a similar expansion of a magazine ban hasn’t been used elsewhere.

It also represents the latest step of years of Colorado Democrats’ attempts to better regulate gun sales. Last year, lawmakers passed a bill to require that gun dealers hold a state license, on top of the existing federal requirement. (Gun dealers who sell weapons prohibited by Sullivan’s bill could lose their state license if it becomes law.) Legislators also directed additional money to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to better investigate illegal sales of guns and gun components.

The new bill will be co-sponsored by Democratic Reps. Andrew Boesenecker and Meg Froelich. Boesenecker co-sponsored the state licensure bill last year, while Froelich and Sullivan backed the measure to increase the investigative bureau’s budget to pursue illegal gun sales.

“What we’re able to recognize pretty clearly is that particular kinds of firearms, when paired with a high-capacity magazine, have a lethality that are just unparalleled,” Boesenecker said.

The Capitol’s minority Republicans, who have uniformly opposed gun control bills in recent years, almost certainly will oppose the measure. Republican lawmakers have railed against previous legislation, including the more sweeping assault weapons ban proposals, as government overreach and infringements on the Second Amendment.

On Friday, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners executive director Ian Escalante said his group is “absolutely going to oppose this bill,” which he argued violated the U.S. Constitution. He said the organization will probably file a lawsuit challenging it, should it pass.

“Realistically, you might as well try to ban these firearms,” he said, referring to Sullivan’s bill as a de facto ban on the weapons. “All manufacturers are going to have to remanufacture these firearms and make them with fixed magazines. I don’t know how that would work.”

Sullivan noted that Colorado voters in November passed a new tax on gun and ammunition sales — which, he argued, showed voters’ priorities.

“The people of the state of Colorado have mandated that our legislators do something about the public health crisis that is gun violence, and that����ap what we’re going to do,” he said. “It’d be great if we had partners in that from the minority party, from the industry. I haven’t seen that (yet), going on my seventh year down here at the General Assembly.”

“The pain and memories remain as vivid as if they were yesterday,” shooting survivor Charlene Slaugh said during a news conference Tuesday to discuss newly filed litigation.

Slaugh, her brother and his then-boyfriend — now husband — were all shot when Anderson Lee Aldrich burst into the LGBTQ nightclub and opened fire on Nov. 19, 2022. Aldrich will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to murder charges in state court and to additional federal hate crime and weapons charges.

Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Daniel Aston, Derrick Rump and Ashley Paugh were killed in the shooting.

Slaugh said she now faces triggers she never would have imagined before, as everyday things suddenly bring her back to a time and place she wondered if she’d even survive.

“There’s still moments when the weight of it all becomes overwhelming,” Slaugh said. “…These memories don’t just disappear, they’re woven into the fabric of my life and are a part of my story that cannot be erased. That����ap a reality I’m still trying to come to terms with every single day.”

Slaugh’s brother, James, agreed.

“This isn’t something that gets better with time,” he said, gripping his husband’s hand tightly. “This is something we carry with us in countless ways every single day.”

He said he can’t enter new places without checking for exit routes, is always hypervigilant of other people’s behavior and often wakes up from nightmares of guns and explosions.

Fellow Club Q shooting survivor Ashtin Gamblin said she’s spent the past few weeks leading up to the anniversary going through her Facebook posts from two years ago, right before her life changed forever.

“I was preparing for my husband to return home from a deployment, holding down a household, working multiple jobs and still caring for our cats,” Gamblin said. “Our lives forever changed on Nov. 19, 2022. I find myself not only struggling with what happened but with everyday life as well.”

Gamblin, who was shot while working the club’s front door, said she can no longer drive, cook or take her dogs for a walk by herself. She said she struggles to do things she used to love, like going to concerts with her mom.

“This tragedy has forever changed my life, the lives of everyone who is here today,” she said. “There must be accountability and justice. This can never happen again.”

The three survivors are part of a group that in federal court on Sunday.

Families and victims included in the lawsuits claim the nightclub’s owners and El Paso County officials could have prevented the shooting, according to the complaints.

They say the sheriff’s office should have used the state’s red flag law after clear warning signs that the gunman intended to commit violence and that the club’s owners winnowed their security detail from five or more people to just one in the years leading up to the shooting, prioritizing profits over safety.

Matthew Schneider, one of the attorneys representing the survivors, said the long-lasting sting of the shooting comes from the fact that it was “both foreseeable and preventable.”

“This tragedy was not an unavoidable act of violence, but the result of systemic failures by those entrusted to safeguarding the public,” Schneider said during Tuesday’s news  conference.

Failures from both government actors and club management “created the perfect storm, allowing a dangerous individual to carry out his deadly plans,” he said. “…The lawsuit is about accountability, not just for the victims and their families, but to ensure that no other community has to suffer from such reckless disregard for human life.”

The plaintiffs in the two lawsuits, filed Sunday, include survivor Barrett Hudson, who still has three bullets in his body from that night, and other victims and relatives. They are scheduled to speak about the legal action at a news conference Tuesday — which is the two-year anniversary of the shooting at the nightclub, Club Q.

Families and victims also accuse the nightclub’s owners in the lawsuit of winnowing Club Q’s security detail from five or more people to just one in the years leading up to the shooting, prioritizing profits over the safety.

“Club Q advertised itself as a ‘safe place’ for LGBTQIA+ individuals. But that was a façade,” read both the complaints, which allege negligence among other allegations.

A central focus of both lawsuits was the El Paso County commissioners’ and the then sheriff’s refusal to enforce Colorado’s red flag law passed in 2019, which allows law enforcement to temporary take someone’s firearm if they are deemed a threat to themselves or others.

Natalie Sosa, a spokesperson for El Paso County, said it does not comment on pending litigation.

The county commissioners and sheriff saw the red flag law as an encroachment on gun rights, and passed a resolution to be a “Second Amendment preservation county” and, alongside the then sheriff, vowed to “actively resist” the bill, according to court documents.

The lawsuits argue that authorities should have used the red flag law after the arrest of the gunman, Anderson Aldrich, a year before he would walk into Club Q firing indiscriminately.

Those killed in the shooting were Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Daniel Aston, Derrick Rump and Ashley Paugh.

In 2021, Aldrich was arrested for allegedly kidnapping and threatening to kill his grandparents, reportedly saying he would become the “next mass killer” and collecting ammunition, bomb-making materials, firearms and body armor, according to court documents.

“You clearly have been planning for something else,” a judge told Aldrich in an 2021 hearing, according to documents previously . “It was saving all these firearms and trying to make this bomb and making statements about other people being involved in some sort of shootout and a huge thing.”

The judge later dismissed all charges for “failure to prosecute” during a four-minute hearing, partly because the prosecution hadn’t been able serve subpoenas to key victims, .

Authorities did not attempt to remove Aldrich’s weapons, the lawsuits allege, and “This deliberate inaction allowed the shooter continued access to firearms, directly enabling the attack on Club Q.”

The suits separately allege negligence and wrongful death against the El Paso County commissioners and former sheriff.

Aldrich, now 24, pled guilty to five counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to a life in prison in 2023 in state court. A year later, Aldrich pled guilty in a federal court to hate crimes and was sentenced to an additional 55 life terms in prison.

Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Now, one of those Club Q drag queens is offering their support to the Steamboat Springs drag community after a recent threat of violence.

Last month, police arrested a 28-year-old man at a Steamboat Springs bar. On Wednesday, that venue — Schmiggity’s Live Music & Dance Bar — is planning to host the biggest iteration of its drag show to date with a groundswell of statewide and national support.

“I had never hoped to be that for someone else, because the hope is you will not be needed,” said the Club Q drag queen, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to safety concerns — and whose stage name is a little too risqué for this newspaper. “But I’m looking forward to being the support that was given to me. Pulse did it for me, so I can show them that Pulse is still going, Club Q is still going — and so are you guys.”

John Clark was arrested July 18 on suspicion of inciting destruction of life or property, menacing, harassment and bias-motivated crime, according to court documents. He has since been criminally charged with inciting destruction of life or property and is due to return to court Aug. 28.

Clark was at another Steamboat Springs bar, Sunpie’s Bistro, that night when he threatened to “shoot up” Schmiggity’s because of the drag show going on at the time, according to his arrest affidavit. Several people at Sunpie’s heard the threats and were concerned, investigators wrote.

Steamboat Springs police guarded Schmiggity’s while other officers interviewed Clark’s roommate, who confirmed Clark had a hunting rifle at home, according to the affidavit. The roommate told police that Clark’s comments were “not OK” and that he tried to get Clark to stop talking about it, but he would not.

Clark’s roommate took the officers to their apartment and convinced Clark to talk to the police. Clark stated he “potentially” made comments about going to Schmiggity’s and causing violence, according to the affidavit.

Sean Brown, Clark’s attorney, told The Denver Post on Monday that when Clark left Sunpie’s after making “comments you probably have a record of,” he went directly home and was in bed when police arrived.

Clark is out of custody on bond, Brown said, and residing within the state.

A drag queen who was performing at Schmiggity’s that night, who also spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity out of fear of their safety, said they didn’t know about the threat until the show ended and someone briefed the performers on the situation.

“This is somebody who is new to the community and doesn’t quite understand our values,” the Steamboat performer said. “They’re going to learn the hard way.”

Everybody was a little shaken up, they said. The drag performers ensured everyone got to their cars safely and headed out of the venue.

Scott Simpson, a community organizer for , a national organization advocating for drag artists, read about the threat from the .

Simpson reached out to the impacted drag artists and offered help to plan the biggest drag show Schmiggity’s has ever hosted.

The event Simpson helped plan, , will feature performances at 9 and 11 p.m. Wednesday at Schmiggity’s. The visiting Club Q performer will host an amateur hour in between.

“They are facing hate, and you can face these things and you can persevere, but I also want to show them that… I’m still struggling, and it’s OK,” the Club Q drag queen said. “It’s OK to be upset about it. It’s OK to be scared. We can all sit and cry together.”

, the local LGBTQ+ resource center for the Yampa Valley, is working with organizers of the Schmiggity’s drag show, local police and violence prevention professionals on a coordinated response and safety plan for Wednesday’s event and future shows.

“We want people to know we’re here and we’re for the community and we’re not going anywhere,” the Schmiggity’s performer said. “We’re not just for the LGBTQ community. Drag is for everybody. Our cast shows that. We’re a mix of everybody — gay, straight, lesbian. I’m always excited to create a safe space for our community to come together and have fun.”

U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney accepted 24-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich’s plea deal with federal prosecutors, which curtailed a drawn-out court process and allowed the mass killer to avoid the death penalty in the 2022 attack on Club Q.

But the judge made Aldrich admit for the first time that the shooting was bias-motivated, targeting victims due to their sexual identity or gender identity.

“You went to this community’s safe place and mass-murdered people, but I hope what you learned today is this community is much stronger than you,” Sweeney said, noting that she felt it was appropriate to sentence Aldrich during Pride Month.

Aldrich already was serving five life sentences plus 2,208 years in prison after pleading guilty to five counts of first-degree murder and related charges in state court last year.

“The admission that these were hate crimes is important to the government, and it����ap important to the community of Club Q,” federal prosecutor Alison Connaughty said.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Aldrich declined the judge’s invitation to address the Club Q victims and families present in the Denver courtroom.

People injured in the mass shooting and loved ones of those who didn’t survive took turns addressing Aldrich, many wishing death upon the killer.

“What I think you should do, because they won’t give you the death penalty, is to eat rat poison and then go to hell,” said Estella Bell, the grandmother of 22-year-old victim Raymond Green Vance.

In addition to Vance, Aldrich killed Daniel Davis Aston, 28; Kelly Loving, 40; Ashley Paugh, 35; and Derrick Rump, 38; after walking into Club Q just before midnight on Nov 19, 2022, and opening fire as patrons screamed and ran for cover.

Club patron Thomas James, a member of the U.S. Navy, was the first to fight back, grabbing the rifle and wrestling Aldrich to the ground. James was shot in the chest during the struggle but kept fighting. He was eventually joined by another club patron, Richard Fierro, and together the pair disarmed and detained Aldrich until police arrived.

“I don’t believe they should be allowed to live”

During the emotional sentencing hearing, survivors and their family members described the night of the attack and how their lives were turned upside-down. The shooter tried to take out the queer community in Colorado Springs, they said, but people will continue loving who they want joyfully.

Members of the audience wiped tears from their eyes as witnesses shared their pain. Some wore clothing with sentimental value, such as concert merchandise purchased with one of the victims, or rainbow-colored accessories.

“I forgive you,” said Wyatt Kent, a drag queen who performed the night of the attack, addressing Aldrich. “We, the queer community, are the resilient ones, and we continue to hold that beauty within each other. We continue to find joy in the trauma and pain and, unfortunately, those are things you will never experience for the rest of your life.”

Jeff Aston, father of victim Daniel Aston, noted that he had to endure a Father’s Day without his son’s usual card and present.

“He was a good son and a good person,” Aston said, his voice trembling. “He certainly didn’t deserve to go this way. We can say all the words we want to defend this person, but they did that horrible act to my son and all the other people, and I don’t believe they should be allowed to live.”

Through tears, Ashtin Gamblin took to the lectern with her husband by her side. Gamblin survived the Club Q attack because of Daniel Aston, she said.

“I’m alive today because of him,” Gamblin said. “I was laying on the floor of a bar while my husband was over 5,000 miles away serving his country, and he got a phone call that I was shot. That����ap not how that job is supposed to work.”

Gamblin, who said she was an ally to the LGBTQ community, advocated for Aldrich to receive the death penalty. Gamblin’s mother, Cheryl Norton, addresses Aldrich after her daughter.

“You have no right to speak,” Norton said, facing the killer. “You need to pay with your life. You have taken five souls away from these people, and it cannot be forgiven.”

Norton said she asked Daniel Aston to protect her daughter before they went out. Norton said Aston jumped in front of Gamblin to shield her from the bullets and that Gamblin lay in Aston’s blood after being hit to hide from the shooter.

Aston’s final words to Norton will forever haunt her, she said.

“He said, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll keep her safe,’ ” Norton said. “And he did, your honor. He did just that.”

“You can’t kill our love and spirit”

Federal prosecutors said in court filings that Aldrich expressed anti-LGBTQ rhetoric online before the mass shooting, sending a “barrage of emails containing anti-gay slurs and commentary” to a former supervisor, who was gay, after being fired about a month before the attack. Aldrich also shared a photo that depicts a rifle sight pointed at what appears to be a gay pride parade with the comment “lol” (meaning “laughing out loud”), prosecutors said.

Aldrich identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, defense attorneys have said. In state court, Aldrich told a judge they prefer to be referred to as “Mx. Aldrich.” Judge Sweeney referred to the shooter primarily as “Mr. Aldrich.”

The 24-year-old visited Club Q at least eight times before the mass shooting, apparently without incident.

State prosecutors expressed doubt about Aldrich’s gender and have said there is “zero evidence” Aldrich identified as nonbinary before the mass shooting. Federal prosecutors, on the other hand, referred to Aldrich with gender-neutral terms in court filings.

Aldrich has previously been prescribed medications used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression and mood disorders, prior court proceedings have shown.

In addition to the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, prosecutors said Aldrich amassed an arsenal in the two years before the attack, spending at least $9,000 on weapons-related purchases, which they said showed his careful planning.

Federal prosecutors noted that Aldrich visited Club Q about 90 minutes before the attack, and had a hand-drawn map of the club with entrances and exits marked, as well as a binder of training material entitled, “How to Handle an Active Shooter.”

“I’m sure the shooter thinks he took our spirit that night,” said Ed Sanders, who was shot in the back and leg. “You cannot destroy our community by killing individuals. You can’t kill our love and spirit.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.