Colorado say goodbye to liberty, freedom and MAGPUL.
Update: The Colorado House just passed the magazine limit 34-31, with three Democrats voting no. On to the state Senate. Meanwhile, three more gun control measures up for recorded votes today
Colorado House passes bills on background check fees, universal background checks,15-round magazine limit
http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-...in-but-limited
A bill requiring gun purchasers to pay the costs of their own background checks cleared the Colorado House on Monday, the same day the chamber passed bills requiring background checks on private firearms sales and limiting gun magazines to 15 rounds.
House Bill 1228, which requires gun buyers to pay the cost of their state background checks with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, cleared the House on a 33-32 vote. Four Democrats voted against the bill.
The fee would range from $5 to $12.
"This bill has absolutely nothing, zero, to do with public safety," said Rep. Brian DelGrosso, R-Loveland. "This bill is taking advantage of a tragedy that's out there to demonize law-abiding citizens who are exercising their Second Amendment rights and using it as a way to generate $4 million to $5 million in increased taxes on these people."
But Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, noted that the background fee on gun purchases was nothing new and had been enacted originally under a Republican-controlled legislature in 1994. The state ended the fee in 1999 because at that time, the fee had generated so much money, it was going to exceed revenue limits under the state's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.
"So, while I would like to say we are trailblazers in this building," Pabon said, "that is not the case."
Several states, from California to Pennsylvania, require residents to pay fees that vary between $2 and $25 for background checks R-Dacono, said current lawmakers weren't responsible for that.
"Rep. Pabon, please don't hold us accountable for the sins of our forefathers," Saine said.
The vote on the fee for background checks was the third of four recorded votes being taken on a package of gun bills. Earlier in the day, House Bill 1229, to require background checks on private sales and transfers, passed on a 36-29 vote, with one Democrat voting against, while House Bill 1224, limiting gun magazines to 15 rounds, on a 34-31 vote, with three Democrats voting against it.
Early in the guns debate Monday, Rep. Ed Vigil, D-Fort Garland, stood at the well of the House — with the entire GOP caucus standing at the same time — and said he would vote against all four gun bills. Vigil described how his family came to Colorado in the 1850s.
"They carried weapons to settle this land. This is part of our heritage," he said. "I cannot turn my back on that."
Speaking in favor of the background checks bill, state Rep. Beth McCann, D-Denver, said it was unfair that buyers of guns at retail outlets and gun shows had to undergo the checks but people buying guns from individuals did not.
"This bill is about a level playing field for everyone who wants to purchase a gun in Colorado," McCann said.
But Republicans arguing against the bill said the required checks would not stop criminals from getting guns and would be unenforceable without gun registration.
"This bill will not prevent criminals from getting guns, it will just require them to go a different avenue to get those guns," said Lori Saine, R-Dacono.
While the bill says background checks are not required for transfers from immediate family members — defined as spouses, children, siblings, grandparents and grandchildren — it doesn't include in-laws, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews and cousins.
Rep. Polly Lawrence, R-Littleton, said it was unreasonable for family members to ask each other to undergo background checks when giving each other firearms as gifts.
McCann, one of the gun magazine bill's sponsors, said high-capacity magazines had been used in numerous high-profile spree shootings, citing in particular the case of Jared Loughner, who used one in the Tucson shooting in which U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head.
"It was because he (Loughner) was reloading one of those high-capacity magazines that he was prevented from killing additional people." McCann said, saying Loughner was only tacked because of the pause needed to reload.
House Minority Leader Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs, said it was "absolutely inconsistent" for Democrats to have added an amendment to the bill in an attempt to keep Erie -based gun magazine manufacturer Magpul from leaving the state. The amendment says manufacturers could still make high-capacity magazines for out-of-state sale.
"Apparently, they (high-capacity magazines) are not instruments of destruction when they're purchased outside the borders of Colorado," Waller said.
The House on Friday debated four gun bills for 12 hours as Democratic leaders threatened to stretch the debate into Saturday if Republicans continued to speak against the bills on the floor.
All the bills won initial approval in the House on voice votes Friday, but on Monday it was time for recorded votes and a more limited debate.
House rules limit debate during what is known as "third reading," or the final vote on a measure, to two trips to the microphone per lawmaker, who can only speak for a total of 10 minutes, although there are some exceptions.
Republicans are opposed to all four bills, which they alternately claim are unconstitutional, will do nothing for public safety or will drive business out of Colorado.
House Bill 1229 requires background checks for all gun transactions; House Bill 1226 involves concealed carry permits on campuses; House Bill 1228 institutes a fee for gun buyers to cover the cost of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to perform background checks; and House Bill 1224 limits magazines to 15 rounds.
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