Democrats in Colorado managed to enact a number of new restrictions on the lawful exercise of our Second Amendment rights this year, including an expansion of the state’s “red flag” law, barring adults under the age of 21 from purchasing any firearm, imposing a three-day waiting period on all firearm transfers, and making it easier to sue gun makers for the actions of violent criminals.
According to the editors at Sentinel Colorado, the new laws are “real solutions” to “rampant gun violence”, though in their lavish support for the new laws they never do explain why the existing gun control laws already in place, including universal background checks and a ban on “large capacity” magazines have failed to make a dent in the state’s rising violent crime rate. And just like almost every other gun prohibitionist out there, while the editors are extremely pleased at the new infringements, they’re still demanding more. A lot more.
In addition, new laws raise the age of buying a firearm in Colorado to 21. Given the potential destruction firearms can inflict, it’s only prudent to ensure adults decide gun access to minors and young adults.
Lawmakers failed, however, to extend the logic of requiring a higher age for gun purchase, possession and use.
There is no practical reason for anyone under the age of 21 to fire, possess or carry a civilian firearm. Rather than look the other way when children use firearms, state lawmakers should systematically find ways to prevent children embracing dangerous gun culture at an early age.
Good lord. No reason for an adult younger than 21 to keep and bear arms? I didn’t realize that under-21s are immune to burglaries, carjackings, home invasions, stalkings, or other criminal acts of violence that can lead to death or great bodily harm.
If an 18-year-old has the same First Amendment rights as a 22-year-old, why should their Second Amendment rights kick in at 21-years-of-age and not when they reach adulthood? Sadly, that’s not even the worst idea from the Sentinel editors.
Related to that, earlier in the legislative session, Democrats imploded their own bill focusing on banning the sale of assault weapons. Doomed from the beginning, banning the sale — not possession — would have allowed tens of thousands of current assault-weapon-style rifles and guns to stay with Colorado owners. Worse yet, Colorado residents would have been able to buy them in neighboring states.
Since Congress is incapable any more of addressing the problem of gun violence, it’s important states like Colorado step and engage with these important bans.
Colorado should emulate the successes in Australia and New Zealand, which actually banned and then destroyed such weapons, helping ensure those nations enjoy some of the lowest gun violence rates in the world.
Australia and New Zealand had lower violent crime and homicide rates than the United States long before either country instituted their compensated confiscation programs, and the Sentinel editors are apparently unaware that violent crime has actually increased in New Zealand since its gun confiscation efforts kicked off in 2019, and in August of 2022 New Zealand news outlet RMZ reported that firearm injuries and deaths were being recorded at record rates across the country.
I guess facts don’t matter to these supposed journalists, especially if they conflict with their own personal feelings. But given the fact that handguns, not modern sporting rifles, are the weapons of choice for both law-abiding citizens and the state’s violent criminals, I can’t help but wonder why the website’s editors didn’t just go ahead and call for a full repeal of the Second Amendment, or at least endorse Sarai Rao’s planned protest and sit-in at the Colorado state capitol where she and other prohibitionists are vowing to remain in place until Gov. Jared Polis signs an executive order banning all guns in the state. If you’re already going to call for one unconstitutional measure, you might as well go all in and back full blown prohibition and confiscation, right?
While we’re definitely seeing more anti-gun activists move in that direction, the gun control lobby is still publicly committed to an incremental approach. Gun control groups have ignored Gabby Giffords’ “no more guns” statement (including Giffords itself) choosing instead to reiterate their demands for “commonsense” and “reasonable” measures. But as the Colorado Sentinel editors remind us, today’s gun control law is tomorrow’s “loophole”, and the anti-gunners won’t be satisfied until they’ve obliterated our Second Amendment rights altogether.
