Colorado gun owners will soon be required to keep their firearms locked up when they're being stored in vehicles, or else risk the possibility of a $500 fine under a bill signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday. 

The new law, which takes effect on January 1st, 2025, mandates that any firearm left in a vehicle must be kept in a locked container; a center console, glovebox, or in-car safe. Long guns can be kept in a soft-sided case, but it still must be locked and secured in order to comply with the law. 

While the measure imposes a civil fine up to $500 for violations, it doesn't contain any increased penalties for actually stealing a gun. Republicans offered a bill earlier this session that would have made it a serious crime to steal a gun, but Democrats have been reluctant to impose new punishments that involve prison time, and they defeated that bill in committee. A Democrat attempted to amend the gun storage bill with a provision that made gun theft a high-level misdemeanor, but it too was killed off in a conference committee earlier this month. 

During the Senate's second reading of the bill, Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, pushed an amendment designating the theft of a firearm valued at $2,000 or less as a Class 1 misdemeanor. 

The amendment passed through the Senate, but the bill's sponsors in the House, Reps. Lorena Garcia, D-Denver, and Elizabeth Velasco, D-Glenwood Springs, argued it did not fit under the title of the bill and requested a conference committee. 

... Because the House sponsors did not concur with the Senate's amendment to the bill, a panel of legislators composed of the bill's sponsors and two Republicans convened to discuss. 

During the committee, Rep. Armagost argued that the entire purpose of passing a law mandating secure firearm storage in a vehicle is to deter theft. While acknowledging critics' concerns about the amendment narrowing the scope of the bill, he argued it now does the opposite. Armagost also contended that secure storage requirements alone might not effectively reduce theft, at least not as much as an increased penalty would.

He proposed changing the bill's name from "Secure Firearm Storage in a Vehicle" to "Secure Firearm Storage in a Vehicle to Prevent Theft of Firearms" to ensure the amendment is within the title's scope.

"Most firearms that are stolen are stolen from vehicles. I think this is a huge issue that we need to focus on," he said.  "I think this would be a great way to address keeping the amendments that the Senate made but also helping keep them in the title of the bill.

It was asinine for Democrats to claim that including penalties for gun theft would call the legality of the bill into question, but they really gave their game away when they refused to change the title to address their feigned concerns. 

This has been a pattern for the Democrats in Denver this year. Their failed "assault weapon" ban originally included no time behind bars for offenders, instead imposing a $250,000 fine for violations of the law. Democrats even turned away a bill that would have imposed a mandatory minimum sentence for those convicted of child sex trafficking; defeating the measure on a party-line vote in the House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee in February. 

At least they didn't pass a bill that would have fined those victims of child sex trafficking for allowing themselves to be abducted, which is essentially what they've done with gun owners who are the victims of a burglary to their vehicles. 

This measure is going to be incredibly difficult to enforce and it's probably not going to be a priority for many jurisdictions, but it's still another attack on gun owners when lawmakers should be going after real criminals. Instead, Colorado Democrats cutting burglars and even sex traffickers some slack, but they're making it more difficult and legally dangerous to exercise our Second Amendment rights.