Anti-gunners have long supported gun purchase waiting periods. They’re of the belief that if you make law-abiding citizens wait to buy a gun, it’ll appreciably decrease the amount of violent crime…despite the fact that most criminals obtain firearms through illegal means, which don’t include waiting periods.

Regardless, the subject kind of fizzled in a lot of ways until the mass shooting in Atlanta, Georgia where the killer purchased a firearm that day.

Now, people are pushing for gun purchase waiting periods for one and all.

However, in Colorado, Democrats are backing away from the idea.

Democratic state lawmakers have shelved efforts to pass a bill imposing a gun-purchase waiting period this year, as they had planned before the 2021 lawmaking term began.

State Rep. Steve Woodrow, a Denver Democrat, was slated to be the prime sponsor of the measure. He said the massacre at a Boulder King Soopers reshaped lawmakers’ gun-control plans this year and they decided to focus on other policies.

“After the shooting we worked diligently to craft a package of bills that will have the most impact and that’s the package we’re moving forward with this session,” he said in a written statement.

State Rep. Tom Sullivan, a Centennial Democrat whose son was murdered in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, said the waiting-period bill could be introduced at the Capitol next year.

“It’s a work in progress,” he said. “We’ll keep working on it.”

It’s a bit surprising that they backed down on this, especially considering the amount of anti-gun legislation being passed in the state right now.

However, this is what they said before. Since then, there’s been another shooting in Colorado Springs. It’s entirely possible that, as more information surfaces, this decision will be revisited and we may still see an effort to push for gun purchase waiting periods this year.

Regardless, though, it’s likely that it’s only a matter of time before there’s some degree of waiting period in Colorado. If it doesn’t happen this year or next, it’ll happen shortly thereafter. The truth is that Colorado likes its gun control. This latest mass shooting in Colorado Springs is only going to make it more likely for the state to continue sliding toward the anti-gun extreme.

Which is unfortunate, because all the gun control in the world won’t stop a determined attacker.

Then again, gun control isn’t really about that. It’s about managing the day-to-day actions of law-abiding citizens, making it harder for them to buy guns. That’s why we’re likely to see Colorado embrace gun purchase waiting periods within the next few years, even without Colorado Springs.

Now, the real question is whether recent events will change the timeline or not. For that, we’ll need more information. Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time the gun control crowd jumped on a shooting and demanded gun control before the facts were even starting to roll in.

If they don’t, though, then maybe there’s time for pro-gun groups in the state to undermine the messaging we keep seeing by anti-gun groups, politicians, and the media.