Colorado Gov. Jared Polis isn't a staunch defender of the Second Amendment, but he's better than a lot of his fellow Democrats on guns. No, that's not saying a whole heck of a lot, to be honest, but we know that while he'll support gun control, he'll only take it so far.
And if he thinks a bit of gun control is spilling over into other rights, he's far more likely to break out the veto.
Which is why the state's new law on 3D printing guns left out a key provision that a lot of other states are fully embracing.
A bill seeking to ban 3-D printed firearms in Colorado will no longer prohibit the sale or distribution of digital instructions for how to print guns or gun components after lawmakers dropped that provision to avoid a veto from Gov. Jared Polis.
Senate sponsors of the measure, House Bill 1144, said on Friday that they were told by Polis that he would not sign the bill without the change, which was made that day as the measure was being debated in the Senate. The bill, which later passed a preliminary vote, would still largely ban the manufacture of 3-D printed guns and gun components, such as high-capacity magazines and receivers.
Eric Maruyama, a spokesperson for Polis’ office, did not say why Polis opposed the provision to ban the distribution of printing instructions when asked on Friday.
...Critics of the proposed ban on instruction distribution said it would have limited access to information and infringed on First Amendment rights. Bill sponsors said they were frustrated about having to drop the provision, something they saw as a core component of the measure.
“It’s unfortunate that the key parts of this legislation had to be removed to get this signed this year,” said Tom Sullivan, D-Centennial, who added that “community members asked us for these inclusions.”
Sen. Katie Wallace, D-Longmont, said she felt conversations about the bill with the governor’s office “came much too late in the process.” The bill was introduced in the House on Feb. 3 and passed the chamber on March 2.
“We still think that there are helpful things in this bill, considering the harms that these technologies can create,” Wallace said. “We appreciate the governor letting us know he would have vetoed the bill without this amendment, and we look forward to fighting another day for it.”
In other words, it's far from dead; they're just waiting for the next Democrat to be governor so they can push it through then.
Of course, by then, this particular provision might well be declared unconstitutional, so it wouldn't matter, but we'll have to see.
"But community members wanted them!"
So what? "Community members" ask for all sorts of unconstitutional things. That doesn't mean they should get them. Plus, the phrase "community members" just means some people in the community. Most people either didn't want them or didn't care. It was just the vocal percentage that somehow thinks you can regulate data that they listened to here.
The courts have long held that computer data is a form of speech, so just as I can own a copy of PA Luty's book, The Anarchist's Cookbook, a copy of Field Expedient Explosives, and a host of other books that instruct me how to do things that aren't legal to actually do, I can own files for printing out a firearm, even if the act itself is illegal.
Of course, the law that was signed is still unconstitutional as hell, and I suspect that sooner or later, the Supreme Court will have to address this and throw all of these measures out the window, so it won't matter in the long run, but for now, it's still a problem for folks in Colorado.
That's a shame, too, because it's such a lovely state.
