Colorado Republicans call state gun control bill unconstitutional

DENVER — Senate Republicans on Tuesday charged that legislation seeking to effectively ban lawmakers from bringing firearms into the state Capitol is unconstitutional.

Senate Bill 131, as introduced, would have banned firearms, including concealed weapons, from 19 identified “sensitive spaces,” including schools, colleges, parks, recreation centers, protests and rallies, and local government buildings.

The bill’s Democratic sponsors, Sens. Sonja Jaquez Lewis of Longmont and Chris Kolker of Centennial, narrowed its scope in a Senate Judiciary Committee last week. The panel not only changed the bill’s title — a fairly unusual move — but also added the state Capitol to the list of “sensitive spaces,” while removing more than a dozen others.

The bill title change is meant to denote the bill would comply with two U.S. Supreme Court rulings. Firearms have been prohibited at the state Capitol for members of the public since 2007, but lawmakers have long carried weapons into the building, included loaded weapons. 

The Senate committee whittled down the list to a few areas — to colleges, universities and schools; local government offices and courthouses; and polling locations.

> Read the full story on Colorado Politics.

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