Colorado’s Democratic-controlled House on Sunday passed a bill that would ban the sale and transfer of semiautomatic firearms, a major step for the legislation after roughly the same bill was swiftly killed by Democrats last year.

The bill, which passed on a 35-27 vote, is now on its way to the Democratic-led state Senate. If it passes there, it could bring Colorado in line with 10 other states — including California, New York and Illinois — that have prohibitions on semiautomatic guns.

But even in a state plagued by some of the nation’s worst mass shootings, such legislation faces headwinds.

Colorado’s political history is purple, shifting blue only recently. The bill’s chances of success in the state Senate are lower than they were in the House, where Democrats have a 46-19 majority and a bigger far-left flank. Gov. Jared Polis, also a Democrat, has indicated his wariness over such a ban.

  • thantik@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    This will get struck down, and it’ll be the one thing I agree with when it does. You can’t just make everything except bolt-action rifles illegal. Semi-automatic firearms encompasses 99% of what people use for self defense in America. This is a clear violation of rights.

    • kobra@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Right or wrong it’s a constitutional right for a reason, and that reason has nothing to do with hunting.

      Similar to GOP and abortion, dems need to drop this fight. Let’s fix healthcare and save/improve more lives than almost everything else you could spend time on.

      • BallsandBayonets@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I would prefer much stronger gun control laws and I still agree with you. There are better fights to fight and more likely to win. This feels like empty posturing in an election year.

      • BigMacHole@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        It is my CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to own a ROCKET LAUNCHER! You CAN’T Discriminate between Firearms! Also TRANS PEOPLE shouldn’t get Free Speech!

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Agreed. The 2A is a right, full stop. Doesn’t matter if you or I like it, the courts agree, and have historically.

      You’ll get a dozen dumb arguments, but none will address the fact of the 2A. And there’s no way it gets overturned given our amendment procedures.

      This is actually a pretty dumb stunt. It’s going to lose in court, zero doubt. And now there’s more precedence.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      You can’t just make everything except bolt-action rifles illegal.

      Britain did.

      And if we’re going on the intent of the founders, they mostly had muzzle-loaders in mind. They certainly didn’t consider automatic weapons able to fire huge amounts of bullets extremely quickly.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Britain doesn’t have a 2nd Amendment.

        Now, if you want to repeal it, sure, there’s a process for that…

        Start by getting 290 votes in the House. The same body that struggles to get a simple 218 vote majority to decide who their own leader is.

        Then you get 67 votes in the Senate. The same body that struggles to get 60 votes to overcome a filibuster.

        Then, assuming you get all that, you need ratification from 38 states. In 2020, Biden and Trump split the states 25/25. So you need ALL the Biden states (good luck getting Georgia!) and 13 Trump states. For every Biden state you lose, you need +1 Trump state.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Unless you just have a sensible court that don’t claim to be “Originalists” while at the same time ignoring the fact that the arms the founders were think of were not ones that didn’t exist at the time.

          • MorrisonMotel6@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            Email and Twitter didn’t exist at the time either, but they are still protected under the First and Fourth Amendments. Cell phones with unlock codes didn’t exist, but they’re still covered under the Fourth Amendment That’s a spurious argument that holds zero merit.

            The Second Amendment might not be something you like, but modern firearms are ABSOLUTELY covered. The second amendment must be altered or removed from the Constitution to come even close to what you’re asking. And that process was explained to you up the thread a little

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              And yet “originalist” judges say that we need to consider what the founders meant. Except, apparently, when it comes to one half of one amendment.

          • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Well, then you need to spend 50 years dedicated to changing the makeup of the Court the way the Republicans did with Roe… see you in 2074! Well, not me PERSONALLY, but you get the idea. ;)

    • BigMacHole@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Agreed! It’s UNCONSTITUTIONAL to have ANY form of Regulation on Arms! Why is it ILLEGAL for me to not be able to own a Grenade Launcher? UNCONSTITUTIONAL!