When we write about the media’s bias against the Second Amendment, one point we can often bring up to support that assertion is how nearly universal newspaper editorials are in supporting gun control. The editorial boards generally speak for the publication as a whole, and while the publication might well permit individual writers to have their own voices, we also know where their preferences lie.
Advertisement
Yet every now and then, we’ll see one that’s an exception.
Often, they’re small-town publications with editorial boards that are more likely to lean rural in their beliefs, but sometimes they’re not. Sometimes, it’s simply a more conservative publication in a larger city.
Like this one from the online-only Denver Gazette.
To impose a litany of dangerous new gun-control measures of questionable legality, legislative Democrats have put ignorance on full display.
Take, for example, Rep. Chad Clifford’s recent comments reported by the Colorado State Shooting Association (the official state association of the NRA) in a March 28 email. After multiple gun owners testified that Senate Bill 066 would establish a state gun registry, Clifford responded during a committee hearing:
“We have a lot of databases… we have the CBI records checks that we already check. We have your concealed weapons permits… so I don’t know that we are looking at some newfangled database specifically to create something to identify who has a gun. We have that. That exists…”
John Seville, president of the Colorado State Shooting Association, tells us Clifford “is either remarkably confused, or saying the quiet part out loud.”
Fact 1: There is no state gun registry. Fact 2: Democrats are pursuing a bill to accomplish exactly what Rep. Clifford says they have. The bill would force those who process transactions for firearms retailers to use a category code that would facilitate a registry.
Advertisement
There’s nothing in this section to take issue with. Nothing at all. For one thing, Clifford is off his rocker if he thinks that they know where the guns are in Colorado, a state that was pretty pro-gun up until fairly recently.
All that information may help get an idea of who may have guns, it’s not the whole shebang.
What’s more, it sure makes it sound like we should have more of an issue with any records being kept of gun sales if they serve as a de facto gun registration scheme.
Yet this particular editorial was far from finished.
A slate of other proposals reveal that other legislative Democrats are similarly clueless about guns and appropriate regulations — those that would genuinely save lives. Examples:
• “Safe storage” of firearms in vehicles (HB24-1348)
Proponents must hope carjackers, rapists and murderers hold their fire when a victim struggles in self-defense to retrieve a gun from a locked container under the seat. It is a guaranteed way to create an imbalance of power that favors criminals over victims. It could have no other effect.
Now, in theory, one would only need to keep the gun secured in some kind of storage device when they’re not in the vehicle, but the reality is that people aren’t going to swap the gun from the center console to the safe and back each and every time they get out of the car.
They also point out how the state’s assault weapon ban simply defines such weapons as any semi-automatic firearm that accepts a magazine.
Advertisement
That’s the vast majority of defensive handguns on the market here and now. If those are suddenly termed as “assault weapons,” then Colorado is about to have a major problem. Most people’s handguns for self-defense will be deemed illegal, thus forcing them to use revolvers or shotguns instead.
While I don’t fault anyone for choosing to use either of those for defense, I also don’t think they’re necessarily ideal for most people, either. It should be up to the individual to decide what meets their needs and what doesn’t, and Colorado’s weapons-grade stupid is supremely stupid.
I’m glad to see it called out from within the state and not just from the Second Amendment advocacy groups, either.
