Pueblo County commissioners urge Colorado governor to veto semiautomatic gun control bill

Yahoo

03-04-2025

The Pueblo Board of County Commissioners passed a resolution April 1 opposing Colorado Senate Bill 3, which would ban the manufacture and drastically restrict the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms that accept detachable ammunition magazines.
SB-3 would prohibit Coloradans from buying most semiautomatic rifles as well as some semiautomatic shotguns and pistols, unless they get approval from the local county sheriff and complete up to a dozen hours of training administered by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The bill passed the Colorado Legislature by a vote of 19-15 on March 28, with three Democrats, including Sen. Nick Hinrichsen of Pueblo, joining every Senate Republican in opposition to the bill, according to the Colorado Sun.
Hinrichsen told the Chieftain Wednesday he opposed the bill because he feels it's the wrong approach to the problem of gun violence.
"We have a high-capacity magazine ban that's been in existence for about 12 years now -- I support that, and I think we have a mechanism to enforce that now that didn't exist in the past, with the CBI and licensing bill that was passed last year," he said. "I think that is the appropriate way of addressing the issue of the types of firearms we're seeing used in mass shootings without infringing Second Amendment rights."
Hinrichsen said SB-3 took a "haphazard, arbitrary" approach in which traditional hunting firearms would be exempted from the new law, and said he believes there are "gaps" in the training element, such as how active-duty or honorably discharged veterans and law enforcement officers, despite past training on the safe use of firearms, would not be exempted from the requirement.
"I think there are just so many gaps if you're going to go this route. It's costly and unnecessary, and for those reasons I was opposed," Hinrichsen said.
The local BOCC resolution, spearheaded by Republican Board Chairman Zach Swearingen, urged Gov. Jared Polis to veto the bill on several grounds, including violation of the Second Amendment, an undue burden on local gun stores, and a burden to the sheriff in enforcement, as the sheriff would be required to fingerprint and conduct background checks on applicants to determine if they meet the criteria to receive a firearms course card without any additional funding or resources.
The bill would also cost the state an estimated $1.4 million in the first year and $500,000 per year after to maintain, according to Swearingen's resolution.
Swearingen argued that the bill would drive many gun stores out of business or out of state, and would require "law-abiding citizens to jump through hoops and pay significant fees in order to exercise their Second Amendment rights."
"There's a lot of unconstitutional pieces to (SB-3)," Swearingen said. "It is already hurting mom-and-pop gun shops, I've already heard several have moved out of state. By our Constitution, (gun ownership) is a right. You are forcing people to take a test for a right. And that's a slippery slope."
Swearingen stated he believed the bill, if signed by Polis, would likely be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, but it would likely take four to five years to get there, at which point the damage would already be done.
He further argued that the Second Amendment was "not intended for hunting," but for people to defend themselves and their families, including from the government.
Fellow Republican board member Paula McPheeters also supported the resolution.
"As a fellow gun owner, I know I can't rely on anyone coming to protect me, and that's inherent in the Constitution," McPheeters said.
"The Second Amendment states that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Federal law always supersedes state law, and state law is trying to supersede the Second Amendment... As a gun owner, as a citizen, a commissioner, and a woman, I oppose any infringement on my right to firearms, so I support this and will be a yes vote."
Commissioner Miles Lucero, the board's lone Democrat, said he opposed SB-3, but also opposed the resolution as written, stating that even as a gun owner himself, he believes the Second Amendment can be regulated.
"It's crazy to me to say that the founding fathers wrote the Second Amendment of the Constitution with the knowledge that we'd have these horrific killing machines at the disposal of the public," Lucero said. "If we want to revise this resolution to say it's a significant cost at a time when the state doesn't have money, if there's implementation hurdles, there's going to be legal challenges, all of that is true."
"I'm not fully on board with the idea that exemptions don't apply to law enforcement officials or honorably discharged veterans," Lucero continued. "I don't think they should have to go through these training courses. And to be abundantly clear, this bill doesn't say you can't own these firearms, it says you have to take a course to do so."
Lucero pointed out that firearms are the leading cause of death for U.S. children under the age of 19 since 2020.
After some additional back and forth, commissioners passed the resolution 2-1 along party lines.
In a statement to the Chieftain, Pueblo County Sheriff David Lucero also expressed his opposition to the bill.
"I opposed this bill as it places another level of bureaucracy on county sheriffs," Lucero said. "It is also disparate because to purchase a firearm, you would now have to pay the sheriff to run a background check and pass and then the sheriff must issue a permit which would be valid for five years. Then, you have to go purchase the firearm and pay for another background check through Instacheck before you can purchase it.
"A firearm itself is already cost-prohibitive and expensive, so this adds multiple levels of financial impacts in order to possess or own a firearm," he said.
"It is almost like you have to be part of a special, exclusive club to have a firearm. This bill doesn't do anything for law-abiding citizens who want to legally own a firearm, instead, it has the potential to fuel black market sales for criminals, who won't follow this law anyway. Law-abiding citizens in Pueblo County love their firearms, and this is yet another layer that doesn't strengthen public safety but puts more restrictions on them."
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This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo leaders urge Colorado governor to veto gun control bill