In Colorado, They’re Cracking the Code on Gun Control: It Doesn’t Work

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Writing over the weekend in the Denver Post, George H. Brauchler—former district attorney for the Centennial State’s 18^th Judicial District—wrote something that might be considered blasphemy among anti-gun politicians and gun prohibition lobbying groups.

Brauchler was discussing mass shootings in Colorado in a story headlined, “Gun laws may prevent some crimes, but mass shootings isn’t one of them.” He mentioned shootings dating all the way back to Columbine High School and included the carnage at the Aurora theater in 2012. His summation boiled down to this:

“But linking current federal and state legislation to preventing horrors like Boulder is mere political opportunism. We must continue to work to keep firearms out of the wrong hands, but we must also recognize that we cannot legislate away evil.”

Almost simultaneously, CPR was reporting that gun owners in the state “are gearing up to oppose any new proposed restrictions, despite the fact that the most controversial proposal has not yet been introduced.” The story quotes Mario Acevedo, a Denver novelist “who is both a Democrat and a gun owner.”

“Acevedo does not think new gun laws provide the solution,” the story reveals. “He said data has convinced him that gangs, drug trafficking and mental illness are the drivers of gun deaths, not firearms.”

Perhaps this excerpt from the story says it best, quoting Acevedo:

“Colorado passed the universal background check and the high capacity magazine ban that was done under the premise that it was going to prevent mass shootings. The state passed the red flag law, the ERPO [Extreme Risk Protection Order] that again was done on the premise of preventing mass shootings. And it didn’t.”

Colorado has seen its share of trouble over the past 20-plus years. But at least some residents are realizing what many in the Second Amendment community have been saying for years is correct:

Gun control doesn’t stop people from committing mayhem because those determined to harm other people will find a way to do it.

In 2019, according to data AmmoLand found at the CDC website, there were 19,141 homicides. The FBI Uniform Crime Report for that year lists 13,927 slayings, including 10,258 involving firearms. When the most authoritative agencies in the U.S. that keep such data are not in agreement, it would suggest there is room for debate on how to reduce the body count. If the Colorado experience is any indicator, passing gun control laws that only affect law-abiding citizens rather than criminals is not the solution.

AmmoLand has previously reported the situation in Washington State, where the passage of extremist gun control initiatives in 2014 and 2018 that were both sold to the voters as preventive measures have hardly lived up to the advertising.

The 2014 law mandated so-called “universal background checks” on firearms transfers, with some exceptions. In 2016, the state saw two high-profile shootings, one at a teen party in Mukilteo that claimed three lives and a few months later in Burlington that left five people dead. In the first instance, the 19-year-old killer passed a background check to purchase a semi-auto modern sporting rifle. Since he had no criminal background, he was able to buy the gun. In the second incident, the killer took a rifle from his stepfather’s house—thus avoiding a background check altogether—and essentially neutered the law.

Focus on Seattle, headquarters city to the billionaire-backed Alliance for Gun Responsibility, which is holding its 9^th annual fund raising luncheon on April 20—again a virtual event due to the continuing pandemic—where gun control efforts have failed dramatically to reduce homicides.

In 2015, the city council hastily adopted a “gun tax” on firearms and ammunition sales to raise funds for “gun violence prevention” efforts. The following years saw 19 murders, according to Seattle police data. In 2017, the city reported 27 homicides and in 2018, the body count went up to 32. In 2019, the city logged 35 murders and last year there were 52 slayings, the highest in more than a dozen years.

Back in Colorado, Denver Post readers were reminded by Brauchler, “Despite the apparent legal purchase of the murder weapon used in Boulder, less than one day after the horror, Democratic Congressman Jason Crow tweeted, “The House passed #HR8 and #HR1446 (background check bills) to help prevent tragedies like we saw last night.” That correlation is misplaced and misdirects our focus from efforts that would likely have greater impact. Colorado legislators urged passage of legislation requiring firearms be safely stored and their theft reported. None of those laws would have prevented Boulder or most of the other mass murders we have experienced.”

The former prosecutor “cracked the code” and identified the primary problem with all knee-jerk gun control. The proposed solutions don’t address the crime.

It should be no mystery why Coloradoans are reportedly resistant to the new gun control proposals following Boulder. Passing another ineffective gun control law may be good for a headline, but not much else. Perhaps that accounts for Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) remark last month during a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee following the Georgia and Colorado shooting incidents.

“Every time there’s a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders,” Cruz stated.

He refuted an assertion from anti-gun Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) that all Republicans ever offered were “thoughts and prayers” in the aftermath of such crimes.

“The senator from Connecticut knows that is false,” Cruz responded, “and he knows that’s false, because Sen. (Chuck) Grassley (R-IA) and I together introduced legislation … targeted at violent criminals, targeted at felons, targeted at fugitives, targeted at those with serious mental disease to stop them from getting firearms and put them in prison when they try to illegally buy guns,” as quoted by The Hill.

Yet, with Democrats now in control on Capitol Hill and the White House, the same pattern is once again emerging. Joe Biden called for a ban on “assault weapons” after Boulder. Others want quick action on two background check measures recently passed by the House, despite the fact that both shooters passed background checks.

Translation: The “solutions” offered by anti-gunners penalize all gun owners for crimes committed by individuals, and put more emphasis on the murder weapon than the perpetrator. And those offering solutions never admit their previous measures failed miserably. At least in Colorado, they’re beginning to figure it out.