You're welcome Storm, I do what I can .

Received this yesterday from the NRA/ILA:

"Tomorrow, April 25, the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee is scheduled to consider Senate Bill 113 at 1:30 p.m. in Room 271 of the Capitol Building.  Please contact members of the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee and politely urge them to SUPPORT SB 113 when it comes up for a vote."

Please use Storm's link above to contact these members.

It says Senate Bill, but should be House Bill 16-113.

All 3 pro gun bills were voted down last night , per what I am reading on the net. When I find a good link, I will post it here.

ETA: I did find this link that shows it being voted down, right down the party lines:

http://www.coloradocapitolwatc.../SB16-113/2016/0/all

Once again guys, good job staying on top of this important issue. We knew the end result was a possibility... but we live to fight another day!

I have to admit that I wasn't aware of this bill until I received the NRA-ILA update on it.

I support legal hunting but do not support poaching... but I think this bill goes too far and has some potentially dangerous downsides.

The NRA urges that gun owners oppose this bill and I concur. Please contact your elected reps. and urge them to oppose it as well.

Tomorrow, May 4, the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee is scheduled to hear House Bill 1341. Please contact members of the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee and politely urge them to OPPOSE HB 1341.

Sponsored by state Representative Joann Ginal (D-52), HB 1341 would punish law-abiding citizens who collect and trade ordinary items, including antiques, artwork, jewelry, knives, firearms and accessories, furniture and many other lawfully owned and obtained items that contain ivory or any other “covered animal species part or product.” The purported goal of HB 1341 is to prevent poaching and trafficking of animals threatened with extinction. However, it encompasses hundreds of animals in the family classes of elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, lions, leopards, cheetahs, pangolins, marine turtles, sharks and rays that are not all under threat in the wild. While the NRA supports efforts to stop poaching and the illegal trade of animal products, HB 1341 would not materially contribute to that goal. While this bill contains limited exceptions, it would harm those who have no part in illegal activities; firearm owners, sportsmen, hunters, recreational shooters and gun collectors who have legally purchased or acquired firearms (as well as knives, jewelry, antiques and other items) that have incorporated ivory features for decades. These include some of America’s most historically-significant and collectible guns. Furthermore, shark skin—a very common material used in belt and shoulder holster construction because of its high abrasion resistance—would be a prohibited product under House Bill 1341. The NRA is opposed to HB 1341 because, if implemented, it would amount to the taking of property that had been acquired legally and in good faith. Against, please click the “Take Action” button above to contact members of the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee and politely urge them to OPPOSE HB 1341.


HB 16-1341

And so we march on. The Colorado senate is the hold that Colorado needs. I have not taken my eyes off of Colorado since I was mostly uninvited to stay in the state .... Long story. But I am working with Lt. Col Brown (SOF mag fame) and a few others in state to make a push right before the the live ballots drop in mid October. The national media will not be paying attention yet. I am working with a few radio shows and media personalities so I can (I am flying out) remind people to vote early and what to do when they find a live ballot. So, if you have sometime and you can make it to metro Denver or the Springs, we are going to do something grassroots wise.

quote:

Originally posted by SCdonttreadonme:
And so we march on. The Colorado senate is the hold that Colorado needs. I have not taken my eyes off of Colorado since I was mostly uninvited to stay in the state .... Long story. But I am working with Lt. Col Brown (SOF mag fame) and a few others in state to make a push right before the the live ballots drop in mid October. The national media will not be paying attention yet. I am working with a few radio shows and media personalities so I can (I am flying out) remind people to vote early and what to do when they find a live ballot. So, if you have sometime and you can make it to metro Denver or the Springs, we are going to do something grassroots wise.

Thanks for your efforts. When you get something going locally, announce it here, or on your FB page, and I'll try to attend and bring friends.

quote:

Originally posted by SCdonttreadonme:
And so we march on. The Colorado senate is the hold that Colorado needs. I have not taken my eyes off of Colorado since I was mostly uninvited to stay in the state .... Long story. But I am working with Lt. Col Brown (SOF mag fame) and a few others in state to make a push right before the the live ballots drop in mid October. The national media will not be paying attention yet. I am working with a few radio shows and media personalities so I can (I am flying out) remind people to vote early and what to do when they find a live ballot. So, if you have sometime and you can make it to metro Denver or the Springs, we are going to do something grassroots wise.

When you say you are "making a push" are you proposing a specific bill through the ballot initiative process or are you working to elect Republicans and maintain control of the Senate?

Happy Independence Day! Seemed like a good time to bump this thread.

quote:

Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:
Happy Independence Day! Seemed like a good time to bump this thread.

Thank you for the bump! Any news?

I'll be returning to Colorado shortly.

quote:

Originally posted by Rob Decker:
Thank you for the bump! Any news?

I'll be returning to Colorado shortly.

This legislative session is over and we were unsuccessful in our bid to implement Constitutional carry or eliminate the magazine ban.

I believe most eyes are on the national election at this time. In recent times Colorado was a battleground state with @ 1/3 registered Repbulicans, @ 1/3 registered Democrat, and @ 1/3 unaffiliated. Sadly, it was recently reported that the number of registered Democrats is now larger than registered Republicans...BUT...at least this means we live in a target rich environment.

...The fight will continue.

quote:

Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:

...The fight will continue.

Amen brother.

Let me know how I can help when I get back.

Generally I try to focus on Colorado specific legislation and efforts, however I don't believe this latest example of the Obama administration's Executive Order over reach is getting the attention from gun owners that it should. Even if this new ruling only targets small gunsmithing operations and small performance part manufacturing machine shops now, there is very little standing in the way of a later reinterpretation that targets individual gun owners who choose to work on their own guns or reload ammunition. Regardless, it will most certainly affect gun owners seeking certain gunsmithing services by making them more difficult to find and expensive to perform. This is truly bad.

NRA-ILA alert on ITAR Executive Gun Control

I don't want to create a duplicate thread so I'll simply link to the thread currently discussing this issue in the Lounge.

ITAR compliance forced upon non exporting gunsmiths

In addition to this post I'll be putting together an email to the shooters I know in my circle to urge their efforts on this and will contact some on-air 2A supporters to see if they would be willing to give this ruling some local air time. Please consider doing the same in your respective locales.

I also urge all of our Colorado members to take the time to inform themselves about this latest assault on the Second Amendment, how this guidance letter could be used to prosecute individual gun owners who choose to do some home gunsmithing or reloading, and I urge you all to contact your Congressman and Senators and voice your objections to this new rule.

While I think most Colorado gun owners realize how important the upcoming national election is, I'd like to point out that the state elections are just as important. Colorado has become a battleground state and the Democrats intend to seize control of both houses of the state legislature.

The fact that both billionaire Democrat political activists, Tom Steyer and George Soros, are pouring money into Colorado state Democrat candidate's campaigns is evidence of this.


Steyer’s got company: Billionaire George Soros makes a play for Colorado’s state legislature

note: the actual article has a political contribution chart not included in my post

Steyer’s got company: Billionaire George Soros makes a play for Colorado’s state legislature
August 2, 2016 4:06 PM· By Simon Lomax

Left-wing billionaire George Soros is getting involved in the battle for control of the Colorado state legislature. In fact, state records show the New York hedge fund manager is playing in the same five races as another out-of-state billionaire – San Francisco investor-activist Tom Steyer.

Soros and Steyer are both leading members of the Democracy Alliance, a coalition of left-wing political donors. Called “the left’s secret club” by Politico, the Democracy Alliance has steered hundreds of millions of dollars to liberal causes since 2005. This year, according to the Washington Post, the group plans to spend tens of millions of dollars supporting Democrats in state-level races across the country.

“We can’t have the kind of long-term progressive future we want if we don’t take power in the states,” Democracy Alliance president Gara LaMarch told the Post last year.

In the Colorado legislature today, power is divided between the two major parties. Democrats hold the House by three votes. Republicans have a one-seat majority in the Senate. Therefore, if Democrats can hold their seats and pick off one Republican in the Senate, they will win control of the state legislature and restore one party rule under Gov. John Hickenlooper (D).

Steyer and Soros are directly involved in this effort, according to state campaign finance records. The two billionaires have made personal contributions to Democrats in a number of key races, looking to flip the state Senate and widen the party’s majority in the state House. So far, the Steyer-Soros candidates are Rachel Zenzinger (SD-19), Jenise May (SD-25), Daniel Kagan (SD-26), Tony Exum (HD-17) and Joe Salazar (HD-31).

Thanks to state contribution limits, the donations are small, ranging between $200 and $400 for each candidate. But Steyer and Soros use outside groups for the vast majority of their political campaigning, and these personal contributions strongly suggest their outside money will be targeted at the state legislature as well as the presidential election and congressional races.

One of the state’s top political analysts – Floyd Ciruli – has already called Steyer’s spending on Colorado research and polling this election cycle “extraordinary.” The California billionaire – a huge backer of anti-fossil fuel groups – is looking for “vertical control of the ballot, taking over the state for his environmental agenda,” Ciruli said. These comments were based on a research and polling budget of roughly $793,000. Steyer has since increased that amount by another $150,000 according to federal election records.

This is almost double the amount Steyer spent on research and polling two years ago, when he mounted an $8.5 million effort to save U.S. Sen. Mark Udall (D). He hasn’t said how much he will spend here in 2016, but Colorado is one of the target states for his $35 million national voter-turnout operation.

As for Soros, he has already donated or committed roughly $25 million to Democratic candidates and liberal causes this election cycle, according to Politico. At least one of groups backed by Soros – a political action committee called Immigrant Voters Win – has announced plans to target Colorado this year. And remember, Soros is just one of roughly 100 members of the Democracy Alliance which has pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars on state-level elections this year.

To be clear, Steyer and Soros have a First Amendment right to say what they want and spend as they wish on politics and matters of public debate. But the involvement of these left-wing billionaires in Colorado elections – and the agenda they want to push through the state legislature – deserves just as much scrutiny as other political players have received.

That hasn’t happened yet, of course. Steyer and Soros continue to fly under the radar. More to the point, their candidates haven’t faced a single question about these out-of-state billionaires and why control of the Colorado state legislature means so much to them.

There is still time to fix this blatant double standard, which denies voters the information they need to make informed decisions. But time is quickly running out.

Simon Lomax is an associate energy policy analyst with the Independence Institute and a consultant who advises pro-business groups. From 2004 to 2012, he was a news reporter covering energy and environmental policy in Washington, D.C. Contact him at simon@i2i.org.

I somehow missed this NRA-ILA alert emailed July 27, that should be important to Colorado shooters and hunters.

BLM Extends Comment Period on Management Plan for Public Lands in Southwest Colorado

The Bureau of Land Management’s Uncompahgre Field Office has drafted a plan to manage over 675,000 acres of public land for the next 15 to 20 years. In the draft plan are four management strategies (alternatives) that will affect the future use of the land for hunting, target shooting, and a host of other recreation activities. The plan does not affect hunting; however, each of the alternatives would close acreage to target shooting.

Alternative A, the no-action or status-quo management strategy, would continue to prohibit target shooting at developed recreational sites. Slightly over 2,000 acres are affected. Alternative B would close nearly 250,000 acres, or well over half of the planning area, to target shooting. Alternative C is the same as Alternative A with respect to target shooting. Alternative D, which is the BLM’s preferred management strategy, would close nearly 70,000 acres to target shooting.

The BLM has extended the comment period to November 1st. Comments may be submitted by email to uformp@blm.gov or by mail to the BLM, Uncompahgre Field Office, 2465 S. Townsend Ave., Montrose, CO 81401.

The draft plan is available at http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo...uncompahgre_rmp.html (or www.uformp.com). For more information, contact Gina Jones, National Environmental Policy Act Coordinator, at gmjones@blm.gov or (970) 240-5300.

If these public lands are important places where you recreate, please submit your comments to the BLM letting the agency know what lands you believe should remain open to target shooting that are being proposed for closure. There are many competing recreational interests so the future of target shooting totally depends on its importance to you as a local shooter and/or hunter and how involved you become in this planning process.

Bump before auto lock .

I was watching the thread drifting down with plans for a strategic pre-election bump... but a preemptive bump can't hurt. Thanks for staying heads up on this Mike!

On the chance that there are some out there who might consider either of the major party candidates too unappealing to vote for and are therefore going to skip voting this year, please remember that there are some important state and local issues to consider as well as some important state elections.

Zero hour!

Since there's been no activity on the thread since the election, I thought I'd post a few things.

With respect to the election, the Dems gained 5 seats in the House, for a 37/28 split, and the Reps held their 1 seat majority in the Senate. Given that and Hick sitting in the Governors seat, I don't think we'll be able to get any of the gun-laws repealed, legislatively.

At this juncture, I think the only way forward is judicially. As has been mentioned previously, the lawsuit has been rebooted, thanks to a decision in March by the 10th Circuit Court.

Denver Post- Appeals court says Colorado sheriffs can’t sue governor over gun laws

Website For the Lawsuit: http://coloradoguncase.org

Contributions For the Lawsuit: Independence Institute - Contributions

As nothing much has happened since the general election I thought I'd let the thread drift down a little and give members a chance to catch their collective breaths and enjoy the holidays, and then wait to post an update once the new legislature had been seated and made their respective agendas known.

But you are absolutely right Storm...the New Year is a good chance to post a recap of where we are in the fight to regain our 2A rights.

Also, I'm in complete agreement with your assessment. I'm not opposed to the Republicans trying to tackle the repeal legislatively to keep the issue in the forefront and pressure to bear... but there is no doubt that it is an uphill battle.

I'm going to take the liberty of posting the text of the article you provided the link to.

Appeals court says Colorado sheriffs can’t sue governor over gun laws

By JOHN INGOLD | jingold@denverpost.com
PUBLISHED: March 22, 2016 at 10:48 am | UPDATED: December 28, 2016 at 12:15 pm

A group of Colorado sheriffs who contend that two controversial state gun laws are unconstitutional vowed Tuesday to file a new lawsuit after a federal appeals court rejected its first one.

In a 33-page ruling on the laws and lawsuits that emerged after mass shootings in Aurora and Connecticut, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the sheriffs and other plaintiffs didn’t show they were sufficiently harmed by the new gun restrictions to bring a lawsuit. The ruling means that two laws passed in 2013 — one that expanded background checks on firearms purchases and another that limited the capacity of ammunition magazines — remain in effect.

“I’m proud of the team in my office that fulfilled our legal role of defending state laws,” Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman said in a statement.

This is the second loss for the lawsuit, which was filed in 2013 and names Gov. John Hickenlooper as the sole defendant. But, paradoxically, supporters and opponents of the new laws cheered Tuesday’s ruling as a victory for their sides.

The reason for that optimism has to do with the lawsuit’s convoluted legal path.

After a nine-day trial in 2014, a federal district judge in Denver ruled against the lawsuit and upheld the contested laws as constitutional. The sheriffs and the other groups involved in the lawsuit appealed and asked the 10th Circuit, which is one rung in authority below the U.S. Supreme Court, to reverse the trial judge’s ruling.

The ruling Tuesday did toss out the trial judge’s analysis, but that was because the 10th Circuit judges concluded the lawsuit never should have made it all the way to trial. The appeals court judges did not decide whether the laws are constitutional.

Instead, the 10th Circuit judges ruled that all the plaintiffs — who include sheriffs of 54 of the state’s 64 counties, plus numerous nonprofit organizations and businesses — hadn’t shown they were harmed enough by the laws to have the authority to sue over them. In legal terms, the 10th Circuit ruled the plaintiffs didn’t have “standing.”

The plaintiffs argued the laws violated the Second Amendment, which protects gun rights, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. In one part of their argument, for instance, some of the plaintiffs said the laws created a fear that they might be prosecuted for doing things such as loaning a gun to someone during a target shooting charity event.

But the 10th Circuit said that kind of speculative fear isn’t enough to bring a lawsuit.

“Such ‘some day’ speculations are insufficient to establish an injury-in-fact for purposes of … standing,” 10th Circuit Judge Nancy Moritz wrote on behalf of the three-judge panel.

At an afternoon news conference, lawsuit backers cast the ruling as an opportunity to try again. David Kopel, an attorney who works for the Independence Institute and who represented the sheriffs in the lawsuit, said he is happy the 10th Circuit voided the lower court’s finding, even if it still resulted in his lawsuit being dismissed.

Kopel said the 10th Circuit ruling now provides a “road map” for the sheriffs and other plaintiffs to file a new lawsuit alleging new harms. He declined to say what those new complaints might be or how plaintiffs might solve the standing issue.

“That’s an intricate matter of law,” he said.

But Kopel also said no one has yet been prosecuted under the laws.

“The laws are unenforceable, and they haven’t been enforced,” he said.

Eileen McCarron of Colorado Ceasefire, an organization that supports the laws, said the 10th Circuit’s ruling was a significant blow to the laws’ opponents.

“They’ve got to go refigure out their case,” she said. “They’re back at square one, and our laws still stand.”

John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or @johningold

Storm, thanks again for your participation and updates. I especially appreciate that you posted the coloradoguncase.org site as I was using it myself, but in recent months have had problems accessing it and I thought perhaps it had been abandoned or moved. Good to see the resource is still working.

Happy New Years!

Time to "kit up" and get back in the fray.

Colorado: Legislature Convenes for its 2017 Legislative Session

On Wednesday, January 11, the Colorado General Assembly began its 2017 Legislative Session. It is important that gun owners and sportsmen across the state of Colorado stay actively involved throughout the New Year as well as stay-tuned to NRA-ILA email alerts and www.NRAILA.org as the session progresses.

Your NRA-ILA will continue to work hard to promote and protect your Second Amendment rights, and keep you updated on the status of legislation impacting your Second Amendment rights in Colorado.

https://act.nraila.org/takeaction.aspx?AlertID=1424

Colorado: Urge your Legislators to Support Magazine Limit Repeal Legislation, Senate Bill 17

In 2013, the Colorado Legislature restricted the ability of law-abiding gun owners to protect themselves by limiting the amount of ammunition a firearm magazine can hold. This arbitrary limit does nothing more than hinder the lawful right to self-defense of Coloradans because criminals do not follow the law.

Senate Bill 17 seeks to repeal this misguided restriction so that law-abiding Coloradans are not limited in their ability to protect themselves and their loved ones.

While this bill has not yet been referred to a committee, it is important that you contact your state Representative and state Senator and urge them to support Senate Bill 17 when it comes up for a vote.