A few weeks back, I noted that Colorado governor Jared Polis signed into law one of the most radically anti-Second-Amendment bills in the country.
Put a pin in that. We'll come back to it.
Before I was a D-list political commentator, I was a guy with two kids who didn't have a lot of time for political activism. But I found some time to get involved in one issue - changing Minnesota's carry permit law, from "Discretionary Issue" (local police chiefs decided who got carry permits - which, in the Twin Cities metro meant "friends, relatives and contacts of the police chiefs") to "Shall Issue", where anyone with a clean record who passed a fairly rudimentary legal orientation course had to be issued a permit.
Activists started working on the issue in 1994 - patiently winning over legislators, Republicans and some rural pro-gun Democrats, until a bill got out of committee in 2002. Where it lost in a floor vote.
In the 2002 legislative elections, the state's 2nd Amendment groups organized an electoral pimp-slapping; every single non-Metro Democrat legislator who'd voted against the bill lost their seat, replaced either by Republicans or pro-gun Democrats. And in 2003, Minnesota's "Shall Issue" law passed, and was signed into law by Minnesota's last Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty.
Why the diversion into the long story?
Because even in bluish-purple states like Minnesota, when gun owners get mad, and organized, great things can happen.
Which takes us back to bluish-purple Colorado. The state's new gun law - which bans the sale, transfer and manufacture of most semiautomatic firearms of any kind, and slaps a buns of training mandates, tests and law-enforcement discretion on those that do own firearms - appears to conflict with the Supreme Court's interpretation of the 2nd Amendment, and the 14th for good measure:
“This bill is putting a paywall in front of a God-given, unalienable right — and that’s the right to self-defense and the right to keep a free nation,” Winter, assistant minority leader in the Colorado House, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Gun rights aren’t a red or blue issue. Gun rights are an American issue. We forget what the Constitution is for — it’s not to go hunting. It’s not to go target shooting. It’s to keep a nation free. It’s to keep a government in check. And I think that’s the first thing our colleagues across the aisle don’t realize.”
The new law hits law-abiding gun owners in the pocketbook hard:
“First and foremost, it’s the cost,” he said. “They’re increasing every fee in this state … if you’re getting dinked and dunked and nickeled and dimed every time you turn around, and that’s what’s keeping you away from your gun rights — and then you figure, OK, if they can afford the fees, then they have to take off work for the class. Then they have to take the time out of work to go talk to the sheriff. There’s just so many different things that make it hard.”
Think of it as like a poll tax, only for your right to defend yourself.
Colorado Republicans are pushing back:
State Rep. Max Brooks, a freshman Republican, introduced a resolution urging the state’s Supreme Court to issue an advisory opinion on the law’s constitutionality. In what Winter called the “second step,” Colorado Republicans called on Pam Bondi, the attorney general, to deploy the Justice Department’s newly-formed “Second Amendment Enforcement Task Force” against the law before it takes effect in 2026.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi released the following statement regarding her creation of a 2nd Amendment Task Force at the Department of Justice
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) April 9, 2025
🔗: https://t.co/JDpCSX51bq pic.twitter.com/c4cUFk7ohn
As usual, this issue is breaking, both outside inside government, on geographic and social lines:
I testified with other Sheriffs in firm opposition of SB25-003. This bill has taken on many forms since introduced. The latest version requires a state approved permitting process to obtain commonly owned firearms. It requires most Coloradans to buy back your #2A gun rights. pic.twitter.com/UQZkw93hcq
— Sheriff Darren Weekly (@SheriffWeekly) March 11, 2025
The law should and will be challenged in court. But history shows us that it's a great legislative wedge issue as well.
