Rep. Crank Leads Colorado Republican House Delegation Letter to Governor Polis, Urging Veto of Unconstitutional Firearm Bill

WASHINGTON - Today, as first reported in Colorado Politics, Rep. Jeff Crank (CO-05) led a letter from the Colorado Republican Delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives to Colorado Governor Jared Polis urging his veto of Senate Bill 3 (SB25-003).

Senate Bill 3 was passed out of Colorado's General Assembly and now sits at Governor Polis' desk, where he has ten days to veto the bill as of March 28th. This bill will ban the purchase of most semiautomatic firearms, unless they are approved by their county sheriff and undergo mandatory training, adding unnecessary red-tape.

Excerpts from the letter read:

We are writing to urge you to veto Senate Bill 3 (SB25-003), which blatantly infringes

upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. Colorado has a proud history of safeguarding its citizens' constitutional right to bear arms. Yet, for the past decade, the Colorado State Legislature has relentlessly pursued ever-increasing restrictions on responsible gun owners. If you fail to take a firm stance against these radical attempts to undermine our rights, you will only serve to empower criminals at the expense of law-abiding citizens.

...

Despite making some amendments to the legislation to appear less restrictive, the

Colorado State Legislature proceeded with a partisan vote to pass one of the most restrictive gun ownership laws in the United States - on par with California and Illinois' gun laws. The bill would impose a deceptive "permit-to-purchase" system riddled with bureaucratic hurdles and impedes our constituents' ability to freely exercise their right to self-defense.

SB25-003 bans the purchase of semi-automatic firearms unless individuals take

mandatory training. However, in order to "enroll" in the mandatory training, Coloradans must first obtain a training "eligibility card" from the county sheriff's office which, under the bill, a sheriff has the discretion to deny if they have a "reasonable belief" the individual is "danger to themself or others." Not only does this new scheme come with additional fees and time commitments that no criminal will ever participate in, but it also gives any sheriff hostile to the individual-or semi-automatic firearms in general-carte blanche authority to block the enrollment. Moreover, any Coloradan that manages to comply with all the hurdles will have their personal information stored in a de facto gun owner registry maintained by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Read the full letter here.

Background:

• Under Biden and Polis, law-abiding gun owners have been under assault with laws and policies that are frankly unconstitutional.
• Rep. Crank is a cosponsor of the Second Amendment Guarantee Act (SAGA) - preempts state laws when it comes to firearm regulation - SAGA would block laws like the one CO passed.
• Discretionary permits are unconstitutional - a right delayed is a right denied.

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