{"id":111104,"date":"2015-07-09T01:09:49","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T07:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/guns-for-pot-users-goes-up-in-smoke\/"},"modified":"2015-07-09T01:09:49","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T07:09:49","slug":"guns-for-pot-users-goes-up-in-smoke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/guns-for-pot-users-goes-up-in-smoke\/","title":{"rendered":"Guns for pot users goes up in smoke"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Proponents
Proponents say they will not have the signatures needed to place a question before Colorado voters that would allow users of marijuana to obtain a concealed-handgun permit.<\/span>Steve Lewis\/Durango Herald file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Proponents of a proposed Colorado ballot initiative that would allow users of marijuana to obtain a concealed-handgun permit say the effort has gone up in smoke, for now.<\/p>\n

A lackluster signature-gathering process caused proponents to rethink the effort, perhaps regrouping for a later drive. Proponents have until July 29 to collect the 98,492 valid signatures needed to place the initiative on the Colorado ballot. Edgar Antillon, co-founder of Guns for Everyone and a lead proponent, said Wednesday that his group won\u2019t collect the necessary signatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t happen for us this time,\u201d Antillon said. \u201cThis time, we\u2019re just going to have to call it what it is \u2013 we failed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ballot initiative would amend the statute to state that a sheriff must issue a permit to an applicant who \u201cis not an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.\u201d It would then state \u201clawful use of marijuana shall not be cause for denying a permit to carry a concealed handgun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current County Sheriffs of Colorado application for a concealed-handgun permit asks applicants to answer whether they are an \u201cunlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana, or any depressant, stimulant, or narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?\u201d But with recreational and medical marijuana legalized in Colorado, gun-rights proponents felt they needed to clarify the application process.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all but a formality now before the ballot drive officially ends for the year. But Antillon said they generated some national support, which could lead to a later effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lack of manpower, and then the other thing, something we completely underestimated, was the fact that a lot of people who use marijuana, a lot of people who are gun owners, they don\u2019t want to be on a so-called list,\u201d Antillon said, referring to signing a ballot petition.<\/p>\n

Since 2013, there hasn\u2019t been a lot of movement on firearms issues in Colorado, when the Democratic-controlled Legislature passed reforms that included universal background checks and limits on high-capacity ammunition magazines. There were attempts by Republicans at the Legislature this year to roll back those reforms, but Democrats killed those attempts, thanks to split chambers.<\/p>\n

The marijuana-firearms issue was the only firearms ballot issue to gain any steam this year. There currently are no other proposals filed with the state.<\/p>\n

Eileen McCarron, with gun-control group Colorado Ceasefire, wonders whether the gun-rights movement has lost steam in Colorado. She pointed out that there were fewer gun advocates at legislative hearings this year, compared with 2013.<\/p>\n

The movement also faced infighting, as gun-rights supporters split over whether to compromise on legislation that would have eased restrictions on ammunition magazines. That legislation never developed, as gun-rights interests could not find consensus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who were opposed to the repeal bills this year quite outnumbered those who were testifying for the repeals,\u201d McCarron said. \u201cIt was quite significant on almost all the bills.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Proponents say not enough signatures were collected<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[150,13,135],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-111104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-firearms","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-marijuana"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111104"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=111104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}