<\/p>\n
DENVER \u2013 Colorado\u2019s Democrat-controlled House on Tuesday advanced legislation requiring firearms to be securely stored to prevent unauthorized youths and other people from accessing them.<\/p>\n
The 40-25 vote, virtually along party lines, came after 10 hours of debate Monday in which Democrats repeatedly rejected efforts by Republican lawmakers to modify the measure.<\/p>\n
Republicans questioned before the vote whether the bill would correct conduct by responsible gun owners or seek to criminalize them.<\/p>\n
Under the measure, misdemeanor violations could carry fines of $250 to $1,000. The bill also requires licensed gun dealers to provide locking devices when selling or transferring firearms. Noncompliance would be a misdemeanors with fines of up to $500.<\/p>\n
About 31 Colorado teenagers and young adults younger than 20 on average have been involved in firearm suicides annually, according to the bill\u2019s fiscal note.<\/p>\n
Republicans insisted the bill could prevent responsible gun owners from quickly accessing their weapons during emergencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t believe that none of the good ideas (presented by Republicans) weren\u2019t good enough,\u201d said House minority leader, Rep. Hugh McKean.<\/p>\n
Only one amendment, by GOP Rep. Terri Carver, was adopted. It provides for education about safe storage of guns outside of homes.<\/p>\n
Democratic Reps. Kyle Mullica and Monica Duran, the bill\u2019s House sponsors, argued the bill would help reduce suicides by youths and others and accidental shootings.<\/p>\n
A 2017 study analyzing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s National Violent Death Reporting System found that across the U.S., about 19 children a day die or are medically treated for gunshot wounds.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s vote sends the bill to the Democrat-controlled Colorado Senate.<\/p>\n
Senators advanced a separate bill Tuesday that would require gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms or face $25 fines.<\/p>\n
Sponsored by Democratic Sens. Jessie Danielson and Sonya Jaquez Lewis, the bill says subsequent violations would be considered misdemeanors punishable by fines of $50 to $750, and the possibility of six months in jail as a maximum penalty.<\/p>\n
A final Senate vote would send that bill to the House.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Democrats repeatedly turn back Republican arguments<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48097","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=48097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48097"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}