{"id":63320,"date":"2019-03-23T16:46:22","date_gmt":"2019-03-23T22:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-senate-advances-red-flag-gun-bill\/"},"modified":"2019-03-23T22:46:22","modified_gmt":"2019-03-23T22:46:22","slug":"colorado-senate-advances-red-flag-gun-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-senate-advances-red-flag-gun-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Senate advances \u2018red flag\u2019 gun bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, left, in 2018. Sonnenberg\u2019s amendment to require a psychological evaluation before a \u201cred flag\u201d protection order can be issued was rejected on Friday.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2014 Colorado\u2019s Democrat-led Senate debated the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, due process and public safety on Friday before advancing a bill that would allow weapons to be seized from people who are determined by a court to pose significant risk.<\/p>\n

Another vote approving the bill is needed before it is sent back to the House, which has already approved it, to consider Senate amendments.<\/p>\n

Republicans defeated similar legislation in 2018 before they lost control of the Senate in November elections that saw Democrats consolidate statehouse control and retain the governor\u2019s office. They also fought this year\u2019s bill, which places the burden of proof on gun owners to prove in court they do not pose a risk if they want to recover firearms that have been seized.<\/p>\n

Thirteen states have passed an extreme risk protection order law.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s legislation would allow family or law enforcement to seek a court order to have guns seized if they believe the owner is a threat. A subsequent court hearing would be held to determine whether to extend the seizure up to 364 days.<\/p>\n

The bill would require anyone whose guns are seized to prove that they no longer pose a risk in order to get them back.<\/p>\n

Republicans repeatedly sought to shift that burden of proof to those seeking a protection order. They argued the legislation doesn\u2019t offer due process to gun owners.<\/p>\n

GOP Sen. Jack Tate called for adding language strengthening the right to seek legal action and court costs for gun owners who are victims of false or malicious complaints. Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg offered an amendment to require a psychological evaluation and report to a judge before a protection order can be issued.<\/p>\n

Democrats rejected both.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t about mental health. This is a gun grab,\u201d Sonnenberg said.<\/p>\n

Democratic Sen. Mike Foote countered: \u201cThe due process in this bill is extensive.\u201d He insisted anyone seeking a protection order has to offer \u201ca preponderance of evidence\u201d of risk at an initial court hearing and \u201cclear and convincing evidence\u201d to obtain an order.<\/p>\n

\u201cI care more about life, quite frankly, more than I care about property,\u201d said Democratic Sen. Lois Court, arguing the bill would reduce suicides by firearms.<\/p>\n

GOP Sen. Larry Crowder said that many county sheriffs or county commissions have threatened to ignore any court order if the bill becomes law. He also noted that Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser had warned last week that it\u2019s a sheriff\u2019s duty to honor court orders involving the seizure of guns.<\/p>\n

Montezuma County commissioners passed a resolution making the county a \u201cgun sanctuary,\u201d where HB 1177 would not be enforced. Sheriff Steve Nowlin has not endorsed the action, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who can\u2019t support the Second Amendment are the ones who should resign in this state,\u201d Crowder thundered Friday.<\/p>\n

Several law enforcement officials have testified for the bill, which is named after Zackari Parrish, a Douglas County sheriff\u2019s deputy who was killed in a New Year\u2019s Eve 2017 shooting by a man who had exhibited increasingly erratic behavior.<\/p>\n

For a second consecutive day, Senate Republicans briefly stalled consideration of the legislation to protest Democrats\u2019 fast-tracking of it and bills to curb oil and gas drilling, pledge Colorado\u2019s presidential electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, create a $1 billion state paid family leave program and repeal the death penalty, among other measures.<\/p>\n

Democrats in both chambers have held quickly scheduled and late-night bill hearings and even, in the Senate, insisted on doing business during a March 13 blizzard.<\/p>\n

GOP Sen. Owen Hill of Colorado Springs insisted that the Senate clerk on Friday read the entire journal of Thursday\u2019s chamber proceedings \u2014 individual votes, motions, amendments approved, amendments lost.<\/p>\n

Hill did the same on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The reading procedures are routinely dispensed with in floor deliberations, but they are permitted by the Colorado Constitution.<\/p>\n

As Friday\u2019s debate drew to a close, Hill requested that the 33-page red flag bill be read aloud. The Senate reader, Andrew Carpenter, did so. It took half an hour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats reject calls for psychological exam, court costs for false claims<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-63320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63320","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=63320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63320"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=63320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}