Colorado bill to enact Alaska/Vermont style CCW

Rocky Mountain Gun Owners via TheHighRoad.org ^ | February 1, 2004 | n/a

[Mulder]

Today State Rep. Greg Brophy (R-Wray) introduced "The Colorado Freedom to Carry Act", a bill to allow law-abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns without going through the burdensome and expensive process of acquiring a permit.

"The US and Colorado Constitutions ensure our right to keep and bear arms, and in our modern society bearing arms for self-defense is best envisioned by thinking of a woman with a revolver in her purse," said Brophy, a first-term lawmaker from Eastern Colorado. "Alaska and Vermont citizens aren't required to jump through the hoops and hurdles of a bureaucratic and expensive permit system. Colorado legislators need to trust citizens as much as Alaska legislators do."

The measure, House Bill 1281, doesn't get rid of the permit process that was passed in the 2003 legislative session. Instead, it merely specifies that citizens who can legally possess handguns under state and federal law -- by definition, law-abiding citizens -- can carry concealed.

"To those who already have or want a concealed handgun permit, this bill changes nothing," Brophy said. "They may want to keep their permits so they can have reciprocity with other states that recognize Colorado's permitting system. However, many citizens can't afford to pay for the expensive training, fingerprinting and bureaucratic process the 2003 law created. And frankly, they shouldn't have to."

According to Brophy, this bill -- patterned after a law passed last year in Alaska and a long-held policy in Vermont -- will cost nothing to implement and give citizens real freedom while making Colorado safer.

"Because of this long-standing policy, Vermont is always ranked as one of the safest States in the Union," Brophy said. "Criminals don't care about bans on concealed handguns because they are already committing crimes like burglary, rape and murder. This bill will allow more law-abiding citizens to carry concealed while allowing prosecutors to throw the book at those who aren't allowed to carry."

The bill has been assigned to the House State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee, and is scheduled to be heard on Feb. 10th, 2004.

[Mulder]

bang

[goldstategop]

Cool. Colorado goes AK and VT open-carry. BUMP!

[coloradan]

It isn't passed yet. Far from it. And it would likely face veto from Backdoor Bill Owens.

[goldstategop]

Wasn't Owens the guy who signed Colorado's current CCW law?

[RandallFlagg]

Yeah, but I think that that one was just so people who got CCW in other counties wouldn't get arrested for carrying in Denver.

[RAY]

This, as Alaska and Vermont, is the way it should be!

[coloradan]

Yes, after vetoing a shall-issue several years ago. He insists on several provisions for shall-issue, which of course Vermont carry wouldn't have. He is no friend of gun rights, being first-in-line to sign Amendment 22, which "closed the (so-called) gunshow "loophole,"" standing alongside SAFE Colorado gun grabbers on the steps of the State Capitol.

[joesnuffy]

This is what God intended for right to carry imo...
You rightfully own it...you get to rightfully carry it....
And you rightfully take responsibilty & accountability for anything you do with it...

[MonroeDNA]

Wooo hooooo!

[xsrdx]

Good luck - my native state has A LOT of gun owners, my informal and unofficial guess puts them third in per capita gun ownership behind California and Texas.

Vermont style carry would be awesome.

[Dead Corpse]

<*i>Pasted over from the Duplicate thread...

Yeah... but Denver would still claim to be a "home rule" city where things like Federal, State Constitutions and such do not apply to the City Councils decree's.

[Dead Corpse]

And you rightfully take responsibilty & accountability for anything you do with it...

Sounds like a fair trade. This is the type of CCW bill we should have been pushing for in every state.

[Servant of the 9]

PING !!!

So9