(Article by Dan Zimmerman republished from TheTruthAboutGuns.com)
They play a long game of gradually chipping away at Americans’ Second Amendment rights as and where they can. This has been clearly seen in formerly red states that have shaded more purple in recent years, trending toward deep blue. Think Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Virginia, and…Colorado.
Following the Aurora theater shooting, a big push was made to enact a “large capacity” magazine ban in the state. That cost a number of the law’s primary supporters their jobs, but the law still stands (though it’s not being effectively enforced).
This year the legislature pushed through a “red flag” confiscation law. And while a similar recall effort was launched against that bill’s primary sponsor — Rep. Tom Sullivan — the effort fell short.
Now Sullivan is letting it be known that he considers extremism in pursuit of gun control not to be a vice.
In an interview he gave to the Denver Post, Sullivan wants it known that some limitations on Coloradans’ right to keep and bear arms are never enough . . .
“[Gun control] should be something that we discuss on a regular basis,” said Sullivan, a Democrat from Aurora who championed the red flag bill, and whose son was murdered in the 2012 movie theater massacre. “You should see one or two of these types of bills being brought forward, year after year after year, so that collectively, after five or six bills, we’ve tightened things up.”
Sullivan favors the drip-drip-drip approach to pushing the gun control ball forward, gradually boiling the gun rights frog (to mix metaphors).
He has no illusions about the opposition he’ll face.
Sullivan knows how some will interpret that statement: as a declaration of war on the Second Amendment. He insists that safe, responsible gun owners have nothing to fear. He and other Democrats said similar things last legislative session, but the red flag bill subjected them to a backlash that included a failed effort to recall Sullivan.
The next legislative targets they’ll choose aren’t completely clear, but Sullivan appears to be picking what he considers lower-hanging legislative fruit; less incendiary gun control proposals (safe storage mandates, stolen gun requirements) that won’t draw as much heat as the red flag push did.
“It’s coming. It is. That’s why I’m here,” he said.
“I’ve made it clear to my colleagues that I will be standing up for this, and that I’m welcoming their participation as well. Many of them are joining me in starting to put together bill titles, in wanting to be involved.”
Read more at: TheTruthAboutGuns.com