Colorado Senate Democrats Pass Bill Barring Concealed Carry for Self-Defense in More Places

Democrats in Colorado’s Senate passed legislation barring licensed concealed carry permit holders from being armed for self-defense in five new places on Wednesday.

The bill, SB 24-131, uses the moniker “sensitive places” to describe the new areas in which licensed concealed carriers will not be allowed to have guns to defend their lives.

WATCH — AWR Hawkins: “An Armed Populace Is a Safer Populace”:

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KDVR quoted state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis (D), a SB 24-131 cosponsor, saying, “We aligned the bill with the Supreme Court rulings of Bruen and Heller. So now the five sensitive spaces are legislative assemblies, polling centers, schools, government buildings and courthouses.”

Colorado Public Radio reported that there were initially many more places Democrats wanted to describe as “sensitive” and designate as gun-free, but passage of the bill seemed improbable with the more expansive number of gun-free zones.

Gabby Giffords’ gun control group, Giffords, helped Colorado Senate Democrats fashion the gun control.

Giffords’ fellow Jessie Ojeda said, “Part of why we chose to narrow this bill in the way that we did is that the Supreme Court unequivocally stated that the locations that we have in this bill in this form are presumptively lawful, and to date, no law with these specific locations has been successfully challenged.”

WATCH — AWR Hawkins: Biden Administration Dedicating 3/4 of a Billion Dollars to Gun Control:

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KDVR pointed out that gun control advocates have already made clear they hope the number of the “sensitive places” will be expanded if the legislation passes the Colorado House and is signed into law.

Ironically, the two largest mass shootings in Colorado during the past 30 years occurred in places where concealed carry for self-defense was prohibited. On April 20, 1999, two attackers killed 13 innocents at gun-free Columbine High School and on July 12, 2012, an attacker shot and killed 12 at a gun-free movie theater.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a pro-staffer for Pulsar Night Vision. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.