Colorado Senate Bill 131; creating safe zones for mass shooters

(Editor’s note: The following is written testimony of David B. Kopel on Colorado Senate Bill 24-131, which puts the lawful carry of firearms off-limit in numerous so-called “sensitive spaces.” Submitted to the Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee.)

Senate Bill 24-131 proposes to criminalize licensed carry in many locations. Section 6 of the bill, the “safety clause,” declares “that this act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety.” The opposite is true. The bill is an immediate threat to public safety.

• Five out of six mass shooters choose “gun-free zones,” and the bill creates many more of them.
• Even the leading anti-gun expert witness nationally states that the 2003 Concealed Carry Act reduced violent crime in Colorado by 1.2%. The bill creates many safe zones where criminals can attack without risk of armed citizens being able to fight back.
• The bill is ridiculously overbroad. For example, it bans licensed carry from the entire parking lot of a shopping mall, if the mall contains one small branch bank.
• The bill does not advance public safety but instead is an expression of culture war malice.
• Coloradans with licensed carry permits are far more law-abiding than the general population. They are 39 times less likely to be arrested than someone without a carry permit.
• Data from other states are similar: persons with a license to carry are very highly law-abiding compared to persons without permits.
• The Violence Policy Center’s claims against licensed carry are bogus.

Mass shooters prefer gun-free zones

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The 2003 Concealed Carry Act reduced Colorado violent crime by 1.2%

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The breadth of areas banned for licensed carry is contrary to public safety

Suppose a strip mall has a dozen businesses, one of which is a tavern. Under SB24-131, then all the patrons of any business at the strip mall would be prohibited from carrying a firearm for protection in the shared parking lot.[7] The same is true for mall parking lots if one of the businesses in the mall is a branch bank...

The “logic” is animus, not safety. SB24-131 is pleasing to aggressive culture war bigots who agree with the head of the Giffords organization: “No More Guns. Gone.”...

A Colorado resident with a concealed handgun permit is 39 times less likely to be arrested than a person without a permit

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