As predicted, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper has just signed three gun control bills passed by the Rocky Mountain State’s legislature. HB 1224 limits ammunition magazines to 15 rounds; HB 1229 requires “universal background checks” for gun sales or transfers; and HB 1228, forces gun customers to pay for the costs of the background checks. As denverpost.com reports, the Hickster signed the bills and waved the bloody shirt, simultaneously. “Each time he signed a bill, applause erupted from lawmakers and their guests, who included Jane Dougherty, whose sister was killed in the attack at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.; Sandy Phillips, whose daughter was killed in Aurora; and Tom Mauser, whose son was killed in the 1999 Columbine shooting in Colorado . . .
Phillips, who lost daughter Jessica Ghawi, reminded Hickenlooper that it was the eight-month anniversary of the theater rampage.
“You’ve given us a real gift today,” she told the governor.
Later, Phillips added: “Thank you so much. You’re leading the entire country.”
Hopefully, not. In fact, Hickenlooper’s spokesmouth was quick to unleash damage control on his boss’s behalf.
“Large magazines have the potential to turn killers into killing machines,” said Hickenlooper spokesman Eric Brown.
“This law won’t stop bad people from doing bad things. But it does open the possibility that a person determined to kill people might be slowed down even for an instant. That instant might mean the difference between life and death for some people.”
Well it’s certainly going to be the death of 200+ jobs in Colorado. true to their word, CO-based mag makers Magpul are pulling out. Here’s their statement, via Facebook:
With the signing of the HB 1224, we want to reassure Colorado residents, now officially in occupied territory, that the “Boulder Airlift” will continue until we can no longer legally ship to CO residents at the approach of the July 1 deadline, so long as demand continues.
We are looking at additional ways to give Coloradans the opportunity to buy the magazines they need prior to the enactment date, as although we’ve been swamped with tens of thousands of orders, our shipping department limitations have only allowed us to get a few hundred thousand magazines out to CO residents…a small portion of our monthly production. We’ll continue to support the Airlift as long as demand exists, and up to the active date of the legislation, and we’ve allocated a little over a million magazines for the effort up to that point, give or take.
Customers in the rest of the country should rest assured that the airlift only takes a small portion of our production, and magazines and other products are continuing to ship to the rest of the nation. Our transition to a new home will occur in a phased and orderly a manner to allow us to continue to serve our customers during the move, as well as to allow an orderly transition for affected employees. We are actively working on those plans.