Ritter vetoes bipartisan Gun Check simplification bill, putting politically correct pandering ahead of 2nd Amendment rights

by Captain Arapahoe | 11:30 pm, May 17, 2009 | 2 Comments

Governor Bill Ritter announced the veto of House Bill 1180, passed with a strong bipartisan majority (including 19 Democrats), “which would have allowed law-abiding gun owners to purchase firearms without jumping through hoops and waiting for additional criminal background checks” late Friday afternoon.  In what is becoming a pattern for “Backdoor Bill” Ritter, his veto of this broadly bipartisan bill was announced at a time intended to minimize coverage and attention, attempting to ensure “that the fewest number of Coloradans possible will know about the veto.

Any claim that Ritter’s veto enhances public safety is laughable…

By definition, CCW permit holders ALREADY have a firearm – and have gone through a much more thorough background check than the NICS (National Instant Check System) call.  The bill Ritter vetoed simply acknowledged that fact and spared permit-holders (and by extension, anyone after them in line) from suffering additional inconvenience in exercising a constitutionally guaranteed right.

Ritter’s reasons for the veto are specious at best, if not downright disingenuous.  Revocations of CCW permits for reasons other than minor technicalities (i.e. of sufficient severity to disqualify the holder from purchasing firearms) are exceedingly rare – on the order of a half-dozen (total!) in Colorado over the last decade…

Ritter attempts to justify his veto of the proposed new law by citing two existing laws that he would prefer to circumvent, overturn or ignore (restrictions on creating or maintaining a statewide database of CCW holders, and local sheriff discretion in issuing CCW permits).  So, per Ritter, were these powers consolidated or granted to HIS discretion, things would be peachy…

Ritter advances a further specious argument, stating that since “no identification document is impervious to forgery,” CCW permits should not serve as sufficient identification for firearms purchase.  Oh really?  Since forgery of driver’s licenses, the ID used for background checks, HAS been documented – in contrast to CCW permits – and is a thriving underground business, as former DA Ritter should know, the NICS background checks are themselves just as suspect and unreliable as potentially forged CCW permits – if not more so.

Ritter closes with an outright lie – that a “background check” would have had ANY impact on the purchase of the guns eventually used in the Columbine shootings.  As Ritter himself noted, the gun in question was purchased by a “strawman” (such purchases were, and are, already illegal) who would NOT have been prevented from making the purchase by Amendment 22, NICS, or other checks since he had no criminal record or other disqualifier.  Passage of HB1180 would have NO impact whatsoever on the so-called “gun show loophole” and in NO way “significantly weakens the safeguards against the illegal purchase of firearms.”

Speaking of gun shows – and the ownership, and use, of firearms for defensive purposes by citizens – consider the following list of areas in which people gather in large numbers (potential “mass murder” locales):

1) Schools

2) Restaurants

3) Offices

4) Churches

5) Shopping malls

6) Gun shows

Question: in which one of these has there NEVER been a mass shooting?

Not only has there been NO documented instance of ANY CCW permit holders committing any mass shootings - they have actually PREVENTED several mass shootings, most recently of university students in Georgia.

Ritter’s veto of HB1180 does NOT advance the interests of public safety – at best, it merely piles on another inconvenience and hindrance to people exercising their constitutional rights, at worst it makes it more difficult for the law-abiding to defend themselves and protect others.  As such, his veto should be overturned by the Colorado Legislature.

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