Colorado Legislators Ditch Plan To Ban Guns in Dozens of ‘Sensitive Places’
In the face of scathing, bipartisan criticism, the Colorado legislators who wanted to ban guns from a long list of “sensitive places” have reconsidered that constitutionally dubious plan. The original version of Senate Bill 24-131, introduced on February 7, would have made it a misdemeanor to carry firearms in more than two dozen types of public places, including parks, playgrounds, recreation facilities, zoos, museums, libraries, “public gathering[s],” medical facilities, banks, stadiums, amusement parks, bars, pot shops, college campuses, and houses of worship. The new version, unveiled this week, applies only to schools, polling places, and certain government buildings.
The amended bill also narrows the scope of the firearm restrictions by allowing carry permit holders to possess handguns in “parking areas” adjacent to “sensitive places.” Under the previous version, guns would have been allowed in those parking lots only if they were “stored in locked containers in vehicles.” That requirement would have had a far-reaching effect, banning guns from the parking areas of any mall or shopping center that happened to include a “sensitive place” such as a bar or a bank branch.
What happened? “The changes were made by the Senate Judiciary Committee, largely in response to concerns from Sen. Dylan Roberts, a Democrat,” Colorado Public Radio (CPR) reports. “He said the new version of the bill would have stronger legal standing, even after the U.S. Supreme Court undermined the basis of many gun laws in its 2022 Bruen decision.”
In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the Court held that states may not require residents to demonstrate a “special need” before allowing them to carry guns in public for self-defense. The decision also established a test for determining whether a gun control law is constitutional: It must be “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
Roberts’ concern that the restrictions imposed by S.B. 24-131 would not meet that test was well-grounded. After Bruen, legislators in states that had to modify their requirements for carry permits were alarmed by the idea that residents would start exercising the right to bear arms. So they made carry permits easier to obtain but much harder to use, creating long lists of places where guns were not allowed. Federal judges in California, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York have deemed at least some of those restrictions unconstitutional under Bruen.
Even the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which in December upheld several of New York’s “sensitive location” restrictions, rejected the state’s default rule against guns in all businesses open to the public unless the owner posts “clear and conspicuous signage” allowing them or “has otherwise given express consent.” And California’s similar law is on hold while the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit reviews the preliminary injunction that U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney issued in December. Oral arguments in that case, Carralero v. Bonta, are scheduled for April 11.
Despite all these warning signs, state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis (D–Longmont), who introduced the bill in her chamber along with Sen. Chris Kolker (D–Centennial), insisted that Colorado could not wait to see the ultimate results of the litigation. Carralero “could take another one or two years” to resolve, she said, and “we didn’t want to wait two years, because we know how many incidents of gun violence occur in Colorado in one year—way too many.”
That argument was puzzling for two reasons. First, Jaquez Lewis knew her bill was sure to provoke constitutional challenges, meaning it probably would not take effect any sooner than t
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