Gun buyers would have to wait 3 days to access weapons

Waiting proposal introduced

BY ELLIOTT WENZLER AND JESSE PAUL THE COLORADO SUN

A Highlands Ranch mother purchased a 9mm Glock handgun, picked up her 5-year-old son from kindergarten and killed him, his 3-year-old brother and herself in the loading dock of a shuttered Sports Authority store.

The tragedy unfolded over the span of just a few hours on a day in November 2016.

Colorado lawmakers want to prevent a similar series of events from happening with such haste and ease ever again, and so this week Democrats will introduce a bill that would enact a three-day waiting period between when someone purchases a gun and when they can access the weapon, mirroring policies that have been adopted in other states.

“It’s giving people the opportunity to take a breath,” said Sen. Tom Sullivan, a Centennial Democrat whose son, Alex, was murdered in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting and who will be a lead sponsor of the legislation. “We know that when people decide to kill themselves with a firearm, sometimes they spend less than 20 minutes making that decision.

A simple interruption in someone’s plan can save a life, Sullivan said. “Although firearms are used less than 10% of the time in suicides, they have a success ratio of over 90%,” he said.

The waiting-period bill, expected to be formally unveiled this week in the House, is part of a package of gun control measures Democrats are planning to introduce at the Capitol this year. Other legislation will seek to raise the age to purchase rifles and shotguns to 21 to match the policy for handguns, regulate homemade firearms that lack serial numbers — also known as “ghost guns” — and make it easier to sue gun manufacturers and sellers. Additionally, there will be a measure introduced that would expand who can petition a judge to order the temporary seizure of someone’s guns under the state’s so-called red flag law.

Several Democrats are also mulling whether to introduce a bill banning the sale and transfer of so-called assault weapons, which draft legislation defines as semi-automatic rifles and pistols with certain features. “If we do get the language right, you’ll see it. If we’re not able to get the language and the content right, you won’t see it,” Sen. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat and one of the lead sponsors of the prospective legislation, said at an event earlier Rep. Meg Froelich, an Englewood Democrat and another lead sponsor of the waiting-period bill, said Democrats will continue pursuing gun regulations “until we don’t need to do it anymore.”

“There are about 10, 12 things you can do to reduce gun violence, and we’ve done a couple of them. We’re gonna do a couple more,” said Froelich, who is part of a new gun violence prevention caucus