Polis signs 4 gun bills into law

BY ELLIOTT WENZLER THE COLORADO SUN

Gov. Jared Polis signed four gun measures into law Friday in what’s likely the most consequential tightening of gun regulations in Colorado history.

e bills expand the state’s red ag law, raise the minimum age to purchase all guns to 21, impose a three-day waiting period on rearm purchases and make it easier for people to sue the gun industry.

“Coloradans deserve to be safe in our communities, in our schools, our grocery stores, night clubs and everywhere in between,” Polis said before signing the bills.

Still pending in the legislature, and expected to pass soon, is a fth bill that would ban the creation and sale of unserialized rearms, also known as “ghost guns.”

Here’s what each of the bills signed into law Friday would do: Red flag law expansion Colorado’s red ag law, which allows judges to order the temporary seizure of guns from people deemed a signi cant risk to themselves or others, was created in 2019. But only family members and law enforcement have been able to petition a judge to issue a seizure order.

Under Senate Bill 170, one of the four bills signed by Polis on Friday, the list of people who can petition a views of the San Juan Mountains, services would look a little di erent. said. judge to order a gun seizure now includes health care providers, mental health providers, district attorneys and teachers. e bill also requires the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to create an education campaign around the

“If I hear one more time, ‘It’s not the gun, it’s the person’ but then you don’t support this law, then maybe you don’t really mean it,” said Rep. Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, a prime sponsor of the bill. “Because that’s

Finally, the bill creates a hotline run by the Colorado Department of Public Safety to help the public get information about how to request gun seizures and to connect people e measure is aimed at increasing use of the red ag law, which hasn’t been used much in its rst few years compared to other states with similar laws, according to a Colorado Public Radio analysis. e bill’s other prime sponsors were all Democrats, including Sen. Tom Sullivan, Senate President Steve Fenberg and Rep. Mike Weiss- speech therapy to more than 1,000 young students.

Colorado’s educator shortage survey found that 17% of open special service provider positions went un lled last school year, compared to just 8% of classroom teacher openings. Year after year, special education teachers are among the hardest to hire.

Johnson, the BOCES director, cobbles together services uses independent contractors and virtual appointments. If money were no object and she could o er competitive salaries to go with sweeping

“I would have a psychologist in every building,” she said. “I would have a social worker in every building. I would have a speech pathologist in person. I would have release time for my teams to plan. If we could meet some of our students’ needs proactively rather than reactively, it would make a di erence.”

In voting to move the bill out of the House Education Committee, state Rep. Mary Young, a Greeley Democrat, said she started working as a special education teacher before there was even a federal law requiring that schools serve students with disabilities. In all those decades, special education had never been adequately funded, she