ADMISSION

e bill has passed the House and Senate and needs approval from Gov. Jared Polis. It is sponsored by state Sen. Dylan Roberts, a Democrat from Avon, Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican, and state Reps. Judy Amabile, a Boulder Democrat, and Matt Soper, a Delta Republican.

e bill initially raised eyebrows among some state leaders.

Colorado Department of Higher long would it take you to get and be ready to re a loaded gun without a parent’s permission?” e ndings were released at a particularly tense moment in youth gun violence in Colorado. Earlier this month, hundreds of students left their classrooms and walked nearly 2 miles to the state Capitol to advocate for gun legislation and safer schools. e students returned to confront lawmakers again last week in the aftermath of the March 22 high school shooting. e state legislature is considering a handful of bills to prevent gun violence, including raising the minimum age to purchase or possess a gun to 21; establishing a three-day waiting period for gun purchases; limiting legal protections for gun manufacturers and sellers; and expanding the pool of who can le for extreme risk protection orders to have guns removed from people deemed a threat to themselves or e bill will also require schools to report how many out-of-state and in-state students schools enroll before the double count occurs,

American Indian students in Colorado reported the greatest access to a loaded gun, at 39%, including 18% saying they could get one within 10 minutes, compared with 12% of everybody surveyed. American Indian and Native Alaskan youths also have the highest rates of suicide.

Nearly 40% of students in rural areas reported having access to rearms, compared with 29% of city residents.

Education Executive Director Angie Paccione said in February that she didn’t want to see schools become predominantly out-of-state student serving.

But a department spokeswoman said Paccione now believes CU Boulder has demonstrated that all eligible in-state students are accepted at the school — and that accepting eligible resident students is a priority. Paccione no longer has concerns about the legislation.

The iconic “E” outside Denver East High School on March 22 adorns flowers and a “#11” painted on the surface in commemoration of Luis Garcia, who was shot outside the school in late February. Two school sta ers were injured in a shooting at the school on March 22.

PHOTO BY HART

VAN DENBURG/CPR NEWS

others.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rearms became the leading cause of death among those ages 19 or younger in 2020, supplanting motor vehicle deaths. And rearm deaths among children increased during the pandemic, with an average of seven children a day dying because of a rearm incident in 2021.

Colorado has endured a string of school shootings over the past 25 years, including at Columbine High School in 1999, Platte Canyon High School in 2006, Arapahoe High School in 2013, and the STEM School Highlands Ranch in 2019.

Although school shootings receive more attention, the majority of teen gun deaths are suicides.

“Youth suicide is starting to become a bigger problem than it ever has been,” said Dr. Paul Nestadt, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

“Part of that has to do with the fact that there’s more and more guns that are accessible to youth.”

While gun ownership poses a higher risk of suicide among all age groups, teens are particularly vulnerable, because their brains typically are still developing impulse control.

“A teen may be bright and know how to properly handle a rearm, but that same teen in a moment of desperation may act impulsively how schools use revenue for the purpose of aid, and where students that qualify for aid come from in the state.

Colorado needs more homegrown talent from its universities, especially because that state has large gaps when it comes to who gets a degree, said Katie Zaback of Colorado Succeeds, which brings together business leaders to advocate for education.

Zaback, the organization’s vice president of policy, said a priority for Colorado Succeeds is to examine what solutions there are to get more Colorado students access to a without thinking through the consequences,” said Dr. Shayla Sullivant, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Children’s Mercy Kansas City. “ e decision-making centers of the brain are not fully online until adulthood.”

Previous research has shown a disconnect between parents and their children about access to guns in their homes. A 2021 study found that 70% of parents who own rearms said their children could not get their hands on the guns kept at home. But 41% of kids from those same families said they could get to those guns within two hours.

“Making the guns inaccessible doesn’t just mean locking them. It means making sure the kid doesn’t know where the keys are or can’t guess the combination,” said Catherine Barber, a senior researcher at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Injury Control Research Center, who was not involved in the study. “Parents can forget how easily their kids can guess the combination or watch them input the numbers or notice where the keys are kept.” e Colorado researchers now plan to dig further to nd out where teens are accessing guns in hopes of tailoring prevention strategies to di erent groups of students. high-quality education, such as at CU Boulder.

If teens have their own guns for hunting or sport, those, too, should be kept under parental control when the guns are not actively being used, she said.

“Contextualizing these data a little bit further will help us better understand types of education and prevention that can be done,” McCarthy said.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonpro t organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

CU Boulder enrolls a group of students that aren’t representative of the state’s high school graduates, she said. And she worries the bill, if it’s enacted, would send a message that Colorado’s best and brightest can only be educated if the state recruits more out-of-state students.

“I wonder if that’s true,” Zaback said. “I wonder what the overall equity implications are.” is story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters

Thu 4/06

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Nutrition Wednesdays

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Apr 6th - Apr 26th

Fort Lupton Recreation & Parks De‐partment, 203 S Harrison, Fort Lupton. 303-857-4200

Colorado Rockies vs. Washington Nationals @ 6:40pm / $12-$300

Coors Field, 2001 Blake St., Denver

Pianist Dmytro Choni, 2022 Cliburn Bronze Medalist @ 7:30pm / $10-$20

Center for Musical Arts, 200 East Baseline Road, Lafayette

Colorado Mammoth vs. Vancouver Warriors @ 7pm / $20-$999

Ball Arena, 1000 Chopper Circle, Denver

Sun 4/09

Wed 4/12

Birding for All - April @ 10am / Free

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Flatrock Training Facility @ 3pm

Job and Career Fair @ 12:30pm

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Ball Arena, 1000 Chopper Circle, Denver

The Pitch Invasion @ 4pm Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St, Denver

Mon 4/10

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Survivalist Seekers @ 7pm

11th Annual 5K Raptor Run

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Colorado Rockies vs. Washington Nationals

@ 2:10pm / $50-$350

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Golden Quilt Museum (4/6) @ 4pm

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Tue 4/11

Bally's Casino @ 2:15pm

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Spring Stroll Series Rocky Mountain Arsenal @ 4pm Offsite, 6060 E Parkway Drive, Commerce City. 303-289-3760

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Bowling & Bluegrass at 100 Nickel with High Lonesome Trio @ 8pm 100 �ickel, 100 �ickel St, Broom�eld

Thu 4/13

Storytime in the Park @ 3pm Eagle Pointe Recreation Center, 6060 East Parkway Dr., Commerce City. 303-2893760

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Bison Ridge Recreation Center, 13905 E. 112th Avenue, Commerce City. 303-2893760

Colorado Rockies vs. Washington Nationals @ 6:10pm / $14-$300

Coors Field, 2001 Blake St., Denver

Colorado Rockies vs. St. Louis Cardinals @ 6:40pm / $8-$300

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Colorado Avalanche vs. Winnipeg Jets @ 6pm / $51-$999

Ball Arena, 1000 Chopper Circle, Denver

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