A Colorado bill that would require stores to keep ammunition behind the counter has won initial approval from the state House, but only after lawmakers watered down a provision that would have barred younger adults from purchasing ammo at all.
Under House Bill 1133, retailers would be required to keep bullets off unlocked shelves, and it would also ban the ammo vending machines that popped up in some Colorado communities last year. Retailers that violate the provision would first face a civil penalty, with subsequent violations treated as a misdemeanor crime.
The measure passed voice and procedural votes Friday, with the House’s minority caucus of Republicans opposed. It now needs a final vote in the House, which is expected this week, before moving to the Senate.
The bill initially would’ve prohibited adults under the age of 21 from buying ammo, in step with a previous measure blocking younger adults from buying guns at all. But the bill’s sponsors — Democratic Reps. Monica Duran and Lindsay Gilchrist — introduced several changes Friday, including allowing younger people to buy ammunition if they’re in the military, live in rural parts of the state, use the ammo at a shooting range or have passed a hunter safety course.
The bill would also allow anyone who is now between the ages of 18 and 21 to continue purchasing ammunition, grandfathering them in.
Should a person buy ammo online or have it delivered, the delivery driver must verify the purchaser’s age, as they would in a store. The measure defines the items covered as “an ammunition or cartridge case, primer, bullet or propellant powder designed for use in a firearm.”
Gilchrist and Duran said the bill would help reduce gun violence.
“Today, it is far too easy for minors and others prohibited from owning firearms to evade minimal restrictions in place on websites and (to) stockpile ammunition,” Gilchrist, a Denver Democrat, said Friday afternoon. She linked the bill to the 2018 shooting at a Texas high school, in which 10 people were killed by a 17-year-old shooter.
House Republicans argued that the bill would do little to prevent gun violence. Several said they began handling guns and ammunition at a young age.
Colorado Springs Rep. Ken DeGraaf claimed attempts at gun control would lead to “genocide,” and other Republicans blamed mass shootings on mental illness, a frequent conservative argument against tighter gun regulations.
“We’ve got to stop blaming other objects — guns, ammo — for horrific events,” said Republican Rep. Carlos Barron of Fort Lupton.
The ammo bill is one of several gun measures — proposed by members of both parties — that are up for debate in the Capitol this year. The most significant is Senate Bill 3, which would effectively limit the sale of semiautomatic firearms colloquially known as assault weapons. That bill passed the state Senate earlier this month, and the House is set to begin debate in the coming weeks.
Other Democrat-backed bills include House Bill 1238, which would add security and age restrictions for gun shows, and Senate Bill 34, which would allow people to voluntarily waive their right to purchase a firearm. That voluntary waiver proposal follows another state law that allows judges to take someone’s guns temporarily if they pose a danger to themselves or others. Another bill would regulate how the state purchases and disposes of firearms.
Republicans’ bills would generally loosen state gun regulations.
Those include House Bill 1055, which would repeal a law passed last year requiring gun dealers to have a state license, in addition to their federal permit. House Bill 1164 would establish so-called “constitutional carry,” allowing people to carry a handgun without a permit, as now required under Colorado’s concealed-carry law.
Given the heavily Democratic makeup of the legislature, both of those bills — which are set for first committee hearings this week — are unlikely to survive their initial votes.
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