Monthly “Coffee with Commissioners” meeting
By Lynn Volkens
The recent change in Colorado gun control laws was the topic most on the minds of approximately 60 people who attended the “Coffee with Commissioners” meeting held the evening of March 28, 2013 at the Gilpin County Community Center. Commissioners Buddy Schmalz, Connie McLain and Gail Watson were joined by Colorado Senator Jeanne Nicholson and Gilpin County Sheriff Bruce Hartman. New laws restricting magazines to fifteen rounds, requiring background checks on all gun sales, including private sales, and requiring the gun purchaser to pay for that background check were recently signed by Governor Hickenlooper and become effective July 1, 2013. County Sheriffs of Colorado, a professional organization which includes the sheriffs of 62 Colorado counties, and of which Hartman is Secretary/Treasurer, had taken a stand against the new laws. Many of the sheriffs, including Hartman, had gone to the state capitol to testify to that effect before legislators voted. A written statement from County Sheriffs of Colorado expressed sympathies to the victims of recent shootings, but also said that gun control legislation introduced at this time would likely be made from emotion rather than reason, and asked that legislators table all gun control bills for at least a year to “encourage rational deliberations before any decisions are made.”
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