NBC News by Adam Edelman 4/14/2019
The dramatic saga of what happened in Colorado when 2020 contender John Hickenlooper was governor holds lessons for Dems seeking the White House and the nation.Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper bills himself as the experienced, consensus-building Democrat in the 2020 presidential race, one who has successfully tackled divisive issues like gun control.
But his signature achievement as governor — a package of gun bills passed in 2013 — was undertaken without any Republican support and exacted great political cost on state Democrats, several of whom were recalled or resigned under threat of being removed from office. Hickenlooper has since expressed serious misgivings about how he handled the issue, publicly pondering whether it was worth it and apologizing to one of the key players in the process — although he still touts it on the campaign trail as one of his major accomplishments.
It began on July 12, 2012, when James Holmes opened fire inside an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, killing 12 people and injuring 70 others. During the attack at a midnight showing of a "The Dark Knight Rises," Holmes, who experts testified during his trial was mentally ill, wielded a modified semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and a .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol. He bought all the firearms legally.
Afterward, local and national gun-control groups, lawmakers and mental health advocates banded together to push tough gun control laws in a purple state where gun rights enjoyed significant support.
Their efforts were successful. After vigorous debate — and protests from pro-gun groups and gun-owning Coloradans — Hickenlooper signed three bills into law in 2013.
One, a so-called "high-capacity magazine ban," limited ammunition magazines to 15 rounds. A second put in place universal background checks for all gun purchases, expanding the checks to sales and transfers between private parties and to online purchases. The third measure required gun purchasers to pay for the background checks.
All three bills passed the state Senate and state House either entirely along party lines or with just one Democrat joining all Republicans in opposition. Four other bills, including an assault weapons ban, did not advance.
Republican opponents of the measures argued they infringed on Second Amendment rights and that state Democrats were doing the bidding of national gun control groups (which poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the state during the process) and the Obama White House, which at the time was advocating for national gun control legislation in the aftermath of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., in 2012.
The political price to be paid
The Republican and gun group-led backlash came fast and furious.
Incensed with the new laws, the National Rifle Association, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and other groups helped organize angry residents to gather enough signatures to force recall elections in the districts of two key Senate Democrats who had supported the gun control legislation.
Senate President John Morse, a former police officer representing a Colorado Springs-area district who had become a face of the bills, and Angela Giron, who represented a Pueblo-area district, were targeted.
More:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/gun-control-case-study-mass-shooting-major-reforms-then-political-n991096
