Beyond this bill being an outright violation of Coloradans’ Second Amendment rights, it’s also a violation of their Fifth Amendment guarantee of innocence until proven guilty. The law effectively applies legal culpability for the criminal use of a firearm on all gun owners simply for owning a similar tool to the one used in the commission of a crime.
Or, as we’ve noted many times before, this bill effectively criminalizes firearm ownership, which is precisely the end objective of the anti-gun lobby.
As the Denver Gazette’s editorial board observed: “[HB2401270] seeks to solve a nonexistent problem — uncompensated damages incurred by firearms — as a cover for its true aim of creating another hurdle to legal gun ownership. In other words, it’s gun control by another name. It also amounts to a gun tax (as well as a boon to the insurance industry).” Exactly.