GunsColorado moving closer to imposing tighter gun restrictions

Colorado, home of two of the worst mass shooting in United States history, is moving a step closer to passing a new set of gun restrictions.

Last Friday, Colorado’s House of Representatives gave approval to legislations which will require background checks for private gun sales as well as limits on clip capacity. The New York Times reportsthat other proposals include  banning concealed weapons on college campuses. Another bill being debated  would charge gun buyers for background checks.

Many Democratic legislators are supporting new gun laws after 2012 saw several mass shooting, including a shootingat an Aurora, Colorado movie theatre.

“There is a common thread that we see in these massacres,” State Representative Rhonda Fields (D-Aurora) told the New York Times. Fields, whose son was shot in 2005, sponsored both pieces of legislation. “They’re using high-capacity magazines so they can unleash as many bullets as they can, to kill as many people as they can, in our schools, our theaters and our churches.”

Gun control and restrictions on firearms have led to heated debates in state legislative sessions around the country, but in Colorado, a state with deep conservative and independent streaks, gun control has been on the table since the Columbine high school shootingin 1999.

Republican legislators and gun rights advocates fought   for hours against the measures, saying that proposed magazine limits — 15 rounds for guns and 8 for shotguns — were merely arbitrary and would have little effect on gun violence.

“It makes no difference to public safety if there are 10 rounds in a magazine, whether there are 15 rounds in a magazine or whether there are 30 rounds,” State Representative Jared Wright (R-Fruita) said during the hearing.

Republicans are also beating down the background check proposal, arguing that federally licensed gun dealers already must perform a background check in Colorado, as they do in every other state.

“All this bill does is make us law-abiding citizens go through another hoop,” State Representative Jerry Sonnenberg, (R-Sterling). “It doesn’t stop criminals, those that can’t get background checks, those that are felons, from breaking into my house and stealing my guns. Doesn’t stop them from meeting a guy down the street and buying a gun there.”

According to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, if the legislation passes, Colorado would join California, New York, and Rhode Island as states that require background checks for virtually all gun purchases.

Currently, four states prohibit magazine clips that hold more than ten rounds. New Jersey bans clips over fifteen rounds and Maryland bans clips over twenty rounds.

The bills must go through a final vote, which could come as early as today, before going to the State Senate, where Democrats  outnumber Republicans.