DENVER (AP) — The battle over new firearm restrictions intensified in Colorado on Monday as hundreds of gun rights supporters crammed the state Capitol and circled the building with car horns blaring, while inside the husband of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords urged lawmakers to pass universal background checks.

Colorado has become a focus point in the national debate over what new laws, if any, are needed to prevent gun violence in the wake of recent mass shootings, including an attack at a suburban Denver movie theater last summer — a massacre that brought to mind the Columbine High School shooting of 1999 for many in the state and across the nation.