A controversial bill in Colorado banning concealed carry at public universities may actually be killed before it reaches the state Senate floor, according to several Democratic members of the body.
The legislation, House Bill 13-1226, has already passed through the state House and a senate committee, but Republican state Senators promise it won’t pass through the Senate.
While the Denver Post originally reported that the bill would be killed before it hit the Senate floor, it later amended that the senator sponsoring the bill, Democrat Rollie Heath, has yet to decide if he’s going to dump the bill or not.
“They do not want to get up there and debate that bill,” Republican State Sen. Greg Brophy told the Denver Post.
Critics of HB 13-1226 have pointed out that the bill not only infringes on our Second Amendment rights, but deprives college women the ability to protect themselves during an attack. Recently the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs added “vomiting or urinating” on the attacker as a viable alternative to carrying a firearm to their website.
In a debate on the House floor last month, Democratic state Rep. Joe Salazar claimed that call boxes, safe zones and whistles are sufficient enough to protect women from being raped, and that women are so emotional they will just shoot at anyone they think will attack them.
“Because you just don’t know who you’re gonna be shooting at,” he argued. “And you don’t know if you feel like you’re gonna be raped, or if you feel like someone’s been following you around or if you feel like you’re in trouble when you may actually not be, that you pop out that gun.”
Under Colorado law, citizens with a concealed carry permit can carry a weapon with few exceptions, including on the grounds of K-12 schools. This bill would add college campuses to that list.
