Colorado has really stepped in it.
While their new restrictions on so-called assault weapons didn’t go quite as far as many wanted, it’s still pretty bad. It’s also pretty stupid. Someone who is going to commit a crime with an AR-15 isn’t going to be dissuaded because he had to sit through a training class before buying one lawfully. It’s never happened before, and it’ll never happen in the future.
To say the law is stupid is an insult to stupidity.
But there’s another level that’s pretty bad, too. You see, this puts a lot on local sheriffs’ offices, and they’re not really happy about that.
The law creates a multistep process for gun purchasers that includes a background check, permit application, and hours of safety training. Legislators, who had to close a $1.2 billion deficit in the state’s budget this year, did not allocate any new funding to help local officials with the rollout.
The Summit Daily News reached out to sheriffs in several Western Slope counties to hear about how the new law could impact their operations and whether they feel prepared. In emailed responses, some said they may need to cut programs or seek additional taxpayer funding to support the initiative, even as some of their counties face potentially severe budget shortfalls.
Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons said SB 3 imposes “unfunded mandates that require significant time, personnel and financial resources to implement.”
“These include the expansion of firearms safety programs and outreach efforts that were not previously within the scope — or budget — of many sheriff’s offices, particularly in rural or resource-limited counties like Summit,” FitzSimons said.
Moffat County Sheriff Chip McIntyre described his office as one with “a lean staff and a budget focused on core public safety services, including patrol, detention and emergency response.”
“Adding a new statutory obligation, especially one that requires verification processes, applicant communication, and documentation, could divert staff time from these primary functions,” he said. “Without additional support, it may delay other services or strain operational efficiency.”
Under SB 3, sheriff’s offices will be tasked with running background checks and issuing permits to people to enroll in a gun safety course. They’ll also need to identify and vet qualified firearms instructors who will administer the course and will have to enter applicants’ information into a state-run database.
So they put all these tasks on local sheriffs, but gave them no resources with which to do it. There’s no way they can just wish these resources into existence, either, which means there are going to be problems.
And I can’t help but think that this is kind of the point.
They know that sheriffs have finite resources, particularly in the more rural parts of the state. They also know that those rural parts of the state are where people are more likely to want to buy AR-15 and AK-47-style rifles. That means the people who are most likely to want these guns are the people who are likely to have the hardest time getting them.
It’s not about making anyone safer; it’s about punishing the people who didn’t vote for anti-gunners in the state legislature. It’s about making it as hard as they can to keep anyone from getting one of these weapons, even with the rules not expressly banning them.
That’s what it’s always about. It’s never really about safety; it’s about impediments and difficulty, all while knowing that the bad guys aren’t going to do any of that or, if they do, it’s not going to stop them from doing anything.
Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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