Gun Rights Activists Rally at Capitol Against Detached Magazine Bill

A few dozen Coloradans worried about their right to bear arms rallied at the State Capitol Building in Denver on Tuesday, March 11, to oppose to Senate Bill 25-003, a bill sponsored by Democrats that would ban semiautomatic rifles that take high-capacity, detached magazines.

"It's a major infringement on our constitutional rights and our Second Amendment," said Steve Moldenhauer, a Centennial resident who came out with an American flag to protest the bill. "It's very important for us to be able to defend ourselves, our businesses, our homes. I think this is a major attempt at a gun grab, an attempt to ban all semiautomatic rifles, which has never been seen before. It's really a scary time."

Detached magazines are meant to make reloading easier and allow firearms to use multiple magazines, or the part that stores and feeds ammo to the gun. Groups that support SB 003, like Everytown for Gun Safety, say it would limit the amount of ammo that a shooter can fire before having to reload.

State Senator Tom Sullivan, a Democrat from Arapahoe County, said in a January press release that banning guns that take detached magazines could stop mass shooters and protect public safety.

The bill is scheduled for a hearing in the House Judiciary committee today, March 11, at 1:30 p.m. The rally was meant to show public opposition to the bill, according to the 2nd Syndicate, a Colorado Springs-based gun rights advocacy group.

Democrats take up all but four of the eleven seats on the House Judiciary committee. The 2nd Syndicate hoped a strong turnout would sway at least two moderate-leaning Democrats on the committee to vote against the bill, giving the opposition enough votes to kill the bill in committee.

On January 28, the bill made it through the Senate Veterans and Military Affairs committee with a 3-2 vote along party lines. The bill's main sponsors include three Democrats from the Denver area: Sullivan, State Senator Julie Gonzales and State Representative Meg Froelich.

“Gun violence continues to have devastating effects on Colorado communities, and we must do more to protect lives,” Gonzales said in a January press release. “The firearm industry’s profits come, time and again, at the expense of public safety and something has to change."

The rally against SB 25-003 had a small showing compared to recent anti-Trump protests that have seen thousands pour out onto the streets. But protesters on Tuesday said they had come out from all over Colorado, largely driven by a fear that Colorado's Democrat-controlled legislature was infringing on their constitutional rights.

"We're at a point where our state government wants to take total control of how we live our lives. This is a total abuse of our Second Amendment rights," said a protester from Conifer who asked to only go by Chris. "Most of the people out there are good, law-abiding citizens, so why are we being attacked? Why are we being regulated and controlled because of the few idiots out there that do not have the proper education or self-control?"

Chris showed up with a Colorado flag marked with a Soviet Union-style hammer and sickle in the middle, which he says was to show that he felt like his state legislators are "totalitarian idiots."  He says that SB 25-003 passing would begin "a death by a thousand cuts, where our main rights might not be taken from us, but it's a little here and little there until it's all gone."

Melissa Flanell, a firearm instructor and gun shop owner from Castle Rock with a popular YouTube channel, told Westword that guns rights and the Second Amendment "have to be protected the same as the First Amendment" and the freedom of speech and protest. 

"If you want to exercise your First Amendment rights, you should allow me to exercise my Second Amendment rights," she said. "If you think the First Amendment is important, you should give the same respect to the Second Amendment."