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Legislating for safety

Gun laws and their advocates aim to address complex problem

On April 29, 1945, Colonel Felix Sparks, a battalion commander, led 200 U.S. Army troops to liberate the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, Germany. Almost two years of intense combat through North Africa, Sicily, Italy and France could not prepare these battle-hardened soldiers for the horrors of Dachau as they opened 39 boxcars of dead bodies parked along the railway leading to the camp.

When the soldiers reached the razor-wired compound, 32,000 emaciated prisoners streamed from the barracks, realizing that they might finally be freed from the inhumanities endured at the hands of the Nazis. Several months later, Sparks returned to the United States. He completed law school at the University of Colorado and pursued a remarkable career filled with public service. Among other positions, Sparks served as the district attorney in Delta, as a justice on the Colorado Supreme Court, the director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and the Colorado Water Conservation Board, while also commanding the Colorado National Guard. He was a hero and a patriot whose loyalty to his state and nation was beyond question.

As he would later reflect, no family escapes tragedy. The world of this proud grandfather was shattered on the evening of March 15, 1993. One of his twin grandsons died in the arms of his teenaged brother, the victim of a drive-by shooting. The perpetrator was 16 years old and the lawful owner of handgun. At the time, Colorado had no age restrictions on owning or purchasing handguns. Sparks channeled his grief toward revising Colorado law, and, after a special session, the Colorado General Assembly passed a new law making it unlawful for any person younger than 18 to own or possess a handgun, except when engaged in target shooting at a shooting range, participating in organized competitions, hunting or trapping with a valid license or at the home of and with the permission of a parent, guardian or grandparent. The new law also made it unlawful to sell or provide a handgun to a minor, except in limited circumstances. Of course, the National Rifle Association – shill for the arms and munitions industry – fought tooth and nail in an unsuccessful effort to defeat the new law as a violation of the Second Amendment.

Almost 20 years later, after first shooting and killing his mother, a young man in Connecticut entered Sandy Hook Elementary School with a semi-automatic carbine and semi-automatic pistol and massacred 20 terrified children and six adults before turning a gun on himself. Months earlier, on a summer night in 2012, a heavily armed gunman had entered a movie theater in Aurora, where he killed 12 people and wounded another 70. His weapons included a semi-automatic rifle equipped with a 100-round magazine, a shotgun, an automatic handgun and tear gas grenades. In response to these incidents, the Colorado General Assembly held hearings on what might be done to reduce the likelihood of such massacres.

Ultimately, in 2013, the legislature enacted a new law with two main provisions. The first prohibited the future sale of magazines with a capacity exceeding 15 rounds, but grandfathered the legality previously acquired large-capacity magazines in most instances. The second provision expanded the requirement for background checks before the sale or transfer of guns to include transactions among private parties – except when associated with specified sporting activities or certain family transactions. Again, the NRA and gun manufacturers decried these measures as an invasion of the right to “keep and bear arms” and vowed to exact political revenge on those who dared to support the legislation.

Earlier this summer, the chief judge for the federal district court in Colorado upheld the new law against a constitutional challenge. The federal court ruling confirmed what has been well-established since our nation’s founding: that the right to keep and bear arms is not absolute. The Supreme Court has determined that, as individual citizens, our right to own guns is founded on our right to protect and defend our homes. The evidence admitted in court showed that there were almost no instances in which the defense of a home or business had resulted in the discharge of more than 15 rounds. In contrast, gunmen in public settings almost always used large magazines. Further, a brief interruption in the act of shooting to replace a magazine could give public victims an opportunity to escape or take other action needed to protect themselves from the public gunman. On the issue of background checks, the court also found that the majority of guns used in the course of criminal activities were obtained through private sale rather than through commercial dealers, who already perform background checks. Ultimately, the court held that the law was constitutional and a lawful exercise of legislative power; however, the court did not suggest that these measures, nor any law, would prevent public shootings from ever occurring in the future. Similarly, the posting of speed limits does not prevent drivers from speeding, but enforcement does deter such activity.

Laws and regulations about firearms garner public attention and invite debate, as they should. However, the suggestion that folks like Sparks are not patriotic because they have supported improved public protections in our gun laws is simply false. We are not well-served by the gun industry’s effort to hijack elections or its attempt to intimidate elected public servants from fashioning reasonable solutions to complex societal problems, particularly when the lives of our children and grandchildren lie in the balance.

Tom Shipps is a longtime Durango resident and a partner in the law firm of Maynes, Bradford, Shipps & Sheftel, LLP, where he has been an attorney for 35 years. As a young lawyer, he met and worked on a number of projects with the late Felix Sparks. Reach him at tshipps@mbssllp.com.



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