Colorado has spoken!

[SHORT-N-SASSY]

Colorado Lawmakers Lose Recalls Over Gun Laws Support http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/colo-...s-20208099

[Variable]

Dangit! Beat me to the punch!

[joker31]

Hmmm so wait, It's the Majority that should you work for, thats right, they keep mixing that up

[Nukes]

"Purely symbolic," Morse said. Yes, symbolic of the PAIN that politicians understand, the only thing they understand.

Good work Colorado gunnies.

[DW61]

Hope it starts catching on everywhere.. time to send a clear message

[BjornF16]

From the NYT:

Angry constituents around Pueblo and Colorado Springs started to ask one another what they could do. In living room conversations and on Internet message boards for gun enthusiasts, the idea for a recall campaign against gun-control supporters began to jell.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/us/col...l?hp&_r=1&

I guess there is STILL some things "We the People" can do...let's keep turning the ship back to the original Constitution intent!

[rkflorey]

The mainstream media stays consistent.... Little or no coverage of this recall but lots of coverage about a Weiner...
I guess it wasn't the news they wanted to hear, especially since Bloomberg blew $350k of his own money and had it shoved down his throat.

[jrfarmer]

The mainstream media stays consistent.... Little or no coverage of this recall but lots of coverage about a Weiner...
I guess it wasn't the news they wanted to hear, especially since Bloomberg blew $350k of his own money and had it shoved down his throat.

It's hard to get the attention of the mainstream media, but this sure will get the attention of lawmakers nationwide, and that's what counts. Regardless this is a great victory for Colorado and gun enthusiast as a whole.

[chadrp]

While it is a great victory for Colorado it isn't over for them. They still are stuck with those crappy laws so, the focus now needs to shift to getting them repealed as soon as possible.

[Nukes]

A compendium provided by a friend:


An epic national debate over gun rights in Colorado on Tuesday saw two
Democratic state senators ousted for their support for stricter laws, a
"ready, aim, fired" message intended to stop other politicians for
pushing for firearms restrictions. Senate President John Morse and Sen.
Angela Giron will be replaced in office with Republican candidates who
petitioned onto the recall ballot.

Colorado Senate President John Morse, state Sen. Angela Giron ousted
The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/c...ef=twitter


-------
“I feel like all these [anti] gun bills have done — to quote the
last words in the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! — is to awaken a sleeping
giant [of Second Amendment backers].”

Lois Tochtrop
Colorado state senator


-------
The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms was the secondmost
important reason why Morse and Giron were removed from office. The first
reason was the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment principle of Due Process
of Law. The opportunity to be heard is the fundamental to Due Process of
Law, and not solely in adjudications. When Morse and Giron squelched the
testimony of law-abiding citizens and of law-enforcing Sheriffs, they
grossly abused their constitutional office of being law-makers. And so,
for abuse of office, John Morse and Angela Giron have been recalled from
office by the People of Colorado, to be replaced by legislators who will
listen before the vote.

David Kopel
Professor of Advanced Constitutional Law
Denver University, Sturm College of Law
The Colorado Recalls Explained
The Volokh Conspiracy
http://www.volokh.com/2013/09/11/colorad...explained/


----
But before the media returns to promoting the myth of National Rifle
Association electoral dominance and suggests that the recall of the two
Colorado state senators proves that all elected officials who push for
stronger gun laws risk their jobs, here are a few things they should
consider ...

The Recall Turnout Was Extremely Low. A very small number of voters
determined the recall election. In fact, voter turnout in Morse and
Giron's districts were both substantially lower in the recall election
compared to the 2010 state senate elections. Only 21 percent of 84,029
registered voters in Morse's district voted in the recall election. A
mere 9,094 people voted in favor of recall; he lost his seat by a margin
of 343 votes. Turnout was about 11,000 voters higher in Morse's 2010
senate election. Turnout in Giron's district was only 36 percent; 10,000
more people voted in her 2010 Senate election. Deriving national trends
from low-turnout recall elections seems unwise.

What The Colorado Recall Doesn't Prove
Media Matters
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/09/11/...ove/195834


----
Voter turnout *didn't* cause loss.

These facts refute speculation in other diaries posted today.
For every 1 Republican who voted, 1.43 Democrats voted. 4,619 more
Democrats voted than Republicans. Thus, it is highly unlikely that
inadequate Democratic turnout decided Pueblo's election.

One point that jumps out is that, like the Quinnipiac poll from a couple
of weeks ago told us, voters tend to approve of most of the gun control
measures, but don't like "gun control", and this PPP poll tells us that
they favor the NRA.

So it looks like the Democratic campaigns failed by explicitly avoiding
the (chuckle) elephant in the room and refusing to directly address each
of the measures they voted for (which were popular, individually). By
ceding the "gun control" message to the NRA/recallers, by talking about
everything but, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Daily Kos
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/11...cause-loss


----
Meanwhile, in California ...

New sales of semi-automatic rifles with removable magazines would be
banned in California under a bill passed by the Democratic-led state
legislature on Tuesday, and those who already own such weapons would
have to register them.

Business Insider
http://www.businessinsider.com/californi...z2ehhj6sfY


----
Expect a law requiring all such firearms be turned in or forcibly taken
by California's special gun collection SWAT police to follow in
the near future. -- Dan

California Seizes Guns as Owners Lose Right to Keep Arms
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-12...-arms.html


Meanwhile, in New York ...


New York Sheriffs Tell [Governor] Cuomo To Stuff His Gun Control Laws

Reason
http://reason.com/blog/2013/09/10/new-yo...o-stuff-hi


---
Cuomo’s office drafted and pushed through the gun law in January, which,
among other provisions, bans New York sales of some popular
semi-automatic rifles and gives owners a year to register those they
already owned. It also limited magazine capacity in most cases to seven
bullets.

Local sheriff: I won't enforce gun law
The Daily Star (Oneonta, NY)
http://thedailystar.com/localnews/x31242...ce-gun-law


---
'Anarchists have taken over'

US Senator Harry Reid (D-NV)
Senate Majority Leader
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/se...use-senate

[Nukes]

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Waking a Sleeping Giant in Colorado
Democrats knew what they wanted in Colorado, but they overreached
By John R. Lott Jr. *
President of the Crime Prevention Research Center
National Review
September 11, 2013
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/35...-r-lott-jr


Two weeks ago, the Washington Post declared the recall elections of two
powerful state senators in Colorado a national “referendum on guns.”
Indeed, the defeat of state-senate president John Morse and fellow state
senator Angela Giron will cause some Democrats to rethink their push on
gun control.

But of course, many Democrats have reacted by shrugging off the results.
Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has
dismissed the losses as the result of “voter suppression, pure and
simple” (orchestrated by the National Rifle Association and the Koch
brothers, of course). Mark Glaze, executive director of Michael
Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, predicted that the victory by
gun owners would be short-lived at best and that gun-control legislators
would take comfort in knowing that his group “will have their back.”

In reality, it is hard not to appreciate what was accomplished. The
difficulties facing the recall were overwhelming:

Both state-senate districts were overwhelmingly Democratic. In 2012,
President Obama carried Morse’s district by 21 percentage points and
Giron’s by 19 points.

These were the first recalls of legislators in Colorado history.
Nationally, recalls of state legislators, particularly state legislative
leaders, has been very difficult. Morse and Giron were only the 37th and
38th state legislators in U.S. history to face recall votes (before this
vote, precisely half the efforts had succeeded). Prior to Morse, there
had only been four recall elections against legislative leaders, and the
legislative leader was retained in three of those four races. Giron was
also a powerful senator, serving as vice chairman of the very important,
especially for her rural district, Agriculture, Natural Resources, and
Energy Committee.

Not only did getting a recall on the ballot require a number of
signatures amounting to 25 percent of all the votes in the previous
election, but the Democrats didn’t take even that battle lying down.
During the signature-gathering effort, recall proponents were outspent
by the groups backed by billionaire Mayor Bloomberg that went in earlier
with ads to discourage signature gathering.

In their last races for the state senate, in 2010, Morse raised $163,972
and Giron $68,710. By the last filing for the recall, on August 29,
Morse had raised $658,230 and Giron $825,400. While the NRA had donated
$361,700, just two billionaires, Bloomberg and Eli Broad, donated a
total of $600,000 between them. Left-wing organizations such as the
Daily Kos and MoveOn.org continually bombarded their members with
requests for money. Of the $3.5 million spent on the recall election,
almost $3 million came from its opponents.

Despite all that, the two Democratic state senators were decisively
defeated. Morse’s race was close, with him losing by only two percentage
points. But Giron was demolished by twelve points.

The votes weren’t about some abstract idea. As part of its gun-control
push this spring, the Obama administration made the extremely unusual
move of lobbying Colorado’s governor and its state legislators. If they
could show that strict gun control could be passed in a western state
such as Colorado, the administration thought, they could get it passed
anyplace. The Colorado bills, like the ones in every place from
Connecticut to New York to Maryland to California, had one central goal:
to reduce gun ownership by making it costly to own guns.

In Colorado, one new law charges people a transfer fee whenever they
obtain a gun. Democrats voted down Republican amendments that would have
capped the fee and exempted people below the poverty level from paying
it. How many other taxes or fees would Democrats refuse to exempt the
poor from paying?

Democrats feel that the struggle to reduce gun ownership is important
for a simple reason: The issue that most divides conservatives and
liberals is not taxes, not abortion, but gun control. Liberals trust
government to make decisions, while conservatives tend to trust
individuals. Letting people possess weapons is the ultimate form of
trust in individuals. Democrats also know that gun ownership and
familiarity with firearms go a long way toward determining how people
feel about gun control. Democrats may believe that gun control enhances
safety, but they also believe that it will weaken Republicans and
conservatism in the long run.

It wasn’t just gun-owner groups that cautioned Democrats about these
bills. Colorado state senator Lois Tochtrop warned her fellow Democrats
by saying, “I feel like all these gun bills have done — to quote the
last words in the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! — is to awaken a sleeping giant.”

— John R. Lott Jr. is the author of the new book Dumbing Down the
Courts: How Politics Keeps the Smartest Judges off the Bench.


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