COLORADO GRAPH: 12 Gun Control Laws Pass in 4 years and Homicide Rate Skyrockets

Posted on by Lesley Hollywood

 

In Colorado, gun control laws have been stacking up every year since finding itself as one of the first battleground states for Red Flag laws in 2018. The Red Flag ERPO bill first failed in 2018, followed by passage in 2019. Prior to that the state had been pretty quiet on the gun control front since 2013 when Colorado passed magazine capacity limits and universal background checks. The 2013 measures led to the recall of three state legislators.

But Colorado has certainly changed a lot since those days: it’s passed 12 new gun control measures in 4 years and it’s a far less safe state. Since 2019, Colorado has passed Red Flag ERPO, Repealed Preemption and Allowed Local Regulation of Firearms, Expanded Background Checks to Include Certain Misdemeanors, Created the Office Of Gun Violence Prevention, Safe Storage of Firearms requirements, Report Lost and Stolen Firearms requirements, Prohibited Firearms at Polling Places and Ballot Drop Boxes, implemented a Ghost Gun Ban, implemented a 3 Day Waiting Period, passed into law the Ability to Sue Gun Stores and Manufacturers, Raised the Minimum Purchase Age to 21, and Expanded Current Red Flag Law to allow more reporters. Whew. It’s been an exhausting few years.

The data used to compile the chart below was obtained from the Colorado State Division of Criminal Justice: Office of Research and Statistics (ORS). As you can see the homicide rate has simply skyrocketed, and most recent data shows that Colorado’s homicide rate has surpassed the national homicide rate for the first time in over 40 years.

Note: The colored dotted lines are the rates of rise in the homicide rate, and over the last 10 years (in the graph), the homicide rate has periodically been rising at faster and faster rates. This dispels any spurious arguments that the homicide rate would have been higher/worse, without the gun-laws.

Now this year, the Democrat super majority is rushing through another 10 gun control bills.

Here’s what we’re facing today: A so-called “Assault Weapons Ban”, Vehicle Firearm Storage requirements, Enhanced Concealed Carry Training requirements, Prohibition of Firearms in Sensitive Spaces, Firearm Merchant Category Code requirements, Creation of a Firearm Retailer Permitting and Oversight Program, Firearm and Ammo Excise Tax, Firearm Owner Liability Insurance requirement, and a bill to Disarm Armed School Staff and Security Programs. With the exception of the Armed School Staff bill (which died in committee), the rest are in some process making their way through the legislative session at this moment, at least 3 are heading to Governor’s desk and a couple others are not far behind.

If you would like to speak up about these bills, contact your state senators about HB24-1292 “Assault Weapons” Ban, HB24-1270 Liability Insurance, HB24-1349 Excise Tax, and HB24-1353 Retailer Permitting bill. These last four bills are all currently pending in the State Senate with only days left in the legislative session. Once you’ve contacted your own State Senator, please also contact this list.

 

FBI Colorado Crime Stats Show Incredibly Low Rate Of Murder By Rifles And Shotguns

Posted on by Lesley Hollywood

As Colorado gun owners and rights activists have been fighting the worst piece of legislation Colorado has ever seen: HB24-1292 “Prohibit Certain Weapons Used in Mass Shootings”, the progressives in the state legislature’s version of a so-called “Assault Weapons” ban, we hae been sifting through the latest crime data that’s available.

And it’s interesting.

According to the latest 2020 FBI-Uniform Crime Report data, if this “Assault Weapons” ban really only banned the scary black rifles, they’d be hitting an extremely low target.

In 2020 there were 8 murders by rifle, and one murder by shotgun. In comparison, there were 40 murders by knives. 

In 2019 there were 5 murders by rifle. 

The two screen shots below are from these spreadsheets that you can download here: 2020 and 2019. You are welcome to download and use the data at will. It was taken directly from the respective FBI-Uniform Crime Report data that is available to the public online.

A Brief Analysis:

There were 209 persons murdered in Colorado in 2019. Rifles were used in 5 of those murders. Handguns were used in 83, and knives, other weapons, and hands (fists and feet) combined were used in 74.

In terms of all murders in 2019, rifles were used in 2.39%. That’s the second lowest percentage, with shotguns being used the least in 1.44% of all Colorado murders, in 2019. Rifles were used much less than even non-firearms weapons and methods, such as knives, other weapons (both being used in around 15% of all murders, that year). Rifles were used less than half as much as bare hands, or feet (use in about 6% of all murders). The most frequent weapon used for murder were handguns, they were used in 39.7% of murders.

In terms of Crude Murder Rates, the rate for rifles is 0.089 per 100k population. That means that less than one tenth of a person is murdered with a rifle for every 100,000 people in Colorado. The Handgun Murder Rate was 1.48 murders per 100k population.

 

 

 

 

Colorado’s homicide rate has been skyrocketing since 2019 when the state made it a priority to start passing more gun control laws. In fact, since 2019, Colorado has passed into law over a dozen new gun control bills ranging from Red Flag laws to safe storage to expanded background checks.

You will see that while 2019 was in the period of the rising trend in the Homicide Rate in Colorado, it was right before the big jump from 2020 to 2022.