Elisabeth Epps

Elisabeth Epps

'Assault' Weapons Ban

Elisabeth Epps with Tim Hernandez

A bill to ban so-called "Assault" weapons spearheaded by Denver Representatives Tim Hernandez and Elisabeth Epps passed in the house with democrat support.

From the Denver Post in an article dated April 14, 2024 by Seth Klamann titled "Colorado House passes bill to ban sale, purchase of 'assault' weapons, sending measure to Senate"

"For the first time in Colorado history, House Democrats passed a bill Sunday to ban the sale, purchase and transfer of so-called assault weapons in the state, setting the measure on a collision course with the state Senate.

House Bill 1292 passed on a 35-27 vote, two votes past the threshold needed to pass. All of the supporters were Democrats, though nine Democrats joined with House Republicans in opposition.

Under the measure, which received initial House approval Friday, 'assault weapons' are defined as certain high-powered, semi-automatic rifles and pistols that have fixed, large-capacity magazines or have the ability to accept detachable magazines, along with various other characteristics and types of high-powered firearms.

The bill does not ban the possession of the weapons. Under a change made Friday, an individual who illegally sells one of the covered firearms would face a $750 penalty. Gun shops that broke the law would risk losing the state licenses that lawmakers are trying to implement under a separate bill being considered this session, House Bill 1353. A third bill sets aside money to improve state investigations of illegal sales and other gun crimes.

The measure, backed by Denver Democratic Reps. Tim Hernandez and Elisabeth Epps, now heads to the state Senate, where it faces an uncertain path forward amid opposition from some Democrats and skepticism from Gov. Jared Polis. But a year after a similar bill died at the first hurdle, even clearing the House is a landmark moment for a policy that some Colorado Democrats have long viewed as a time-consuming distraction from other, more meaningful reform.

Its passage is also a further sign of Colorado Democrats’ broader embrace of gun reform, 11 years after a high-capacity magazine ban triggered electoral recalls and left lasting scars on Democratic policymakers.

House Democrats pitched the ban as a preventative response to the mass shootings that have become a routine and grim feature of American life, marring Colorado’s schools, grocery stores, movie theaters, nightclubs and public spaces. Several legislators represent areas that have become infamous for their own massacre over the past decade. Rep. Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat, said she had students in the Aurora movie theater during the 2012 shooting. One of them was shot.

She rejected Republican arguments that more guns lead to crime prevention.

“The answer can’t be, ‘I need to pack my gun so when someone shoots me at church, I can shoot them back,’ ” Bacon said. “The answer can’t be, ‘When I go to the grocery store, I need to have my gun, so I can shoot them.’ That is not prevention. That is reaction.”

House Republicans uniformly opposed the bill. Democratic leadership limited floor debate to five hours Friday in a bid to curtail Republican filibustering. Some Republican lawmakers wore rifle pins on their lapels, and two pledged that they or their constituents would not comply with the ban should it become law. Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, the pro-gun rights group, has already pledged to file a lawsuit if the bill passes.

In a preview of the lawsuits to come, several Republicans said the bill violates the Second Amendment. (A federal court in Illinois affirmed that state’s sale and purchase ban, upon which the Colorado bill is based; that ruling has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court). They argued that the bill wouldn’t dent gun violence because few people die in mass shootings compared to the daily violence often perpetuated with handguns.

[...]

Before the bill can get to Polis, though, it must now find a way through the state Senate. The chamber is overwhelmingly Democrat, too, but it generally has tacked a more moderate path compared to the House. Democrat Sen. Tom Sullivan, the Senate’s point person for gun reform and the father of an Aurora theater shooting victim, is a known and influential opponent to the policy, and the bill lacked a Senate sponsor until earlier this month.

That changed when Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat, agreed to take up the bill in the upper chamber. Gonzales is the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a likely committee assignment for the bill with a bare 3-2 Democratic majority, and she’s also the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate.

The bill will next be introduce into the Senate and assigned to a committee. Should it clear that first hurdle, it will then head to the full Senate for the first of two more votes. The legislative session ends May 8.

Okinawa letter

October 31, 2022 more than 40 US elected officials, apparently all members of Democratic Socialists of America signed a letter to Jack Reed, Chairman, Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate/

We, the undersigned civil society groups, write to make urgent requests regarding the Japanese and U.S. governments' plan to construct a U.S. military base at Henoko-Oura Bay in Okinawa, promoted as a replacement facility for the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station located in the middle of Ginowan City on Okinawa Island (FRF project)...We ask the U.S. Congress to review the FRF construction plan with the same integrity and determination that it has shown in protecting the coastal and ocean environments of the United States.

Signatories included Elisabeth Epps, Colorado State Representative (CO), as well as Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, World BEYOND War, The Red Nation, Nodutdol, Center for Biological Diversity, Worker Communist Party of Iraq, CODEPINK, New York Peace Council, Democratic Socialists of America International Committee. and many others.

DSA endorsement

Elisabeth Epps for Colorado State House, District 6.

DSA comrade

Elisabeth Epps is a member of Democratic Socialists of America.