cuchulainn
Member
http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/ar...type=news&article_path=/news/news030326_4.htm
from the Durango Herald
from the Durango Herald
Legislature: Governor shoots down gun bill
March 26, 2003
By Charles Ashby
Herald Denver Bureau Chief
DENVER – Gov. Bill Owens wants the Colorado Legislature to kill a measure that defines what a gun show is before background checks are performed.
That’s something Rep. Ray Rose wasn’t pleased to hear. The Montrose Republican got the word Tuesday morning that because lawmakers have already approved two other gun bills this session – one restricting local gun-control laws and another standardizing concealed-weapons permits – the governor doesn’t want to see another gun bill.
While Rose said he won’t go against the will of the governor, he wasn’t pleased his House Bill 1119 must die as a result.
"I don’t really see a correlation between those other bills and mine other than them being labeled as gun bills," Rose said Tuesday. "They’re two completely different subjects."
The measure was scheduled for a vote in the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on Tuesday, but chairman Rep. Bill Sinclair, R-Colorado Springs, tabled it once again. Sinclair said the committee must vote on the measure, but he wouldn’t predict when that would be or if the committee would kill it.
Rose said he won’t ask the committee to kill it, but he will leave it up to the committee to do what it pleases.
Sinclair had tabled the measure several times since it introduced to the 11-member panel in late January because of ongoing negotiations between supporters and opponents of the measure.
Dan Hopkins, the governor’s spokesman, said the bill just isn’t needed.
"The governor believes that the people have spoken on the gun-show issue and there are no apparent problems with the amendment that needs to be addressed," Hopkins said.
Under current law, three or more vendors gathering to sell 25 or more weapons constitutes a gun show.
The bill Rose plans to introduce next year will provide a clear definition of what a gun show is and the specifications for defining the venue.
Reach Denver Bureau Chief Charles Ashby at [email protected]
Contents copyright © 2002, the Durango Herald.