Lawmakers question gun control bill

The third of three gun control bills has started through the Colorado Senate in the past week, with the third focused on allowing local governments to enact ordinances on gun control stricter than current state law.

Senate Bill 256 allows those local governments to ban concealed weapons, and it includes counties and municipalities as well as special districts. That drew questions from state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, a Sterling Republican, on just what that would mean during a May 11 hearing in the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.

An amendment to the bill from Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat and the bill’s co-sponsor, makes those prohibitions applicable to the special district’s facilities and buildings. A water district, for example, could prohibit firearms on its property, which led Sonnenberg to suggest that could apply to something as simple as a headgate on an irrigation ditch.

Part of the motivation for SB 256 is a decision in early March by a Boulder district judge to overturn a local city ordinance that banned assault weapons within city limits.

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