The Senate State, Veterans, & Military Affairs Committee advanced SB 26-004, a contested expansion of Colorado's Extreme Risk Protection Order law, over objections from gun rights advocates who argued it violates due process and Second Amendment protections; the bill passed 3-2 and was referred to the Committee of the Whole as amended.
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Senator Zamora Wilson argued the bill 'expands who can file a petition and deprives law abiding citizens of their rights without due process,' citing violations of the Fifth, Fourteenth, and Sixth Amendments and the risk of anonymous accusers hiding behind institutions. Senator Sullivan countered that the due process system has been working — less than 3% of petitions were found to be in bad faith — and that a Colorado court has already deemed the law constitutional.
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“Individuals make judgments. Institutions mitigate risk. They respond to liability, policy and probability. Extraordinary power given to an organization is not more careful. It's more defensive. Defensive systems tend to file more often and not with more action accuracy.”
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Sign in to subscribeBefore we get started, I wanted to set some ground rules for this hearing. I appreciate everybody being here and being willing to express your opinions on this legislation to us. We do need to talk about decorum. It's very important that we respect one another today and that we don't have any outbursts. We will not accept any clapping from the audience on either side. And it's important that we don't impugn the motives of members or even the guests coming before us to testify. We want to be respectful and make sure that everybody is guaranteed to be heard. We will ask you to leave the committee room if you if an outburst occurs. And we are also asking today that you refrain from taking pictures or videos in the committee room. All of that is published online. In terms of witness testimony, we'll have two minutes of testimony per individual that testifies both virtually and in person. And then we will have time for the panel to ask you questions. We'll have 10 minutes of member questions if they need, and then we'll call four witnesses per panel as much as possible. And with that, we will…
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