Watch CBS News

Bill To Repeal Background Checks For Private Gun Sales Fails

DENVER (AP) - Democrats halted a GOP effort to repeal new background checks for private firearm sales in Colorado on Monday as Republicans got their last chance this legislative session to change the state's gun restrictions.

The background-check expansion was among a package of contentious bills Democrats passed in 2013 at great political cost, losing two state senators through recall elections. A third resigned while a recall campaign was underway.

A Democrat-led House committee voted 7-4 against repealing the requirement that private gun sales conducted online and in person be subjected to a criminal background check. The same committee was also considering a bill Monday to repeal a 2013 law that bans ammunition magazines that hold more than 15 rounds. That proposal is also expected to fail.

Democrats passed the laws when they controlled both legislative chambers, acting in response to mass shootings in 2012 at a suburban Denver movie theater and Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Republicans regained control of the state Senate for the first time in 10 years in November and succeeded in passing bills in that chamber to repeal the two new gun laws. But the proposals were expected to hit a wall in the Democratic-controlled House, which has already stopped two identical bills this session that would eliminate the magazine limit and the background-check expansion.

DOMINIC DEZZUTTI'S BLOG: Gun Showdown Creating Gut Check Moment For Colorado GOP

"I don't believe that helps us," Democratic House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst said about the repeal attempts hours before they were heard. "I think what we have passed seems to be working and has not taken away anybody's gun rights as far as I know - and so I'm not in support of taking steps backwards on any of these."

Democrats say the new background checks are not burdensome and make it tougher for people with criminal records to get firearms.

Opponents of the new background-check law have repeatedly argued that the new background checks infringe on the constitutional right to gun ownership.

"It's a Second Amendment right, and law-abiding citizens by definition aren't criminals, so it creates a burden on them that doesn't stop crime," said Rep. Stephen Humphrey, R-Severance.

Humphrey is sponsoring the bill to strike the state's ban on magazines that hold more than 15 rounds. "I'm just hopeful that the Democrats will reconsider the law and repeal it," he said.

Humphrey noted discussions about amending the bill to raise the magazine limit to 30 rounds instead of an outright repeal of the law. But he said he would "be opposed to that in principle," suggesting that the goal is still to get rid of the law.

"If the Republicans vote for a gun-control measure like that," Humphrey said of the possibility of raising the limit, "then how do you come back after you pass that and then say, 'We ought to repeal that bill next year' ?"

Other proposals expected to go down Monday include bills to allow concealed handguns at public schools and to let people to carry concealed firearms without a permit.

- By Ivan Moreno, AP Writer

(© Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.