Update at 8:54 a.m. Feb. 14: Early Friday morning, the Colorado Senate voted to approve Senate Bill 3, the semiautomatic firearms measure, in its first floor vote, after passing significant amendments. Read more about the changes in this story.
The Colorado Senate gave initial approval Thursday to a bill that would make it easier for workers to negotiate a key provision of union contracts. But the fate of a major gun control bill remained murky in the evening, with debate still underway.
As of 11:30 p.m., the bill’s Democratic sponsors had reached a deal with Gov. Jared Polis’ office to insert a loophole in the measure, which would otherwise ban the sale of semi-automatic weapons that accept detachable magazines. That loophole, which would allow the sale of the weapons to people who complete training and background checks, was still being written and was expected for a vote shortly after midnight.
The Senate was supposed to debate that measure, Senate Bill 3, first on Thursday morning, with extensive opposition from Republicans expected. But shortly before debate was set to begin, chamber leaders bumped the bill — which would ban the sale of many firearms that accept detachable magazines — to second in the queue, behind the labor bill, because one Democratic senator was absent.
When debate finally began in the late afternoon, one of its sponsors — Sen. Tom Sullivan of Centennial — held up images of the drum magazine used by the 2012 Aurora theater shooter who murdered Sullivan’s son, Alex.
He said his bill — which would prohibit the sale of semiautomatic firearms that accept detachable magazines — followed a 2013 ban on high-capacity magazines.
Gun shops hadn’t followed that ban, he said, so “now we’re going to ask for a lot more.” The new bill would effectively ban many of the weapons colloquially considered assault weapons.
Still, the bill’s fate was in doubt Thursday, amid the missing vote and ongoing negotiations with a leery Polis that were still unresolved as of 7 p.m.
Earlier in the day, lawmakers had another lengthy debate over the labor measure, Senate Bill 5. It would eliminate a provision of the state’s labor law that requires unionized workers to pass another election before they can fully negotiate a key provision of their contracts governing the collection of dues and fees.
That provision in Colorado law is unique in the United States and has kept the state suspended between union-restricting states and more pro-labor states.
“The working people of the state of Colorado, as well as the folks all across this country, are demanding that we do better for them (and) do right by the workers,” said Sen. Jessie Danielson, a Wheat Ridge Democrat who’s co-sponsoring the bill with Sen. Robert Rodriguez. “We all know that when workers are protected by a union contract, it results in better pay, better benefits and safety on the job.”
The chamber’s minority Republicans filibustered the bill for nearly five hours before it cleared its first vote Thursday afternoon, 22-12.
Echoing concerns voiced by the business community and Polis, a Democrat, they said Colorado’s labor law had worked to balance power between unionized workers and their employers since its passage more than 81 years ago.
“This bill is a declaration of war upon that Labor Peace Act,” said Sen. Paul Lundeen, the Republican minority leader, referring to the formal name for Colorado’s labor law.
He said the measure was a compromise and separated Colorado from so-called “right-to-work states”: “We found a better way, a midway, a consensus way forward that exists in the law today — (that’s) being sought to be overturned by this particular (bill).”
The bill now needs a second vote in the chamber before it can move to the House. It’s expected to pass there, too.
The bill would then be on a path to Polis’ desk, but the governor has said he intends to veto it unless its supporters reach a deal with the business community. No such deal had been reached as of Thursday’s vote.
Gun bill intrigue plays out
Even as the labor debate was winding down, the situation with the gun measure remained fluid into the afternoon, and for hours it was unclear if the measure was going to be heard.
Supporters had said they have just enough votes to pass it. However, one Democratic lawmaker, embattled Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, didn’t show on Thursday.
“Not everybody’s here today, so we’re figuring it out,” Sen. Julie Gonzales, one of the bill’s sponsors, said in the morning. The Denver Democrat reiterated the “figuring it out” position a few hours later.
Jaquez Lewis, a Longmont Democrat, did not return a text seeking comment on her absence. Rodriguez, the Senate’s majority leader, said Jaquez Lewis had a “medical thing.”
Jaquez Lewis is under investigation by a Senate ethics committee for allegedly mistreating her aides. That committee is chaired by Gonzales.
A small group of Democratic senators have said they won’t support the bill, which supporters say is both a method to enforce the state’s decade-old magazine ban and a way to prevent mass shootings. Gonzales was walking the Senate floor counting votes and speaking with Democratic colleagues earlier in the day.
The gun bill has lived in a strange state since its introduction last month.
Gun control is a key priority for large chunks of the Democratic base, and the measure has enough Democratic co-sponsors to pass the Senate and the House. But lawmakers delayed a first scheduled floor vote last week to allow for more negotiations with Polis, and Senate President James Coleman told reporters Tuesday that the governor “is not on board” with the bill.
Its sponsors have been negotiating with Polis’ staff for the past week.
In a statement to The Post after the first delay Friday, Polis spokeswoman Shelby Wieman said that while the governor supported gun-violence prevention legislation, he also wanted to ensure “that we are protecting Coloradans’ Second Amendment rights and respecting our state’s long standing traditions of hunting and sport shooting.”
Neither lawmakers nor the governor’s office have been willing to say what Polis wants, though he has sought changes to gun control bills in the past. Either way, supporters said no deal was reached before the Senate began work Thursday, and Sullivan and Gonzales still planned to run the bill — up until Jaquez Lewis’ absence.
Staff writer Nick Coltrain contributed to this story.
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