(Colorado Newsline) The Colorado House of Representatives gave preliminary approval Friday evening to a bill that would ban the sale, purchase and manufacture of many semi-automatic rifles beginning this summer. It was the first time the chamber has considered such a proposal.

The ban on so-called assault weapons, with specific models enumerated in the bill and also more broadly defined by certain characteristics, passed on a voice vote on its second reading.

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It still needs a final recorded vote, which is set to happen on Sunday, to make it through the House and head over to the Senate. It can lose the support a handful of Democrats and still pass the chamber, as Democrats hold a wide 46-19 majority.

“Nine out of 10 mass shooting incidents with the most casualties involve the use of at least one of the assault weapons that we are debating in this body today. I am not waiting anymore. Assault weapons must be banned in the state of Colorado,” bill sponsor Representative Tim Hernández, a Denver Democrat, said during an impassioned speech on the floor at the start of debate.

“As a young person who understands what this issue means … I cannot morally do nothing,” he said.

Throughout the bill’s journey in the Capitol so far, Hernández has spoken about his experience as the first Gen Z member of the state Legislature, growing up in an American culture of frequent mass shootings and then becoming a teacher of students facing pervasive gun violence.

On Friday, Democratic leadership limited debate on the bill to five hours to avoid a Republican filibuster and ensure the chamber could get through two other high-profile bills, which concerned housing.

A version of the bill last year was defeated in its first committee hearing and did not make it to the House floor. It was sponsored by Representative Elisabeth Epps, a Denver Democrat who is running this year’s bill with Hernández. The duo are among the most progressive lawmakers in the Legislature.

The contours of Fridays’ debate were predictable — supporters, all of whom are Democrats, argued that “assault weapons” are weapons of war that proliferate violence and have no place in society. Republican opponents called the measure an egregious attack on Coloradans’ Second Amendment rights and yet another unfair firearm restriction that hurts hunters, ranchers and law-abiding citizens who want to protect themselves. They contend that a ban of this type would prohibit the sale of most guns in Colorado because the definition of assault weapon is so broad.

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Representative Richard Holtorf, an Akron Republican, said Friday that he doubts many county sheriffs would even enforce an assault weapons ban if it became law.

The bill would not ban possession of these firearms.

Prospects in Senate less certain

In the bill, an assault weapon is defined as a semi-automatic rifle that can accept a detachable magazine and has at least one of seven characteristics: a pistol grip, a protruding grip that can be held by the non-trigger hand, a folding stock that can help conceal the weapon, a muzzle break, a functional grenade launcher, a shroud at the barrel to prevent burns or a threaded barrel.

The bill would also ban certain .50 caliber rifles, semi-automatic pistols with similar characteristics as the ones listed for rifles, shotguns with revolving cylinders and semi-automatic shotguns.

“You can list (fewer) things that aren’t considered assault weapons in this bill than you can list assault weapons. This covers the vast majority of firearm styles,” said Representative Ryan Armagost, a Berthoud Republican. Multiple Republicans, including Armagost, wore firearm lapel pins or neckties with images of the types of guns described in the bill.

“Everything that I teach with, everything that I train people in firearm proficiency with — for self defense, for sporting, for hunting — these are things that would be considered assault weapons under this bill,” he said.

The shotgun he uses for turkey hunting that has a pistol grip, for example, would be prohibited, he said.

Epps argued, however, that the sacrifice of not being able to buy those types of weapons in Colorado is worth the lives such a ban might save.

“There are some things that you may not be able to do when we decide that we care more about the lives of our neighbors than we do about this right to these absurdly accurate, fatal, destructive killing machines,” she said. “You may like to do your turkey hunting with an absurdly efficient weapon, but it is an appropriate tradeoff that you have to kill your turkeys a little bit slower this season because we are going to interrupt the proliferation of making these weapons available for sale.”

Republican Representative Ron Weinberg of Loveland offered an amendment to the bill that would have set up a task force to study the causes of gun violence and mass shootings. While that amendment initially passed, it was later stripped when Democrats contended that the state’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention, created through 2021 legislation, is already tasked with that type of research.

The bill has its largest hurdles in front of it. If it passes the House, it will head to the more moderate Senate, where it is sponsored by Senator Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat. Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, has expressed skepticism about an assault weapons ban, and it is unclear if he would sign such a bill into law. Gun rights groups will almost certainly mount a legal challenge to the measure if it is enacted.

California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Washington all have assault weapons bans in place, many of which have stood up in court. Colorado’s bill is not as extensive as some of those bans. The law in Illinois, for example, includes a registry and the ban in Delaware prohibits possession.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.