Colorado’s ruling progressive Democrats believe in equality under the law only in the sense, as in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, that some of us are “more equal than others.” Nothing illustrates this better than their current contortions related to gun policy and crime.

On the one hand, progressives resist passing a law to increase penalties for stealing a firearm because, they say, it might result in too many “black or brown” men going to jail. Likewise, they don’t want to make it easier for law enforcement to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport illegal aliens who have committed violent crimes.

Level heads might consider it a higher priority to protect law-abiding black and brown people who aspire to live in a safe community to raise a family and earn an honest living. They shouldn’t have to contend with criminals roaming the streets because progressive lawmakers want to screen perpetrators based on skin color.

On the other hand, progressives charge full-speed ahead to criminalize gun transactions which have been entirely legal during all 148 years of Colorado statehood.

Senate Bill 3 would enact the first gun ban in Colorado history, making most semiautomatic guns and rifles, except for select hunting rifles, inaccessible to ordinary Coloradans to manufacture, sell or transfer as of Sept. 1.

At the eleventh hour in the Senate, progressive Democrats magnanimously carved out an exemption to appease Governor Jared Polis and promote his “Free State of Colorado” propaganda. Most people who have lived here 10-plus years would surely argue that Colorado is now far less free – except for the freedom to use drugs, pitch a tent, and defecate in public.

The Polis amendment would allow Coloradans to continue to purchase common handguns and rifles only if these residents navigate a bureaucratic labyrinth which sponsors claim will encourage safety. Of course, it does nothing to encourage gun safety among those who don’t care about breaking the law.

For starters, a Free State of Colorado citizen who wants to buy a specified firearm must seek the local sheriff’s permission and pay a fee just to be considered worthy. The sheriff can either grant that citizen a “Firearms Safety Eligibility Card” or choose not to do so.

Once this citizen of our free state has the sheriff’s blessing, he or she may then enroll in a government-approved “extended firearms safety course,” including a minimum of 12 hours of instruction over at least two different days. To take this course, a citizen must pay another fee which will be used to maintain a government database of those who have permission to buy a firearm.

Now get this: in an era in which we do everything online, “no part of the class may be conducted via the internet.” A teenager can pass a driver’s ed class through an online course, but lawmakers demand that you attend class for 12 hours in person to obtain permission to exercise your God-given right to self-defense.

Having attended this class, the supplicant must then pass an exit exam with a score of at least 90 percent. In a state where roughly 60 percent of students cannot read at grade level, that leaves many Coloradans – disproportionately poor, minority students who attended failing public schools – ill-equipped to obtain a gun legally.

Yet the very people who devised this Rube Goldberg procedure that makes buying two or more guns in violation of this law a Class 6 Felony, those people will claim they don’t want to put more black and brown people in jail. Apparently, they will take that risk if it means inconveniencing, harassing and possibly jailing otherwise law-abiding gun owners who naively expected that when lawmakers took an oath to uphold the U.S. and Colorado constitutions, they actually meant what they said.

If you support prosecuting citizens based on the color of their skin rather than their conduct, you can pass laws with impunity, expecting that certain people can ignore them.

Those Colorado citizens who successfully navigate this obstacle course are permitted to purchase a firearm for five years (unless the local sheriff revokes permission). After five years, they must again seek permission, pay multiple fees, take a class, and pass a test to continue to exercise their constitutional right.

Free State of Colorado? Not hardly.

Mark Hillman served as Senate Majority Leader and Colorado State Treasurer. To read more or comment, go to www.MarkHillman.com.