Early Results Favor Pro-Gun Groups In Colorado Recall
Giron and Morse became the targets of recall efforts after helping to pass new gun restrictions including background checks for gun purchasers and limits on the size of ammunition magazines. The laws were spurred by shooting massacres like one in Aurora, Colo. in July 2012, which resulted in 12 dead and 58 people injured.
“They blamed Colorado gun owners for a tragedy they did not commit,” Dudley Brown, the executive director of Rocky Mountain for Gun Owners, told NPR. Brown’s group strongly opposed the gun laws.
Critics of the laws subsequently took steps to initiate the first ever recall of two state lawmakers in Colorado’s history.
The election results will be interpreted nationally as an important marker in the ongoing conflict between advocates and opponents of tightening gun restrictions. Indeed, the national view was that the recalls were an indicator as to whether national pro-gun groups had found a new way to fight gun restrictions. Observers and those involved in the recall elections said that if both Morse and Giron were recalled, pro-gun groups would look to use the same type of recall formula elsewhere in the country. That’s why prominent national gun control groups like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns got involved. The two sides pumped millions of dollars into the races.
Denver Post has more, including results.