by Dave Workman
Senior Editor

Centennial State gunowners earned a major victory—and anti-gunners are in hysterics—after Gov. Bill Owens signed two major gun law reform measures, making Colorado a “shall issue” concealed carry state, and giving the legislature sole authority on gun laws.

State Sen. Jim Dyer (R-26th District) notified Gun Week right after Owens inked both SB-24, sponsored by Sen. Ken Chlouber (R-4th District), and Dyer’s own SB-25, the state preemption bill. Owens signed the bills despite heavy last-minute lobbying by anti-gunners to have him veto both measures.

Hysteria started immediately after both bills were passed. Anti-gun Denver Mayor Wellington Webb announced he would sue to stop the laws from taking effect. Police chiefs from a dozen communities, and Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter mounted a high-profile lobbying effort to convince Owens to veto the pre-emption bill.

Boulder Democrat Sen. Ron Tupa told The Denver Post, “I’m sorry to see this day come.”

State Rep. Rosemary Marshall (D-Denver) was quoted by The Rocky Mountain News lamenting, “I actually think carrying guns will promote fear. We know that many of us are going to be the victims of that fear.”

Dyer called that “nonsense,” and suggested to Gun Week that anti-gunners have not been honest throughout the debate over these gun bills.

“There’s a level of intolerance,” Dyer observed. “The Left is taking a slide into dishonesty. I got an e-mail at my office this morning that simply accused me of ‘aiding murderers and gangsters.’ That’s the kind of nonsense we put up with.”

James W. Winchester, former vice president and legislative director of the Colorado State Shooting Association, was happy the bills passed, noting that if any problems arise, they can be addressed next year.

“We can judge the degree of our success by the hysteria presently coming from the cities that the sky has fallen,” Winchester observed.

Dyer concurred noting that, “The municipalities are screaming that this is the end of civilization.”

Chlouber believes the ultimate beneficiary of his CCW reform law will be citizens whose possession of a personal defense handgun will save their lives.

Under Chlouber’s legislation, for which he battled over the course of several years, county sheriffs will be required to issue a concealed pistol license to all qualified citizens who apply. Gone are the days of discretionary issue, under which a sheriff could decide to not issue licenses, or issue them only to friends and influential people.

Dyer’s bill will put an end to what he called a “city state” environment in municipalities that have been making up their own gun laws for as long as anyone can remember. It also contains no “grandfathering” language, so any laws now on the books become null and void when his legislation takes effect.

He was particularly disturbed over a regulation in Denver that has allowed the police to amass files on gunowners who merely take their firearms to a gun shop for repairs.