Colorado should be Ground Zero for a renewed commitment to new gun control legislation. It has witnessed two of the worst mass shootings in US history over the past 13 years, and in both of which, children were among the victims. In the Aurora massacre, the stockpile that James Holmes was able to legally amass included a gas powered assault rifle with a 100-round clip (which would've been banned under the 1999 Assault Weapons Ban), and scores of online purchases including 6,000 rounds of ammunition,
"...bulletproof vests and other tactical gear, and a high-capacity “drum magazine” large enough to hold 100 rounds and capable of firing 50 or 60 rounds per minute — a purchase that would have been restricted under proposed legislation that has been stalled in Washington for more than a year."
But none of this suggests to the governor of Colorado, Democrat John Hickenlooper, that stricter gun control laws should be considered.
STEPHANOPOULOS: [...] As you can imagine, Governor, the debate over whether this could have been prevented has already began. You probably heard the comments of Mayor Bloomberg of New York, who made headlines on Friday with his calls for tougher gun laws. Other people, several in your state, saying that perhaps if someone else in that theater had a gun, the killer could have been stopped. Does it make you think at this point that you need to take another look at Colorado’s gun laws?
HICKENLOOPER: You know, I’m sure that that is going to happen, but I look at this, this wasn’t a Colorado problem, this is a human problem, right? And how we can have such a warped individual and no one around him be aware? You know, I worry that if we got rid all of the guns -- and certainly we have so many guns in this country, we do have a lot more than gun violence than many other countries -- but even if you didn't have access to guns, this guy was diabolical. Right? He would have found explosives, he would have found something else, some sort of poisonous gas, he would have done something to create this horror.
What an absurd hypothetical. I'd really like to know what "explosives" or "poison gas" Hickenlooper thinks Holmes could've "found" that would allow him to kill or injure 70 people in a few seconds. The fact is, bomb making requires patience, materials, skill, testing -- and a deployment strategy. Same goes for poison gas. Which is why we haven't had 36 mass poison gas attacks or mass bombings over the past 30 years.
Also, the notion that gun control laws don't work isn't supported by the evidence. After the Dublane school massacre in 1997, the UK effectively banned guns -- and they haven't had a mass shooting event since.
How does Hickenlooper explain that?
