‘All of those films with people shooting each other might have led to mass shooting violence’ — Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer
By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice
The same guns which Senate Bill 25-003, the semi-auto firearm ban, would make unlawful for Coloradans to sell, purchase or transfer ownership of, would be allowed for filmmakers in the state to use as props.
And it isn’t setting well with Senate Republicans, especially Brighton Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer.
“As long as you’re firing blanks and you’re from Hollywood, it’s OK for you to put that prop in a film and glamourize it,” she described an amendment to SB 3 reading. “All of those films with people shooting each other might have led to mass shooting violence.”
The stemming of mass shootings in Colorado, as she notes, is supposed to be the point of the legislation from Democrat Sen. Tom Sullivan, whose son was killed in the 2012 Aurora theatre shooting.
“You want to pass a bill that bans these [semi-auto] weapons,” Kirkmeyer continued in Senate floor debate. “But hey, go use them in a film. Go use that same gun.”
The amendment, carving out an exception for filmmakers to SB 3, passed, as did the bill, on second reading. One Republican noted the carve-out may be needed, once the state loses millions annually in gun sales revenue.
Sullivan bragged that he had “sold more guns in Colorado than anyone,” a reference to his perceived threat toward gun ownership.
Democrat Sen. Julie Gonzales, a co-sponsor of the legislation with Sullivan, defended the exception for filmmakers.
“They made an ask and we accommodated it,” she said.
That was followed by Minority Leader Sen. Paul Lundeen relaying a story of what might happen if “you travel upstream”. If the bill aimed to prevent mass shootings at a root cause, like gun violence in films instead of an assault on law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment rights, Lundeen said, it could have the result the bill sponsors seek.
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry once famously argued the effect violent video games also have on youth.
“As long as you make millions of dollars in Colorado, you are fine promoting ‘illegal’ weapons we, as citizens of this state, cannot access,” Sen. Janice Rich added.
Kirkmeyer relayed clinical findings of the result of violence in film, especially on youth. It can cause increased aggression, desensitizing and lead to imitation.
“These guns are the reasons for all these things going wrong, but, hey, its OK for someone to depict and use them as a prop in a film,” Kirkmeyer reiterated, describing the Democrat position.
A Gallup study of gun ownership finds about 45.1% of Coloradans are gun owners — within 1% of Texas gun ownership — and that nationally about one-third of Democrats reside in a home with a gun and one in five Democrats owns a gun.
Kirkmeyer reflected on SB 3’s application to her six grandsons. The law would prevent each of them from purchasing any semiauto firearm not excluded by the time they legally were of age to do so in Colorado. They could inherit a firearm upon Kirkmeyer’s death, but only if she owned six — one for each of them.
“You’re telling them they can’t have it, but we’re putting it in a movie,” she said. “They see these people [film actors] walk away. They were OK. They were in a new movie next week.”
She continued, “…the people of Colorado get infringement on their Constitutional rights. We’re going to ban these things.”
In response to Gonzales’ retort that Kirkmeyer should be as mad about mass shootings as she is at the filmmaker carve-out, the Brighton senator said, “I am as mad about mass shootings as I am about this amendment that came from the committee.”