Three Colorado House Democrats joined with Republican colleagues to block a bill early Thursday that would have banned the sale or purchase of assault weapons in the state, after hours of heated public testimony and a late attempt by the bill’s sponsor to dramatically scale the measure back and salvage its passage.
The House Judiciary Committee’s vote came well past midnight, meaning it fell on the anniversary of the Columbine shooting, and its bipartisan nature comes after lingering internal disagreement among Democratic lawmakers and their leadership over the bill.
Democratic Rep. Elisabeth Epps, HB23-1230’s primary sponsor, twice attempted to amend the measure before the vote and narrow it to a ban on specific equipment, a nod to the entrenched opposition even among her party colleagues on the committee, but the group narrowly rejected those amendments before nixing the bill in its entirety.
