Now that Montezuma County commissioners have declared the county a gun sanctuary, on my bi-monthly drives through I will no longer be spending my money at the Safeway, City Market, the gas station, liquor or hardware stores or places to eat on restaurant row because I will not feel safe.
My husband and I own guns and have hunted in Colorado 50 years but do not appreciate the idea that a red flag bill is unconstitutional. HB 1177 requires “clear and compelling evidence” before a person’s gun may be temporarily confiscated, and a second court hearing held within 14 days as to whether the prohibition remains in place.
Sadly, the United States has done more research on the safety of child carrier seats than on the painfully obvious health hazards of gun violence.
This stems from Congress’ Dickey Amendment (1996), which in effect outlawed research funding specifically on gun violence and how to reduce it.
Ex-congressman Jay Dickey now has “deep regrets” (Oct. 2015 NPR interview) that research has not occurred in light of increasing school and other mass shootings.
Indeed, the 1993 landmark study in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes that keeping a firearm in the home “triples the chance that someone will be killed there.”
Prayers and thoughts are meaningless without right action following, and the commissioners’ resolution is tragically backward. I write this remembering my Montezuma County friend who killed himself in his garage with a shotgun blast to his heart.
Stephanie Moran
Durango
