Colorado bill targeting guns made with 3-D printers clears first hurdle<\/p>\n
Colorado Democrats this week advanced a measure that would ban 3-D printing of guns, the latest effort to restrict firearm access in a legislative session that has otherwise lacked the high-profile efforts of years past.<\/p>\n
House Bill 1144 would bar the manufacture of firearms, key gun components, large-capacity magazines and rapid-fire devices using 3-D printers. It would also prohibit the possession of instructions to manufacture guns or their components with 3-D printers or automated precision milling machines with the intent to fabricate them. It would prohibit the distribution of those instructions, too.<\/p>\n
During a hearing that ended Wednesday night, supporters characterized the measure as aiming to fill gaps left by a 2023 law banning so-called ghost guns, or firearms without serial numbers, and to align the intent of state law with rapidly changing technology. Opponents countered that the bill was duplicative of those prior efforts but might cast an even wider net to criminalize people unnecessarily.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a bipartisan issue of law and order, ensuring that bad actors can\u2019t use technology to evade background checks and serialization laws,\u201d Rep. Andrew Boesenecker, a Fort Collins Democrat, said. Faced with veto threat, Colorado lawmakers remove family court section from trans youth bill<\/p>\n Colorado lawmakers advanced legislation Wednesday that would seal name-change records for minors but only after they removed a more contentious section of the bill because of objections from Gov. Jared Polis.<\/p>\n As it passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Bill 18 would require the automatic suppression of most children\u2019s name-change petitions. Supporters say that is necessary to protect the privacy of transgender youths and their families.<\/p>\n But when the day began, the measure also would have directed family court judges to take into account a parent\u2019s acceptance of a child\u2019s gender identity when determining parenting time. That section had revived a provision that was stripped from a transgender rights bill passed last year, and the bill\u2019s sponsors said before the hearing Wednesday that they\u2019d garnered support from various LGBTQ+ advocacy groups to support the language this year.<\/p>\n The provision was pulled from SB-18 after Polis threatened to veto the bill otherwise, according to Rep. Lorena Garcia, one of the bill\u2019s sponsors, and Z Williams, one of the activists supporting the measure.<\/p>\n \u201cIt pains us to remove this provision, as it was a title pulled by the late Sen. (Faith) Winter before her death,\u201d Sen. Katie Wallace, a Longmont Democrat, told committee members. Winter, who died in a car crash in November, sponsored last year\u2019s bill, from which lawmakers dropped the same family court provision amid disagreements among LGBTQ+ groups. Colorado Democrats propose tax reforms steering impact of federal tax cuts to families<\/p>\n Colorado Democrats unveiled a suite of bills Tuesday that aim to divorce the state tax code from recent federal changes \u2014 generating extra state revenue that would be used to provide at least some money to low and middle-income families with children.<\/p>\n The legislative package sponsored by a dozen lawmakers would repeal a variety of state tax exemptions that mirror tax breaks in the federal code. It puts a particular focus on splitting the state tax code from changes made by the tax cut bill passed last year by Congress and championed by President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n The targeted cuts would include a cap on how much corporations can write off from operating losses, how much depreciation businesses can write off for things like buildings and equipment, and how much interest a business can deduct from its taxes. Filers who use those tax breaks would no longer get the full benefit for state tax purposes.<\/p>\n The new bills build off state Democrats\u2019 work during last summer\u2019s special session to close a slew of tax exemptions and update the state tax code in response to H.R. 1. That is the federal tax bill commonly known as Trump\u2019s \u201cbig beautiful bill.\u201d Colorado sex workers have long pushed to decriminalize prostitution; now lawmakers are proposing it<\/p>\n After years of advocacy from Colorado sex workers, lawmakers have proposed legislation that would make the state the only one in the U.S. to fully remove criminal penalties for prostitution.<\/p>\n Four Democratic lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 97, which would decriminalize commercial sexual activity in Colorado, last week. The bill wouldn\u2019t legalize the practice or set up an oversight structure regulating it, as the state did with marijuana and Nevada has done with prostitution in several counties. Acting as a pimp or engaging in certain forms of solicitation would remain criminal offenses.<\/p>\n But criminal penalties would otherwise be dropped across the state for anyone selling or paying for sexual activity between adults.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever your morals are, I don\u2019t believe the government should be involved in the bedroom of consenting adults,\u201d said Sen. Nick Hinrichsen, a Pueblo Democrat and one of the bill\u2019s sponsors. \u201cBut beyond that, what you learn is when you (criminalize prostitution), the repercussions are harmful.\u201d Bill targeting 3-D-printed firearms is on docket in the Colorado legislature this week<\/p>\n After the federal and state observance of Presidents Day delayed the start of the Colorado legislature\u2019s week, a pair of Democrat-backed gun control bills are set to pass through key steps in the process this week.<\/p>\n The first scheduled to be heard is Senate Bill 43, a measure that would restrict the sale of gun barrels to in-person transactions with federally licensed firearm dealers. That measure is set for debate by the full Senate on Wednesday, with a formal vote possible at the end of the week.<\/p>\n Later that day, the House Judiciary Committee is set to hear House Bill 1144, which would prohibit using 3-D printers to manufacture firearms, large-capacity magazines and rapid-fire devices. Bonus reading Jennifer Jones was sitting in Montrose Municipal Court in early January when she noticed something that didn\u2019t seem right.<\/p>\n She witnessed a man in his 60s with multiple trespassing and camping charges receive a 10-day jail sentence. This individual, though, did not have an attorney \u2014 a right afforded under the Constitution to anyone facing jail time.<\/p>\n If Jones, a volunteer court-watcher, hadn\u2019t been observing proceedings that day, nobody outside of the people involved with the case would have known what happened.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because Montrose Municipal Court is not a \u201ccourt of record\u201d \u2014 meaning it keeps no written, audio or visual recording of court proceedings. The public, civil rights organizations and members of the media cannot watch court hearings virtually, or access video after the fact, and cannot request any transcripts or audio of the day\u2019s docket.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear how many municipal courts in Colorado are not courts of record. But court watchers say they believe Montrose to be the only court in the state that sentences people to jail and isn\u2019t a court of record.<\/p>\n It\u2019s examples like these that spurred Colorado lawmakers this month to introduce a bill that would bar municipal courts that are not courts of record from sending people to jail. House Bill 26-1134, titled \u201cFairness and Transparency in Municipal Court,\u201d also clarifies that municipal court defendants have a right to counsel and that in-custody proceedings must be livestreamed for the public to view. When should Colorado farmworkers be entitled to overtime? Even Democrats don\u2019t agree<\/p>\n Dave Petrocco Sr. sees the writing on the wall.<\/p>\n His business, Petrocco Farms in Brighton, has been growing vegetables on the Front Range since 1916 \u2014 but Petrocco said he wonders how long that will continue.<\/p>\n Over the past few years, profits have decreased. Labor costs have accelerated.<\/p>\n Now, five years after establishing overtime rules for Colorado\u2019s farmworkers, Democratic legislators are weighing dueling bills to either ease or tighten those standards.<\/p>\n In considering diametrically opposed policies, lawmakers will have to balance existential fears from an industry that\u2019s weathered pain from tariffs, falling profits and declining commodity prices, against advocates and labor groups clamoring for more support for workers harvesting Colorado\u2019s crops while facing unique vulnerabilities to immigration enforcement and employer abuse.<\/p>\n \u201cOur ag producers are in a tenuous situation,\u201d Amanda Laban, the markets division director for the Colorado Department of Agriculture, told state lawmakers in an oversight hearing last month. She said net farm income was expected to drop to $1.8 billion in 2026, $400 million lower than last year. \u201cMarkets are in flux, and prices are low on our commodity crops. The cost of doing business is high.\u201d<\/p>\n Only one of the overtime bills \u2014 to make it easier for farmworkers to get more pay \u2014 has been introduced, but supporters and opponents have been readying for the debate for weeks. The measures will move through a Democrat-controlled legislature that sparred last year over a similar policy \u2014 cutting some restaurant workers\u2019 wages to bolster that industry \u2014 and has for years argued over the proper balance between business interests, cost-of-living measures and worker protections.
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\nA Colorado court sends poor people to jail without access to lawyers, advocates say. It doesn\u2019t record the proceedings.<\/p>\n
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