DENVER — Less than 24 hours after the legislative session ended, House Democrats on Thursday called for a special session to make firearms less accessible to young people. But Republicans, who control the Legislature and the governor's office, were lukewarm to the idea.

The Democrats said they want laws changed in response to the April 20 Columbine High School shootings. They want to require background checks for weapons sold at gun shows, a ban on gun purchases by people who provide weapons to criminals or minors and a safe-storage law.

Gov. Bill Owens said he agrees with some of those proposals, noting that several years ago he co-sponsored a failed safe-storage bill with Sen. Pat Pascoe, D-Denver.

But he questioned whether the changes couldn't wait until next year's regular session.

"I'll sure look at their proposal," Owens said. "Perhaps we need some time to think about things before we begin to politicize guns anymore.

"My goal ever since Columbine has been to try to keep that tragedy from the political arena and to help the state heal," he said. "I don't want to risk changing the state's unity too soon over an issue as contentious as guns."

And House Speaker Russ George, R-Rifle, chastised Democrats for not coming to him first with their request "instead of trying to build up the public support to put me in the corner."

"I'm probably the best chance the Democrats have, and if they keep slapping back at me, I'm not going to be so agreeable," he said.

Owens will meet with legislative leaders in the near future to discuss the request, his spokesman, Dick Wadhams, said Thursday afternoon.

An older man bought a semiautomatic weapon used by two Columbine students in their massacre of a teacher and 12 students. An 18-year-old girlfriend bought two other guns the young men used.

"What I felt most after the Columbine tragedy was a great sense of failure," Pascoe said at the Democrats' news conference, recounting numerous gun-control bills she and others sponsored in the past.

"There is an urgency for action," said Evie Hudak, a PTA lobbyist. "We can't wait another year until something is done. Our school children are traumatized."

When bills to liberalize gun laws dominated the legislative landscape earlier in the session, Republicans defeated Democratic efforts to require safe storage and trigger locks and to prevent second-party purchases of guns for criminals or minors. Republicans killed the concealed-weapon permit and other bills after the Columbine shooting.

Responding to Republican charges that Democrats are using Columbine to "politicize" the gun issue, Rep. Paul Zimmerman, D-Thornton, pointed out that the Legislature acted immediately a year ago after a Longmont child was expelled from school for accidentally bringing a steak knife to school in her lunch box. A law to prevent unwarranted expulsions was passed within a couple months of the incident.

Rep. Dan Grossman, D-Denver, said if Owens doesn't agree to the special session, Democrats will try to recruit enough Republicans for the two-thirds necessary to call a session.

George said that effort probably would fail. And he predicted that the Democrats' gun control proposals would fail.

"The reason these kinds of laws haven't moved forward is because the public doesn't want them," he said. "Most of the kinds of laws they're talking about won't work."

May 7, 1999

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