Bill allowing ccw w/o permits rejected in Colo.'s Democrat Senate

[Hazcat]

    * KRISTEN WYATT  Associated Press
    * First Posted: March 22, 2011 - 9:51 am
      Last Updated: March 22, 2011 - 2:07 pm

DENVER — A concealed-weapons change favored by Republicans and gun-rights activists was rejected Tuesday by a committee in the state's Democratic Senate.

The measure would have made Colorado the fifth state not to require permits for carrying concealed weapons. The measure, which passed Colorado's Republican House last month with a handful of Democratic supporters, would not have changed who may carry concealed weapons.

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Chad Day, sheriff of rural Yuma County along the Kansas border, told lawmakers that permit requirements infringe on citizens' right to bear arms.

"It's a right that law-abiding citizens are to enjoy without impediment," Day said.

The Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police, and the sheriff of left-leaning Boulder County, opposed making permits optional.

--SNIP--

The committee voted 3-2 along party lines to reject the idea. The action makes any permit change in Colorado highly unlikely this year.

Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, argued that permits don't bar most gun owners from carrying a concealed weapon as protection, they just set up a safeguard.

"In my mind, that's not too much to ask," Heath said.

The bill's passage would have made Colorado the fifth state with optional concealed-carry permits. Alaska and Arizona don't require permits, and Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead signed into law optional permits in that state earlier this month.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/b5d86fcd9d074c29973f7016e9731c5b/CO-XGR--Concealed-Carry-Colorado