LEGISLATIVE ALERT - FIRST COMMITTEE HEARINGS TUESDAY 12TH AND WEDNESDAY 13TH
Just wanted to give you guys a heads up. The first four Civilian Disarmament bills are going to be heard in committee at the Capitol on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.
The Democrats are putting the pedal down on the civilian disarmament bills in the Colorado Legislature. They have calendared all four of the bills introduced on Thursday afternoon for their first committee hearings on Tuesday the 12th.
These hearings will be “upon adjournment” which means when the House gets done with their work on the floor, they will adjourn to the committee meetings. The House convenes at 9am, which means that they typically don’t adjourn until at least 10am and sometimes later, but on occasion they move fast and adjourn more quickly. That means be prepared for hearings to start at any time after 9am. Depending upon how much testimony, the hearings could last all day. If you plan on testifying, there will be a clipboard to sign, usually by the door to the committee room. Usually the Chair of the Committee will call all of the supporters or opponents of the bill to testify together, depending upon the wishes of the bill sponsor. Usually the bill sponsor will ask that “their” witnesses supporting the bill speak first so that they don’t have to wait around for hours. Testimony is then normally taken in the order in which witnesses signed up.
BE PREPARED FOR SCHEDULING MONKEY BUSINESS. Colorado law only requires 1 day of public notice to schedule a bill for hearing in committee and the Democrats control the calendar. If they think they can get advantage by rescheduling the bill, they will do so. They can lay the bill over to a later date at the start of the committee meeting, meaning you just wasted a morning. Or they can release a new calendar in the afternoon and have the meeting the next morning. We need to be patient and flexible.
Remember, all visitors into the CO State Capitol are run through a mag detector, so leave your hardware in your car. Speaking of which, almost all meter parking for a two block radius of the Capitol is bagged for permit parking, so be prepared to park in a lot and pay $6-10 cash and then walk three or four blocks.
The House Judiciary Committee will be meeting in the Old Supreme Court Chambers on the 2nd floor upon adjournment and hear:
HB13-1224 Prohibiting “Large Capacity” Magazines
HB13-1229 Universal Background Checks
On Wednesday the 13th the Education Committee will be meeting upon adjournment and hear:
HB13-1226 No Concealed Carry at Colleges
On Wednesday the 13th at 1:30pm in the Old Supreme Court Chambers on the 2nd floor the Finance Committee will hear:
HB13-1228 Payment for Background Checks on Firearms Transfers
SOME GENERAL TESTIMONY SUGGESTIONS
Don’t dress like a hobo. We aren’t the nuts that they would make us out to be, don’t look like one. First impressions matter.
Be exceedingly polite. Suffer their abuse. The Chair can and will have you escorted out of the hearing if you are rude. The more polite we are, the harder we will be to demonize.
Make your testimony personal. How will the legislation affect YOU or YOUR FAMILY.
Read the bills, and know the details of the legislation. Limit your testimony to the bill being considered at the time.
Listen to the testimony before you, and particularly listen to the supporters of the legislation if you can.
Try not to repeat previous testimony…unless you can make it personal.
Be brief. Make your point, thank the Chair and the Committee, and move on.
CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS AND GOVERNOR HICKENLOOPER
If you haven’t already done so, this is mission critical.
Call them, fax them, email them, snail mail. Send it by Carrier Pigeon if you have to.
We already know the Democrats are freaking out at the feedback they are getting, this is why they want to move these bills as fast as possible to give us less time to react. Keep your foot on their necks.
If you don’t know who your legislator is, go to https://www.sos.state.co.us/voter-cl...gVoterIntro.do This will tell you which districts you are in.
If you do plan to go to the Capitol and testify, please plan on taking some time to speak with your legislators personally, as well as stopping by the Governor’s office on the 1st floor. BE POLITE.
Feel free to copy this information, along with my earlier post describing the bills, into an email and send them to all of your like minded friends in Colorado. There are several Democrats, primarily that represent rural areas of CO, that are not supportive of these bills. It will very likely come down to one vote either way whether these bills pass one or both houses. It is an uphill fight, be we CAN win. We just need to be willing to put the sweat equity where are values are.
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Originally Posted by johngraves2
