Colorado’s anti-gun lobbyists have seen success in recent years.
Storage laws, and reporting requirements are now law, and earlier this year, several new anti-gun bills were passed by the Legislature.
However, their biggest success might be having the State Legislature provide them with taxpayer money to fund their organizations.
Let’s look at how this happened.
House Bill 21-1299
In 2021, anti-gun politicians presented a variety of legislation, including a bill to create a taxpayer funded anti-gun office in the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).
Their bill, HB21-1299: Office Of Gun Violence Prevention, passed the Legislature and was signed into law by Governor Jared Polis on June 19th, 2021.
Tom Sullivan, Jennifer Bacon, Rhonda Fields, and Chris Hansen were the prime sponsors and unfortunately, they are continuing their anti-gun activism to this day.
According to the bill’s fiscal note, “this bill establishes the Office of Gun Violence Prevention in the Department of Public Health and Environment with the purpose of coordinating and promoting efforts to reduce gun violence.“
Of course, “how to reduce gun violence” is a big question for the office to handle, but they have plenty of money to figure it out.
The office this legislation created was projected to cost taxpayers over $3 million per year!
This $3 million in taxpayer money is being used to:
– Hire at least three staff members
– Fund a public awareness campaign “with the goal of increasing general public awareness of state and federal laws”
– Give out money through “a grant program to award organizations that conduct community-based gun violence intervention initiatives“
– “Create and maintain a resource bank for data, research, and statistics on gun violence in Colorado“
This is a taxpayer-funded anti-gun office designed to compile data to make it easier for politicians to disarm Coloradans, and dole out taxpayer money to their allied groups.
Although there are many groups getting taxpayer money through this office, one of them stands out due to a past of political activism.
The Grant Program
According to the Gun Violence Prevention Grant Program website, over 29 different organizations are receiving a portion of the $450,000 in grant money.
The groups receiving this money include: Bridge to Justice, Colorado Ceasefire, Colorado “I Have A Dream” Foundation, Community Health Partnership/Teller County Mental Health Alliance, Community Pearl / Southwest Vida, Denver Center for 21st Century Learning, Denver Center for International Studies at Baker, Denver Health and Hospital Authority, District Attorney’s Office 20th Judicial District, Families Against Violent Acts, From The Heart Foundation, Gang Rescue and Support Project, Gunnison County Substance Abuse Prevention Project, Kids Above Everything, Legacy Foundation For Family and Community Development, Lincoln County Public Health, Make a Chess Move, Mind Springs Health, Moffat County Public Health, North Range Behavioral Health, Odd Duck LLC, Poudre School District Mental Health Team, Shoot Indoors, Sims-Fayola Foundation, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Struggle of Love Foundation, Suicide Prevention Coalition of Eagle Valley, The Road Called STRATE, and Thriving Families.
Some of these groups are providing trigger locks, gun safety training and mental health services.
Those actions are worthy goals, and very few people will have a problem with these groups.
However, there is one group that stands out from the others: Colorado Ceasefire.
Colorado Ceasefire has a history of funding anti-gun candidates and lobbying for anti-gun legislation.
As you will see, Colorado Ceasefire has been supporting the anti-gun efforts of State Legislators for decades, and now they are receiving taxpayer money.
In 2023, Colorado Ceasefire has received over $26,212 in taxpayer money (as of August 2023).
And why is Colorado Ceasefire being awarded grant money?
According to the Gun Violence Prevention website: Ceasefire Colorado educates the public about Extreme Risk Protection Orders via news media, building communities on social media, and delivering in-person ERPO training events across the state.
This means that Ceasefire is getting taxpayer money to grow their grassroots network and teach Coloradans how to initiate a Red Flag Gun Confiscation order.
Colorado Ceasefire
Founded in 2000, Eileen McCarron and others established Colorado Ceasefire to “prevent and reduce gun violence in Colorado.”
Since then, they have been raising and spending money to elect anti-gun candidates for office, and lobbying in support of anti-gun legislation.
A 2021 Colorado Politics article credits the group with helping to pass some of the most restrictive anti-gun policies in Colorado’s history:
It seems that Ceasefire has been entirely a political organization, with no other noteworthy activity than working to get anti-gun legislators elected, and and anti-gun legislation passed into law.
Campaign Spending
For decades, Ceasefire has been spending thousands to elect their candidates to office.
During the 2022 election, Colorado Ceasefire PAC and Small Donor Committee contributed thousands of dollars to their candidates.
Take a look at their recent campaign finance information:
The candidates they contributed to in 2022 include: Lisa Cutter, Tony Exum, Kyle Mullica, Tom Sullivan, Sheila Lieder, Junie Joseph, Stephanie Vigil, Bob Marshall, Steve Fenberg, Eliza Hamrick, Elizabeth Velasco, William Lindstedt, Ruby Dickson, Reggie Marinelli (Jeffco Sheriff), Jenny Willford, and Lindsey Daugherty.
The money seems well-spent, because all of these legislators have been sponsoring and voting for anti-gun legislation in 2023.
This includes nearly $6,000 spent by their Independent Expenditure Committee in support of their champion, State Senator Tom Sullivan, a primary sponsor of anti-gun legislation.
Of course, Sullivan, and his allied legislators are responsible for creating the office that Colorado Ceasefire is now receiving taxpayer money from!
Coloradans could consider this a quid pro quo type of relationship!
Lobbying
Not only has Colorado Ceasefire spent thousands of dollars to elect their anti-gun candidates over the years, but they’ve also hired lobbyists to support anti-gun legislation.
Take a look at a screenshot from the Secretary of State’s lobbyist website showing 457 records of Colorado Ceasefire’s lobbying activity:
As you can see in the above image, they’ve supported every anti-gun bill, and opposed every pro-gun bill introduced in the Legislature since 2007.
One of the bills that Ceasefire recently hired a lobbyist to support was SB23-170, the update to Colorado’s Red Flag Gun Confiscation law.
Not only has Ceasefire lobbied on behalf of Red Flag Gun Confiscation, but they are now receiving money to inform and educate Coloradans on how to report gun owners for confiscation.
One of the key duties of the Gun Violence office is to explain to Coloradans how the process for an “extreme risk protection order” works, as shown on the below screenshot from the Gun Violence Prevention Office’s website:
Of course, this is a specialty of Colorado Ceasefire, as they have been one of the largest advocates for gun confiscation under an “extreme risk protection order.”
It’s a system in which an anti-gun group infiltrated the Legislature, and is now claiming the fruit of their victory.
Conclusion
Gun owners in Colorado are paying to support the efforts of an organization that is responsible for the worst anti-gun laws in Colorado history.
Colorado Ceasefire has been at the center of the anti-gun movement in Colorado, and now they are supported by taxpayer money.
Not only have they paid to elect the candidates who created the Gun Violence Prevention Office, but they have been rewarded through the grant program for their anti-gun efforts.
Taxpayer money is now being given to a political organization that’s spent decades playing in elections.
How do Coloradans know that taxpayer money isn’t going to be spent on electioneering or lobbying?
Colorado Ceasefire, due to their political nature, should not be receiving any taxpayer money and should immediately be removed from the grant program paid by the Gun Violence Prevention Office.
Of course, the Gun Violence Prevention Office shouldn’t exist, but legislators who continue to advocate for infringement of Colorado gun owners should be removed from office.
It’s up to Colorado voters to stand up and ensure that rights are protected, and authoritarian politicians are removed from office.
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