Mr. Sullivan, 

My name is David Williams and I own a firearms training company in Colorado Springs. I am a retired Special Forces (Green Beret) Soldier and I am completely opposed to the assault weapons ban.

I understand that you have lost your son in a massacre and that has to be extremely hard for you and your family. There are other parents who have lost their children to other tools, situations, and events that may or may not have anything to do with a firearm. This fact does not mean you do not have any justification for being angry, but I think your anger should be focused on criminals and not tools. Because a criminal will use whatever tool is available to them. Unfortunately, laws that keep those tools out of the hand of law-abiding citizens do not have the same effect on criminals.

Nationally, blunt objects are used at the same general frequency as rifles to commit murder, both rifles (including semi-automatic rifles with a detachable magazine) and blunt objects have equal shares of use between 300-400 each year.

In Colorado alone there were about 800 fatal vehicle crashes in 2022, but in the same year 304 people died as the result of firearms discharge. There is no one advocating to ban vehicles which clearly is the cause of more deaths than firearms. 

This bill now comes before you and the committee, and this committee should adamantly vote against this bill for a multitude of reasons, but most importantly this bill violates the Second Amendment and it violates several Supreme Court decisions. Bruen, Heller and Caetano are absolutely clear that laws to restrict firearms use and possession must be analogous to laws dating back to 1791, when the second amendment was ratified. Additionally, any law that bans certain bearable arms (tools used offensively and defensively) cannot ban those arms that are common. The banned arms must be dangerous and unusual much like a hand grenade is banned from public use. All firearms that would be banned are commonly possessed and used in this bill both in Colorado and nationally.

The Colorado Constitution states, “The right of no person to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person, and property, or aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall be called in question…”

Therefore, as of lawmaker who took an oath to both the United States Constitution and the Colorado Constitution, you are obligated to vote against any laws that go against either constitution.

During the public hearing in the house judiciary committee there were about 577 registered testimonies and 3/4 of those testimonies were against this bill. Additionally, all of the Colorado sheriffs are against this bill, not one, but every county sheriff is against this bill!

If there is any organization the Colorado General Assembly should listen to, specifically with the banning of firearms, it should be those who deal with criminals every single day. As you must know the El Paso County Sheriff Department has the largest county in Colorado to manage and the largest jail system that houses unruly and sometimes very dangerous criminals. The sheriff’s departments know exactly who and what they are dealing with. Their opposition to this bill should show every single person in the general assembly that it will not do what they want it to do. 

I do hope that you have made it to the end of this message and I do hope that you see it the way most Americans actually see it, and that is this assault weapons ban is a ban on constitutionally protected rights.

Please do not let your anger, sorrow, or distain cloud your decision on constitutionally protected rights. 

Thank you for your time and have a wonderful day.