Senate sends lost and stolen guns bill to Polis' desk
Pat Poblete - Colorado Politics | Published on 4/9/2021
After a unanimous vote to approve amendments added by the House, the state Senate voted along party lines on final passage of a bill requiring firearm owners to report to law enforcement within five days of learning their gun has been lost or stolen.
The votes to approve the changes to Senate Bill 21-078 and repass the bill send the legislation to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk.
Senate lawmakers on Tuesday unanimously backed three amendments added by their House colleagues. The first, approved last month as the House Judiciary Committee deliberated on the bill, specified information on lost and stolen guns be entered into the Colorado Bureau of Investigation Crime Information Center Database.
On the floor of the House last week, lawmakers approved a three-part amendment that allows someone other than the owner of the firearm to make the lost or stolen report, allows the owner not to have to admit they own the firearm and eliminates criminal prosecution for improper storage of a firearm if it's being reported as lost or stolen.
The final amendment from Denver Democratic Rep. Leslie Herod, one of the bill’s sponsors in the House, on Monday renamed the legislation after Isabella Thallas, the woman who was shot and killed with a stolen firearm in Denver’s Ballpark neighborhood last summer.
After approving those three changes, the Senate split on party lines on final passage of the bill. The bill received no Republican support in committee or on second or third reading in either chamber.