Mile-High Mutiny

Any wind still left in the sails of gun-control advocates likely died–at least for now–when Colorado voters successfully recalled two state senators on Sept. 10. This stern punishment came after state lawmakers toughened regulations on background checks and limited the size of ammunition magazines.

The vote was a rout. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg led a team of deep-pocketed out-of-towners in trying to rescue state senate president John Morse and his colleague Angela Giron, both Democrats. But the grassroots rebellion, fanned and funded by the National Rifle Association and other conservative groups, was more motivated. Said Bernie Herpin, the Republican who unseated Morse: “We don’t need some New York billionaire telling us what size soft drinks we can have, how much salt to put on our food or the size of the ammunition magazines on our guns.”

The day before, Colorado became the first state to adopt the regulations necessary to set up a market for legal marijuana sales, which speaks to the rise of libertarians demanding less government of all kinds.

Colorado has been a success story for liberals in recent years as migration and immigration have swelled Front Range cities like Denver and Boulder. Shaken by the Columbine rampage and the Aurora movie-theater massacre, statehouse Democrats answered President Obama’s State of the Union call for new gun-control measures early this year.

That’s when they discovered that the West still has a wild streak. Applications to buy firearms jumped by more than 80,000 from the same period a year earlier as citizens rushed to beat the July 1 deadline of the new law. Sheriffs in 54 of Colorado’s 64 counties joined a lawsuit challenging the measures as unworkable and unconstitutional. And the recall caught fire in blue collar Pueblo and conservative Colorado Springs, where the liberal tide was never very strong.

No matter how the results are interpreted, though, the uprising will send a message to lawmakers across the country–and not just about gun control. Recall elections are much easier to organize in the Internet age. In Colorado’s 137-year history, no lawmaker had been successfully recalled until Morse and Giron made it two in one night.

Which is why the GOP never got very enthusiastic about ousting the two Democrats. As Tim Knight, a leader of the uprising, told one interviewer, “The Republicans don’t want anything to do with us because they think, Next they’ll recall us.”