New information from Colorado reinforces the truism that one can never overestimate the inventiveness of the human mind or the perfidious and oppressive tendencies of the state.
According to Noah Shepardson, of Reason, Colorado gun owners and retailers are raising the proverbial middle finger at the state’s onerous and unconstitutional 2013 “large capacity magazine ban”.
In 2013, the Colorado legislature passed House Bill 13-1224, which prohibits the 'sale, transfer, or possession of an ammunition feeding device that is capable of accepting, or that can be readily converted to accept, more than [15] rounds of ammunition or more than [8] shotgun shells (large-capacity magazine).'
So far so bad. That’s a direct infringement on the right to keep and bear arms and it is an unethical political block of peaceful market exchange. And, of course, in addition to the constitutional and moral cancers this begets, the 2013 Colorado statute could inspire a black market, because prohibition doesn’t stop demand.
But in this case, a black market hasn’t been necessary, because wily gun owners and sellers spotted a loophole in HB 13-1224.
The bill grandfathered in old large-capacity magazines that gun owners already had in their possession but forbade new sales or transfers. Then-Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) signed the bill into law on July 1. The law was intended to erase the market for new large-capacity magazines.
SO… Coloradans are building their own.
Dealers throughout the state began selling 'parts kits' that contain everything a gun owner needs to assemble their own large-capacity magazine at home. In fact, some gun stores throughout the state now sell magazines only in parts kit form.
And, as Shepardson notes, one Colorado television station found this so utterly horrifying that they went “undercover” to show that of ten sellers visited, seven sold the parts.
Zounds!! Good thing this station wasn’t in Massachusetts in 1775, or they might have “exposed” the residents there who were exercising their right to keep and bear arms contrary to Crown diktat!
One of the sporting good stores that doesn’t sell the mag parts is Dick’s, but, true to their name, Dick’s has already backed away from the right to keep and bear arms by no longer selling guns and by siding with the anti-firearm, anti-rights leftists of the US.
And that has harmed Dick’s financially, allowing smaller competitors to fill demand from those seeking to provide for their self-protection.
‘As soon as we remove the functionality of it and take this spring out, it's no longer a magazine,’ one salesman said pointing out how the terminology of the bill allows them to do this. ‘[A] monkey could put it back together again,’ a different salesman tells 9NEWS.
And the intrepid reporters at 9NEWS also discovered – SHOCK! – that numerous shop owners openly flouted the unconstitutional law, which is pretty powerful news.
‘We're a sanctuary county, we don't give a f—. We just sell everything as is, preassembled,’ an employee at Family Firearms Sales, a gun store in Colorado Springs told 9NEWS. Another employee at Tacticool Arms in Weld County openly admitted the store continues to sell preassembled 75-round drum magazines. ‘Our sheriff has openly stated he does not agree with the magazine ban, he believes it's unconstitutional and will not enforce it,’ claims the employee.
So, evidence indicates that many Coloradans know that they have inherent rights to self-defense and to peaceful market exchange, even as politicians such as former Governor John Hickenlooper (D) and reporters either attack those rights or display childish reactions of horror and dread over the fact that people will endeavor to exercise those rights, regardless of what the dangerous and threatening politicians say.
The spirit of rebellion in pursuit of liberty still lives in many Colorado residents, harkening back to the supposed origin of that rebellious symbol, the “middle finger”, which is said to have started as the “two-finger ‘V’ in England.
According to accounts, such as this provided by Sarah Muller, of MSNBC:
It was at Agincourt in 1415 that the ‘two finger salute’ appeared. The French, with their superiority of numbers, expected an easy victory. They therefore felt it safe to proclaim that henceforth any captured English archers would have their index and middle fingers cut off. As these were the fingers required to draw back a bowstring, the archer’s career would be ruined and any prospects of future employment severely limited. Unfortunately for the French though, Agincourt was a decisive English victory. The English archers took a severe toll of the dismounted knights advancing to meet them and then, not relishing the prospect of being separated from their fingers, drew their swords to have a go at hacking the knights to death at close quarters. After the battle, and in future ones, English archers held up their two fingers and waved them at the French. It was a sign intended as an insult and a warning and as such was an effective gesture. It showed the French that the archer’s two fingers remained intact and he still remained a deadly adversary.
Some say that the reference is an even older anti-authoritarian display going back to ancient Rome:
…The historian Suetonius, writing about Augustus Caesar, says the emperor ‘expelled [the entertainer] Pylades . . . because when a spectator started to hiss, he called the attention of the whole audience to him with an obscene movement of his middle finger.’
Whether the acts are symbolic or literal, it’s good to see how many people in Colorado are aware of their inherent rights and are doing something similar.
They ready to show the politicians that they will not comply with their own disarmament.