Second Amendment Under Siege as Colorado Lawmakers Target Gun Owners

On March 1, 2024, Nephi Cole, Greg Walcher, Jim May, and Bill Rutledge joined the show. Cole warned that HB 24-1270 requires firearm owners to purchase insurance that does not exist, while HB 24-1349 proposes an 11% tax on firearm purchases, both effectively creating poll taxes on constitutional rights Walcher exposed Colorado’s $14 billion rail scheme as destined to repeat California’s train-to-nowhere failure, noting rail ridership. Firearm Insurance Mandates and Poll Taxes on Constitutional Rights Start listening at 17:38 – Hour 1 Nephi Cole, director of state affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, sounds the alarm on two dangerous Colorado bills targeting gun owners. House Bill 24-1270 would require all firearm owners to maintain insurance that does not yet exist on the market, effectively creating an unconstitutional poll tax on Second Amendment rights. Cole explains that low-income Coloradans, including single mothers seeking protection in increasingly dangerous neighborhoods, would be forced to choose between exercising their constitutional rights and paying rent. Even more troubling, House Bill 24-1349 proposes an additional 11% tax on all firearm purchases, a measure Cole calls “uniquely un-American.” The bill would encourage an underground market as buyers simply purchase firearms in neighboring states like Wyoming and legally transport them home. Cole emphasizes that the right to self-defense pre-exists government and cannot be legitimately taxed or regulated away. “This disproportionately harms people that don’t own a home, people that are renters, people that live paycheck to paycheck because they have to decide now, are they going to pay a luxury tax in order to exercise right to self-defense? Or are they going to pay the rent?” Nephi Cole, Director of State Affairs, National Shooting Sports Foundation Front Range Rail Scheme Destined to Repeat the Train-to-Nowhere Debacle Start listening at 34:18 – Hour 1 Greg Walcher, former Colorado Director of Natural Resources and author of Smoking Them Out, exposes the Front Range Rail project as a colossal waste of resources destined to repeat California’s train-to-nowhere debacle. California’s initial $10 billion bond has ballooned to an estimated $100 billion cost, producing only a partial line between Bakersfield and Fresno that nobody wants to ride. Walcher presents damning statistics: commuter rail ridership has plummeted from 10% in the early 1960s to barely 3% today, while automobile commuters have tripled from 40 million to 120 million. The proposed $14 billion Colorado project would use existing freight tracks, automatically disqualifying it as high-speed rail. Western cities evolved around the automobile, with neighborhoods of houses stretching for miles with no logical station locations. Walcher argues taxpayers in Burlington, Grand Junction, and rural Colorado should not subsidize a system they will never use. “The problem with free and mobile society is you can’t make people live where they don’t want to live, and you can’t stop them from living where they do. And so I suppose there are some people who don’t think we ought to have a free and mobile society.” Greg Walcher, Former Director of Natural Resources, Colorado Ranching Heritage Meets Modern Markets Start listening at 63:49 – Hour 2 Jim May of Lavaca Meat Company announces an exciting new program launching April 1st, offering quarter, half, and whole...