I never want to hear another gun bill as long as I serve in the legislature! Right in the middle of an already time-pressed week delivering four bills through committees, the barrage of voters wanting a say on the gun bills added fatigue to an already tiring week.

My assistant, Tyler Nifong, and I fielded well over 500 telephone calls, 700 e-mails and weathered a troupe of lobbyists. While the majority of callers and e-mail submitters were not my constituents, many were. I resorted to a random drawing to decide which constituent I would call and Tyler called the rest. Some callers made the selection process a whole lot easier. Those who threatened me with the wrath of the gun associations or the "guarantees" of not being re-elected, making this threat before they even knew how I intended to vote, are probably still waiting to hear back from me ... maybe not.

What really interested me was the many gun advocates calling to demand I not vote on a certain bill when they hadn't even read the bill. It seems they got an urgent fax or special delivery letter stating what I perceived to be obvious inaccuracies about the gun bills and urging their membership to call and demand accountancy. Not one opponent had even taken time to read the bill and consequently was not ready to openly discuss the proposal. Those that I guided through the various components of a bill (particularly HB 1242 — the Gun Show Bill) and explained my point of view while listening to theirs, many times ended up stating, "That is not what I understood the bill was doing!"

All too often, association members of all kinds of associations, not just gun associations, do not do their "due diligence" before calling Denver to voice what ends up being an emotional reaction. I would urge those who call wanting to influence my decision on a particular bill to read the bill first so we can have an intelligent and fruitful discussion instead of an emotional outburst based on possible mistruths. If you do not have the Internet just give me a call and I will fax or mail you a copy of the bill immediately.

The gun bills will most certainly be reported on many fronts so I won't belabor them here. Suffice it to say that I am a strong Second Amendment advocate who does not share the fears of confiscation or a Hitler-type police state. I firmly believe the law should keep guns from criminals while protecting the rights and privileges of law-abiding citizens. In my opinion, a reasonable balance can and should be struck.

The Associated Press ran an article this week slamming the passage of the Paycheck Protection Bill (HB-1084) sponsored by Rep. Ron May (R) Colorado Springs. A local paper (not the Journal) ran my picture with a caption stating that I "voted in favor of the paycheck protection ban." To read the article and the quotes from those opposed to the legislation, one would think that the House was bashing the teacher unions and state employee organizations. Not true. The bill eliminates the practice of collecting political contributions with the state-owned and taxpayer-purchased computer system.

Readers may recall an article I wrote last year where I reported that a Colorado Teachers Association official testified that the entire state-wide cost of collecting these contributions totaled $.39 ... yes, you read that correctly, one-third of a dollar to collect political contributions for over 32,000 teachers. Absurd! This bill says that the state system will not be utilized to collect political contributions and, if a contributor wishes to contribute, they can write a check just like all other PAC contributors in Colorado. This bill in no way changes other items collected via the state system such as retirement fund contributions, health plan deductions or any other non-political deduction.

In fact, when I met with the local teachers’ organization and discussed this very bill, the consensus was that this was not a big deal. Of course, the hired gun from Denver objected. I requested that she remain silent while I polled my constituents. Our good teachers agreed that it was not really a problem to have to write a check to support their political action committee of choice. This is just another example of how southwest Coloradoans see things a lot differently than the Denverites.