HB 1205, allowing individuals to carry concealed handguns without a permit passed the House today 40-25, but not before members got a history lesson from Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh.
McKinley was the only person to speak to the bill on 3rd reading today, but he said one of the first concealed carry laws, the Sullivan Act, was designed to protect gangsters by forcing law-abiding citizens to get a permit in New York. He said he would vote in favor of getting rid of such laws in Colorado.
“The people that needed protecting was the criminals, because the tourists were coming off the boats and when they did the gangsters in the Redhook district robbed them. Well the tourists, the pilgrims, figured this out and they started carrying handguns and brass knuckles and they were beating up on the robbers. Robbers were getting killed right and left. And it even got to the point that no self-respecting robber would try to shake down a barber or a grocery because they were shooting back. In 1911 Tim Sullivan was a gangster (and a legislator) and his constituents went to him and said ‘We have got to have help.’ So they did, they did the concealed carry. Now, if you are wearing a gun on the outside there is no robber who is going to attack you. If they can’t see it and they know you don’t have a permit to carry then they rob you. You go to apply for a permit, a self-respecting, sound-minded citizen would be denied a permit. This law was the first gun law, concealed carry, to protect the mobsters of the Redhook district… I will be supporting this bill.
The bill now moves to the Senate where it will face considerable hurdles to its passage.
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