With the so-called \u201cassault weapons ban\u201d bill before the Colorado Legislature, hundreds of gun rights supporters protested at state Capitol in Denver on Tuesday. One of the organizers was Dudley Brown, a Gillette native and president of the National Association for Gun Rights.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
By Mark Heinz<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the Colorado Legislature taking another run at defining and banning \u201cassault weapons\u201d across that state, hundreds of gun rights supporters showed up at the Colorado Capitol on Tuesday to protest and testify against the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wyomingites shouldn\u2019t take for granted that such a ban won\u2019t be attempted here someday, local gun rights advocates said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cColorado is a cautionary tale for every gun owner, including here in Wyoming, because nobody thought they could pass that (ban) in Colorado 10 years ago, and yet here they are,\u201d Aaron Dorr, policy director for Wyoming Gun Owners, told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gun Owners of America spokesman Mark Jones of Buffalo said Cowboy State residents must be cautious about crossing the state line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWyoming residents need to check the outcome of the current Colorado legislative session before traveling with firearms to that neighbor,\u201d he told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some Coloradans pushed back against the proposed ban Tuesday, Dudley Brown of Fort Collins told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roughly 400 people showed up for a pro-gun rights rally outside the Capitol that morning, said Brown, who is the president of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners\/National Association For Gun Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speakers included YouTube gun channel celebrity Brandon Herrera, Brown said. And people later crowded into the Capitol to testify on the bill before the Colorado House Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt one point, they had 577 people signed up to testify,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAnd I know there were a lot of people who couldn\u2019t get signed up to testify, or there would have been over 1,000.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As it was, the hearing was expected to drag on for hours, possibly into early Wednesday morning, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His group also attempted to deliver petitions with more than 200,000 signatures against the bill to the committee, Brown said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe always deliver our petitions by hand,\u201d he said. \u201cWe tried to deliver those to the committee, and they wouldn\u2019t take them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brown is no stranger to Wyoming. He was born in Gillette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also helped draft and promote a 2011 bill to implement constitutional carry in Wyoming, meaning that guns may be carried openly or concealed without a permit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During a phone call with Cowboy State Daily, he described seeing something that reminded him of Wyoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA large Ford pickup with Wyoming plates just passed me, and it had a lot of gun stickers \u2014 stickers just covering the back window,\u201d he said. \u201cYep, those are my people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It wasn\u2019t that long ago that Colorado had firearms policies similar to Wyoming\u2019s, Brown said. But that began to change in the wake of mass shootings in Colorado. A high-capacity magazine ban was attempted in 2013. And an assault-weapons ban bill was introduced last year, but died in committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"YouTube](\"https:\/\/cowboystatedaily.imgix.net\/Colorado-gun-rally-brandon-3.19.24.jpeg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&q=75&auto=format%2Ccompress\")
Hundreds Show At Capitol<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Bill Proposes Sweeping Bans<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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