Demonstrators from across the country began gathering Monday outside the Colorado Capitol as part of a sit-in protest, calling on Gov. Jared Polis to ban all guns in a move that the governor and supporters alike agree is unconstitutional.
Roughly 2,000 people were sprawled across the Capitol lawn in chairs and on blankets by early Monday afternoon. Their numbers had grown since the protest began early that morning. Many carried signs calling for Polis and policymakers to “choose kids over guns” and to “save a 2nd grader, repeal the 2nd amendment.” They held moments of silence every hour for victims of mass shootings.
The protest was organized by the newly formed Here4TheKids organization, a national group founded by two women of color who have called for only white women to participate in the first protest in Colorado. They’ve asked people of color and those with disabilities to instead participate in a remote campaign.
“While acknowledging everyone’s agency, Here4TheKids respectfully asks white women to put their bodies on the ground, as marginalized communities have always done and continue to do,” the group said in a statement. “Historically, white women are least likely to be brutalized by the police. Their multiple intersections of privilege and power support the movement, as they participate in an act of civil disobedience, occupy physical space and demand change.”
The group called on Polis and other governors to sign an executive order to ban all guns and implement a statewide buyback program. In their letter to Polis, the group noted that guns are the No. 1 killer of children and teens in the U.S., and that 17,500 people have died from gun violence in the first 150 days of 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Colorado’s rate of gun deaths is 13% higher than the national average.
According to a report from researchers at Colorado Children’s Hospital, gun injuries increased for children in the state, averaging about one a day. Colorado children are dying by gun violence at a rate of more than one per week, becoming the leading cause of death in kids after the newborn period, the report stated. And the number of gun deaths by suicide, homicide or unintentional have all increased.
Protesters shared stories of older kids wondering if they should consider gun violence rates before choosing a college and younger children asking their parents hard questions. Teachers talked about active-shooter drills and lockdowns that led to anxiety and fear for their students.
On Monday afternoon, Caitlin Graham, a New York native who moved to Colorado from the Netherlands, sat with her mother and held a sign that included a drawing from her own daughter.
“You’ve seen in other nations, it just takes one incident before they can make meaningful change,” Graham said. “And here, unfortunately, it’s just become like a political power play. … And it really shouldn’t be political. It should just be common sense that civilians shouldn’t have assault weapons and we can be safer if we got rid of guns.”
Jo Fenster and Emily Schlicter of Denver held up signs calling on Polis to “ban guns and buy them back,” and Schlichter advocated for also getting rid of guns for law enforcement.
“I don’t think we should be a society that revolves around harming each other over and over again,” she said.
But banning guns is not something Polis appears ready to do. In a statement, his office cited legislation the governor signed this year toward addressing gun safety. Polis signed five bills into law this year intended to blunt gun violence. They include an expansion of the state’s red-flag law; a three-day minimum waiting period to obtain firearms; regulations around so-called “ghost guns”; and raising the age to purchase firearms to 21. Another new law also makes it easier to sue gun manufacturers and dealers.
“The Governor takes the weighty responsibility of executive action and the trust Coloradans placed in him to govern responsibly seriously, and will not issue an unconstitutional order that will be struck down in court simply to make a public relations statement — he will continue to focus on real solutions to help make Colorado one of the ten safest states,” according to the statement.
Saira Rao, an Indian American and one of the group’s founders who lived in Denver for nine years before moving to Virginia, is a former lawyer who has a background in constitutional law. She acknowledged that their ask is unconstitutional, but she also said that’s by design.
“This executive order is in direct violation of the Second Amendment,” Rao said on Friday. “And this is the first step in a journey towards repealing the Second Amendment.”
With 27 amendments to the Constitution, Rao said gun-control supporters want the repeal of the right to bear arms to be the 28th.
Sen. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat who’s worked on several gun reform bills during her time in the legislature, said she was glad the group was out protesting, even if Polis was unlikely to issue the executive order they sought. High school students had repeatedly descended upon the Capitol in recent months to demand more from lawmakers and Polis.
“I’m glad to see the continued focus and attention on keeping our kids and our community safe,” she said. “So it’s good to see that it’s not just something that we’re doing down at the state Capitol with trying to come up with legislation to save lives, that there is also public interest to support all the work that we’ve already done.”
Still, she has questioned the group’s demands. Fields and Sen. Tom Sullivan, a Centennial Democrat and fellow leader in gun reform legislation, wrote in a Denver Post opinion column that an “executive order to ban all guns and instituting mandatory buyback programs” was unconstitutional. The demand diminished “decades of work by policymakers and activists who have labored tirelessly to stop gun deaths and could undermine and demoralize those efforts going forward,” the two senators wrote.
Several people who spoke to The Denver Post at the protest were skeptical that Polis would sign an order to ban all guns, but many said they at least wanted to see a ban on assault weapons (legislators defeated a bill to ban the purchase or sale of weapons like the AR-15 earlier this year).
The group hoped to gather 25,000 women from across the country to participate in the sit-in, which began at 5 a.m. Monday and is expected continue for at least four days until 8 p.m., or “as long as it takes for Polis to sign an executive order,” according to Rao.
Erik Hopkins and his father Tim were among the handful of men at Monday’s protest. Erik Hopkins, whose sister was one of the organizers, flew from Washington, D.C. to Colorado to join his dad at the event. The father of two elementary school-aged children said the answer to putting an end to gun violence is getting rid of guns.
“You can’t fix people — you can’t fix everybody,” he said. “So you have to take away the killing machine in order to stop the senseless killing.”
Tim Hopkins said in his 66 years of life, he’s never needed a gun in the United States or outside of it. Seeing people open carry doesn’t make him feel safer, he said, but more fearful that an accident could lead to a shooting.
The sit-in comes after tense gun debates during this year’s legislative session in Colorado, which ended in early May. Democrats, secure in their historic majorities in the Capitol, are planning to pass a series of gun-related bills each year, legislators say, in a coordinated approach to addressing gun violence. They were largely successful in passing those measures this year, prompting Republicans to launch hours-long filibusters, float a civil war and file lawsuits.
Rao wants the reforms to go further, with a federal gun ban, which she does not believe is as radical as some might make it out to be.
“What’s radical is dropping your kids off at school and not knowing if they’re going to be alive when you pick them up,” she said. “What’s radical is going to the mall and getting assassinated when you’re looking for leggings at H&M. That’s radical.”
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