A bill brought by a Western Slope Democrat aimed at decreasing gun thefts from vehicles is the source of an embittered battle at the state Capitol this week. 

House Bill 1348, sponsored by Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, D-Glenwood Springs, would create a fine of up to $500 for leaving an unsecured firearm in an unattended vehicle. 

Gun owners would be required to store their firearms in a “locked, hard-sided container” under the bill. It would exempt people whose vehicles are being used for ranch operations, peace officers, someone who is hunting or teaching hunting courses, and members of the U.S. Armed Forces who are on duty. 

---

---

When guns are stolen from vehicles, “we can no longer account for who gets their hands on them,” Velasco said. “We cannot account for mental health, for domestic violence or other prior offenses or any of the safety mechanisms we have created to prevent gun violence.”

The House, which has a supermajority of Democrats, approved the bill in March. Last week, the Senate also approved the measure, but in the process, they made several amendments that the House sponsors don’t support.

---

---

Those changes would increase criminal penalties for those who steal firearms from vehicles. 

Another Western Slope Democrat, Sen. Dylan Roberts of Frisco, proposed one of those amendments, which would make stealing a firearm that’s valued at up to $2,000 a class 1 misdemeanor — punishable by a fine of up to $1,000. 

“If we are taking the problem of stolen firearms seriously, we’re going to punish the people who get their firearms stolen,” Roberts said. “We should also make sure that the enforcement on the other side of that equation — the person who steals the gun — is subjected to at least a little bit higher financial penalty than the person who got their car broken into.” 

One of the senate sponsors of the bill, Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, D-Boulder County, didn’t oppose the idea, calling it a “friendly amendment.” 

Sen. Larry Liston, a Colorado Springs Republican, later proposed adding a Class 6 felony charge for stealing a firearm more than once. Jaquez Lewis opposed that change, but it was approved with a 19-15 vote. Several Democrats, including Roberts, voted in favor of it. 

The bill was then sent back to the House, which votes on whether to concur with any changes made by the other chamber. The House sponsors of the bill disagreed with their counterparts in the Senate and recommended the body reject those changes. 

The sponsors accused the Senate of using their bill to attempt to resurrect a bipartisan bill that was rejected earlier in the session. That bill, House Bill 1162, would have made firearm theft a class 2 misdemeanor. They also argued the added punishments didn’t fit under the bill’s title. 

“The Senate is trying to insert a bill that has already died,” said Rep. Lorena Garcia, an Adams County Democrat and another prime sponsor of the bill. 

With a vote of 34-27, the House voted to reject the changes and opt to send the bill to a “conference committee,” which is when members of each chamber come together to try to find a compromise on a bill. 

Several House Democrats joined Republicans in voting to keep the changes, including House Speaker Julie McCluskie from Dillon and Rep. Meghan Lukens from Steamboat Springs.

If a compromise is reached during the conference committee, which has not yet been scheduled, the bill will again be considered by both chambers.

Elliott Wenzler is the Western Slope politics reporter for the Craig Press and its sister publications in Glenwood Springs, Vail, Steamboat Springs, Craig, Summit County and Grand County. Reach her at ewenzler@swiftcom.com.