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For Immediate Release
Contact: Eileen McCarron
303-946-6959 or 303-377-7697

Douglas County Commissioners Should Put Gun Safety Before Gun Rights

Castle Rock, CO – Protesting that a Douglas County resolution puts the rights of potential mass shooters ahead of citizens at risk, Tom Mauser today called for Douglas County resolution, R-019-025, “Regarding Citizen’s Constitutional Rights, Public Safety and Mental Health” to be rescinded. He protested the commissioners’ resolution, with others, outside the county offices at 100 Third St, Castle Rock, in advance of their regularly scheduled board meeting at 1:30 p.m.

“Did these people learn nothing from Columbine?” asked Mauser, father of Daniel Mauser, who was slain at Columbine High School. “Colorado has just passed a lifesaving law giving a tool to desperate family members and law enforcement that could stop dangerous people from having access to guns, and Douglas County Commissioners seem more concerned about the rights of potential mass shooters. They should be ashamed of themselves.”

Mauser noted that while Douglas County did not declare itself a Second Amendment Sanctuary County, its ambiguity about enforcing the new law could lead to confusion about carrying it out. The final paragraph in the resolution is the most chilling, Mauser says.

“The Board of County Commissioners will fund the enforcement of only those duly enacted state laws that fully respect and support the Constitutional rights Legislative Action of our citizens, including their rights to due process, to bear arms, and to defend themselves from evil.” — R-019-025

Mauser emphasized that it is not the commissioners who determine constitutionality.

“It’s unconscionable that the decision-makers in Douglas County, where Deputy Sheriffs were ambushed a little more than a year ago, would suggest that this law, passed by 14 other states and already found constitutional in two states, should not be carried out,” Mauser continued. “It’s an insult to Douglas County peace officers and unnerving to its citizenry. To my mind, Commissioners Roger Partridge, Lora Thomas, and Abe Laydon hold the gun rights of individuals to be more important than the safety of their constituents.”

Mauser is spokesperson for the 6,000 member Colorado Ceasefire, a nonprofit organization working on gun violence prevention in Colorado.

Colorado Ceasefire, an all-volunteer statewide organization, has been working for freedom from gun violence since 2000. Ceasefire initiated and was instrumental in the enactment of the 2013 Colorado firearms laws, which included universal background checks, a high capacity magazine ban, and domestic violence firearms relinquishment. Ceasefire began advocating for an Extreme Risk (red flag) law in 2016. Learn more at www.coloradoceasefire.org

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