Just what is an assault weapon? Lots of Coloradans might tell you they know one when they see one.
After all, the weapons are once again media fodder in the wake of the ghastly mass shooting in March that claimed 10 lives at a Boulder supermarket.
The suspect charged with that atrocity was arrested with a Ruger AR-556 pistol, more compact than the rifle version. So, was that weapon a familiar image by now amid news coverage an assault weapon?
The question arises in the wake of polling results released this week and reported by our news affiliate Colorado Politics. The KOM Colorado Poll from Keating Research, OnSight Public Affairs and Mike Melanson found 57% of Colorado voters surveyed would support a ban on assault weapons.
Reasonable people should be able to differ over politics without coming to blows; that’s a given of civil society. In that same vein, Coloradans should be able to challenge city hall without facing retribution. That also should be regarded as a given, but it appears to have eluded municipal officials in Estes Park.
They want a court to award them and their attorneys more than $28,000 in legal fees, to be paid by a group of residents who had unsuccessfully challenged the city in District Court over the funding of a local road project. Mind you, the city already had prevailed in court on the merits of the case, but it now evidently wanted to do a victory dance at the plaintiffs’ expense.
Colorado’s charter schools are wildly popular and under attack once again.
They were authorized by law in the early 1990s, when a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers and the governor saw the wisdom of giving our state’s public schools more independence to blaze their own trails. Since then, the program has grown by leaps and bounds amid continuous and overwhelming demand.
Today, about 161 public charters educate more than 125,000 Colorado children statewide. That’s around 14% of kids who attend public school in the state. Most of the charters have to turn away applicants because there are far too many of them for the space available.
EDITORIAL: A despicable attempt to sabotage school choice gazette.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gazette.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Today
Isolated thunderstorms early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 46F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..
Tonight
Isolated thunderstorms early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 46F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%. Updated: June 1, 2021 @ 4:35 pm