Jared Polis signed another expansion of Colorado’s red-flag law Monday, this time widening the circle of people and institutions that can ask a court to take somebody’s guns. According to The Denver Post’s report, Senate Bill 4 adds behavioral health co-responders and lets health care and educational institutions file petitions too. Polis and the bill’s Democratic sponsors say it’s about “saving lives,” “preventing gun crimes and suicides,” and “keeping communities safe.” That is the sales pitch.
Now here’s the translation: the state is making it easier for more bureaucracies to start the process of stripping a constitutional right from somebody who has not been convicted of a violent crime. And they always sell this stuff the same way. Wrap it in “safety,” drown it in therapeutic language, and pretend the only people who could possibly object are lunatics polishing ARs in a bunker.
What they never say plainly is that every expansion lowers the cultural and institutional barrier to using the law. Not just in theory. In practice. Once hospitals, schools, and the ever-growing blob of behavioral-health bureaucracy are folded into the pipeline, you are not narrowing government power. You are mainstreaming it. You are turning emergency authority into normal management. In Colorado, that is practically a religion.
- Polis signed Senate Bill 4 on Monday.
- Behavioral health co-responders were added as petitioners.
- Health care institutions can now file petitions.
- Educational institutions can now file petitions.
- The law was reportedly used more than 370 times through 2024.
The Post notes Polis bragged the law had been used more than 370 times through 2024. That number is supposed to reassure us. It should also raise a basic question: how many times does a “rare” intervention have to be used before it becomes standard operating procedure with nicer branding? “Extreme risk protection order” is exactly the kind of phrase a committee invents when “the state is coming for your guns, but in a caring way” sounds a little too honest.
And yes, the same politicians who treat the Second Amendment like a formatting error want applause for “safeguarding rights through a proven process.” Sure. That is what every rights restriction says right before it asks for broader authority, more approved petitioners, and less public shame about using it.
The larger racket is familiar. Denver liberals pass another infringement, call it compassion, and assume the public will confuse procedural paperwork with liberty. Meanwhile, a bunch of “pro-2A” groups will fire off another panic email, hit you up for money, and chalk up exactly zero visible wins besides a new fundraising subject line in all caps.
Colorado gun owners are getting squeezed from both ends: by lawmakers who want more power and by professional defenders who keep cashing checks for losing beautifully.
Source: The Denver Post
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