The first lengthy floor debate of the 2021 session took place Monday, when Republicans put forth more than 30 amendments and other procedural tactics to either delay or water down House Bill 21-1106.

The measure requires firearms owners to safely secure their weapons, either with a trigger lock, gun safe or other safety device. It passed on a preliminary voice vote Monday evening after 10 hours of discussion, and is scheduled for a final vote Tuesday.

Preparing for a long debate that went on until late evening, bill sponsor Rep. Kyle Mullica, D-Northglenn, said his hope is that “we can have that robust debate while still keeping it respectful.”

Rep. Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge, the bill’s other sponsor, had the numbers.

She said 837 Coloradans died from firearms in 2019, more deaths than from opiate overdoses or motor vehicle accidents. That included 74 children.

This bill promotes child safety and responsible firearm storage, Duran said. It creates an education campaign, which she called “crucial to shifting the culture and encouraging firearm owners to store firearms safely.” However, that education campaign is funded only by gifts, grants and donations, not by state dollars.

Safe gun storage will save lives, she told the House. States with laws regulating the storage have seen a 13% reduction in fatalities for children under 13. This will prevent firearm suicides, in a state with one of the highest suicide rates in the country, she said.

It is not a pro-gun bill or anti-gun bill, she said. “It’s a lifesaving bill.”

The Republicans’ argument was based on concerns that the bill would prevent homeowners from using their guns to defend themselves; that locking up a gun would slow down a homeowner’s response to a crime in progress in the home.

People, in the sanctity of their homes, have the right to defend themselves against criminals, said Rep. Dave Williams, R-Colorado Springs. He read off a newspaper article from Feb. 15 that described a North Carolina incident in which a 12-year-old boy defended his grandmother from intruders, shooting and killing one.

Rep. Patrick Neville, R-Castle Rock, showed several kinds of locking devices, including a gun safe, and the difficulty he said people would have in getting those locks off in time or removing the gun from the gun safe.

“Criminals will love this law,” Neville said. “We will waste precious minutes” while a homeowner makes their own decisions on whether to use these devices.

No one has a monopoly on tragedy on one side or the other, added Rep. Ron Hanks, R-Penrose. “We cannot legislative common sense, and I do not believe we are making households safer by putting cheap Hasbro locks on these firearms.”

The debate was interrupted early on by a “shelter in place” order from Denver Police, responding to a shooting in Civic Center, in the park across the street. One person was taken to a hospital and one suspect was arrested, according to a tweet from Denver Police. Debate continued during the 30 minutes the order, issued by the Colorado State Patrol, was in place.

Republicans offered dozens of amendments to water down the bill but to no avail. One amendment, from Rep. Perry Will, R-New Castle, would exempt from the law certified police officers, military veterans and anyone with an unexpired concealed carry permit or who had taken a hunter education course. Another, from Williams, would allow exemptions for victims of domestic violence or those who have restraining orders against another person.

But Mullica pointed out that accidents with firearms happen in the households of police officers, too. He pointed to an incident in Steamboat Springs five years ago when a three-year-old accidentally shot and killed himself with his father’s gun. The father was a police officer.

The debate continued for another four hours.

An amendment from Rep. Terri Carver, R-Colorado Springs, would make a person immune from criminal prosecution for a violation relating to the use of physical force or in defense of livestock.

“Keeping and bearing arms within their homes is covered by the Second Amendment,” Carver said. She also explained that the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 2008 case known as Heller, said that a core Second Amendment right is to have the gun in the home with the ability to defend yourself and your family.

When there is a substantial burden on core elements of the Second Amendment, it must be subjected to strict scrutiny, she added. The Heller case, which dealt with a similar ordinance on gun storage from Washington, D.C., ruled that requiring a gun lock or that a gun be disassembled when not in use violated that core right.

There have been at least 39 shootings by children in 2021, resulting in 14 deaths and 27 injures, none in Colorado, according to Rep. Tom Sullivan, D-Centennial. He was among the few Democrats, including the bill’s sponsors, who engaged in the debate Monday.

Republican amendments also raised issues of personal responsibility, how guns are regarded in rural and/or “frontier” Colorado, whether sheriffs or other local law enforcement officials would enforce the law, for local governments to exempt themselves from the law, to add national firearms groups and manufacturers to those participating in the education campaign, or to add to the education campaign more information on community programs that will safely store a firearm outside of the home.

That latter amendment, offered by Carver, was the only one offered by Republicans to be adopted during the evening’s debate.