Firearm folly.

• Author: Tuccille, J.D.
• Position: Gun control misfire - Colorado's firearms laws - Brief article

Colorado legislators imposed tighter firearms laws on their constituents last year, a controversial move that involved the recall of two state senators who favored the restrictions and the resignation of a third. Among those new laws was a requirement that all private transfers of firearms go through a background check of the kind already imposed on commercial transactions.

Lawmakers estimated that 420,000 transactions would pass through the system over the first two years, and allocated $3 million in increased user fees to fund the paperwork. Instead, after a year in operation, officials had performed only about 13,600 reviews. That works out to about 7 percent of the predicted number. Even more disappointing for the law's advocates: The 13,600 figure includes gun show sales, which were...