Two states, same challenge: lawmakers in Colorado and Connecticut made tough calls in the wake of mass shootings.

• Author: Bartels, Lynn
• Position: LEGISLATURES

America's divide over gun ownership rights and regulations is not new, but rarely has the debate been so emotional. In the wake of the mass shootings in Colorado and Connecticut in 2012, state legislatures have looked at hundreds of proposals pushed by both sides: from arming schoolteachers and nullifying federal firearms restrictions, for example, to banning high-capacity weapons and holding firearms manufacturers liable for shootings.

Legislators have introduced roughly 2,356 gun bills since shortly after the Newtown, Conn., shootings in which 20 children and six adults were killed in December 2012. In April, an analysis of about 1,500 of the bills by the Sunlight Foundation, which monitors transparency in government, found them to be about evenly split between weakening or strengthening gun restrictions. Last year, only 35 percent of gun bills would have strengthened regulations, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

As of mid-June, approximately 202 of the 2,356 gun-related bills had become law, according to NCSL research. They run the gamut, from New York's limit of seven bullets per magazine to Arkansas' Church Protection Act, giving places of worship the authority to allow guns on their premises.

Lawmakers Respond

Lawmakers in Connecticut and Colorado were forced into addressing gun laws following the movie theater shooting that killed 12 people and injured 58 in Aurora, Colo., in July, and the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School five months later.

Both states passed greater restrictions on guns, but the route each legislature took and the opposition the legislation faced varied greatly, even though both states have Democratic governors and Democratic-controlled legislatures.

Connecticut legislators made sweeping changes in a single bill that many consider one of the strictest in the nation. Among its provisions are an expanded assault weapons ban, a restriction on high-capacity magazines and registration for the purchase of ammunition and all guns.

Colorado legislators passed five new guns laws. They're tamer than Connecticut's, but for a Western state, where gun ownership is high and where guns have long been used to hunt and protect property, their passage surprised many. Colorado's new laws limit ammunition magazines to 15 rounds, institute universal background checks for the sale and transfer of weapons, and require gun buyers to pay for background checks, among other things.

Legislative chambers in both states became stages for the national debate. Hearings drew unprecedented crowds, mostly those opposed to any kind of restriction on the right to bear arms. Gun control advocates argued back with facts and figures: 85 Americans die daily from gun--53 of them suicides--a rate that far exceeds most other developed countries.

Supporters of tougher gun laws call them...