DENVER (CBS4) – Kyle Mullica, a Colorado lawmaker who carried a bill making it harder to opt out of immunizations, is scared for his life as well as the lives of his family members after receiving a threatening email. State Rep. Mullica is a first-term lawmaker who took on one of the session’s most controversial issues, introducing a bill requiring parents who want to opt their kids out of vaccines to get a standardized form from the health department first. He says he knew it would be controversial.

“I didn’t come down here to try to tackle easy issues or issues that aren’t important to me.”

But he never dreamed it would result in a death threat. Mullica is an emergency room nurse and father of three. He carried the bill he says to protect kids.

“I care for children that come into the ER and that have preventable diseases. I’m terrified that we’re going to see an outbreak here in Colorado and that we’re going to see children hurt,” he said.

But after the bill passed the house Saturday, Mullica received an email saying, “You deserve death… The world would be better if your home burned down with you and your family in it.”

Colorado State Patrol is trying to identify the individual or individuals who sent the email and is providing protection for Mullica and his family.

“I thought about my kids. They were at home with my wife and, you know, I wasn’t there,” he said. “I don’t want to be bullied and intimidated from doing what I believe in, what I believe is going to protect our community but there’s nothing I would ever do to put my family in harms way either.”

In the end, the bill is all, but certain to die. The governor opposes it, and the Senate hasn’t even assigned it to committee with just three days to go in the legislative session.

Mullica hasn’t decided if he’ll bring the bill back next year, but had this to say to opponents, “I’ve had plenty of civil discussions with people who disagree with me on the issue, and we should that’s how we make good policy, but leave my family out of it.”