An epic national debate over gun rights in Colorado on Tuesday saw two Democratic state senators ousted for their support for stricter laws, a “ready, aim, fired” message intended to stop other politicians for pushing for firearms restrictions. Senate President John Morse and Sen. Angela Giron will be replaced in office with Republican candidates who petitioned onto the recall ballot.

Party insiders always said Giron’s race was the harder one. Although her district is heavily Democratic, Pueblo is a blue-collar union town. Morse’s district included Manitou Springs and a portion of Colorado Springs — and more liberals.

“It has been an honor to represent the 11th Senate District,” Morse said in his concession speech. “It’s been hugely rewarding.”

Giron conceded about 10:45 p.m., telling supporters “this will make us stronger.”

She said she had no regrets about the votes she had taken that led to her recall. “I’m a fighter,” she said. “We will win in the end, because we are on the right side.”

The turn of events made Morse and Giron the first Colorado state lawmakers to be recalled. Former Colorado Springs councilman Bernie Herpin will take Morse’s seat in the Senate, while Pueblo will be represented by former Deputy Police Chief George Rivera.

It’s unclear when the city of Pueblo was last represented in the Senate by a Republican.

“Coloradans … sent a clear message that politicians who blatantly ignore their constituents will be held accountable,” said Dustin Zvonek, state director of Americans for Prosperity. “Perhaps this will serve as a lesson that one-party rule in Denver doesn’t give the majority license to take things to extremes or run roughshod over the values and rights of Coloradans who just happen, for the moment, to be in the minority.”

“Tonight is a victory for the people of the state of Colorado, who have been subject to the overreach of a Democrat agenda on guns, taxes and accountability to the people,” said Tim Knight, Founder of the Basic Freedom Defense Fund and the “father” of the recalls. “Since day one, they said it couldn’t be done. Tonight, this is a victory for the people of Colorado, and we share this victory with them.”

Democrats control the Senate, the House and the governor’s office. Even with Morse and Giron leaving, Democrats retain a one-seat majority in the Senate.

The National Rifle Association, which donated about $360,000 to support the recalls, hailed Morse’s loss, telling The Denver Post it “is proud to have stood with the men and women in Colorado who sent a clear message that their Second Amendment rights are not for sale.”

But it wasn’t just the NRA that warned Democrats about messing with gun rights.

Sen. Lois Tochtrop, an Adams County Democrat and longtime Second Amendment activist, opposed five of the seven gun bills initially introduced in the session, including a lightning-rod proposal by Morse.

That proposal would have assigned liability for assault-style weapon damages to manufacturers and sellers, but Morse killed it at the 11th-hour because he didn’t have the votes to pass it through the Democratic-controlled Senate.

“I feel like all these gun bills have done — to quote the last words in the movie ‘Tora! Tora! Tora!’ — is to awaken a sleeping giant,” Tochtrop said during the debate.

Awaken they did.

Upset by the bills themselves and the Senate Democrats’ decision to hold seven hearings in one day — resulting in hundreds of witnesses being unable to testify — voters in Morse’s and Giron’s districts successfully forced the first-ever recall elections of state lawmakers in Colorado history.

Spurred by two national tragedies — a shooting in an Aurora movie theater in July 2012 and a Connecticut elementary school in December — legislatures across the country this year passed new gun laws.

Some states, including Colorado and Connecticut, passed stricter laws, while others loosened restrictions, believing more law-abiding citizens carrying guns would mean fewer shootings.

They ran the gamut, from New York’s limit of seven rounds per magazine to Arkansas’ Church Protection Act, giving places of worship the authority to allow guns on their premises, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In the end, Colorado was able to do what Congress could not, but it came with a price for Democrats.

Gov. John Hickenlooper — once deemed so unbeatable that the GOP couldn’t even find a candidate to run against him in 2014 — now faces falling approval ratings and a crowded field of Republican contenders, in part for backing stricter gun measures.

But not every Republican supported the recalls.

“I think this is the wrong way to settle differences,” said Dorothy Carr, 79, as she waited in line to vote in Morse’s district.

Also voting against Morse’s recall was Coloradan Sachin Mathur, a Democrat attending Colorado College.

“I’ve grown up in the age of Columbine and the Aurora theater shooting, and John Morse has stood up to the (NRA),” Mathur said. “He did what was right.”

The road to the recalls took a number of turns.

The efforts to recall two other Democrats, Rep. Mike McLachlin of Durango and Sen. Evie Hudak of Westminster, failed when their constituents failed to get enough signatures to force an election.

Even the head of Colorado’s most strident gun-rights group, Dudley Brown with the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, initially balked at the idea of a recall, suggesting the money would be better spent in 2014 in swing legislative seats.

And the recalls against Morse and Giron were marked by legal challenges, including unsuccessful attempts by Democrats to invalidate the signatures of voters who supported the recalls. One court battle ultimately resulted in turning what was supposed to be an all-mail ballot into a polling-place election, which forced campaign strategists to change their ground game.

Recall opponents argued that the elections — which the two counties have to pay for — were a waste of money because Morse is term-limited next year and Giron is up for re-election. They also said recalls should not be used to solve policy differences.

But recall supporters contend Morse and Giron ignored their constituents and the constitution by advancing the gun laws. They accused the governor and the legislature of taking marching orders from the White House and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who contributed $350,000 to fight the recalls. Vice President Joe Biden even called Democrats on the House floor on the day that chamber was debating the gun package.

Mark Glaze, executive director of the group Bloomberg formed, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, said Tuesday that the NRA no longer has the field to itself in the ballot over gun laws.

“Win, lose or draw, this will send a message to legislators who take risks to protect their community. We will have their back, and eventually, the tide will turn,” Glaze said.

In order to force a recall, supporters had to collect a percentage of valid voter signatures based on the turnout in the previous election in that district.

Because the turnout in Morse’s election in 2010 was so low — a race where he probably would have lost had there not been a Libertarian candidate — no one was surprised when that recall effort succeeded.

It was a different story in Pueblo, a heavily Democratic district, where three plumbers armed with laptops linked to a state database not only collected enough valid signatures but had a low number thrown out.

“Giron’s disregard for the majority of her constituents to vote ‘no’ on anti-Second Amendment issues and her general disregard of our Constitution and the rights of the citizens of Colorado demonstrate she must be removed from the Senate,” plumber Victor Head, president of Pueblo Freedom and Rights, said in a statement at the time.

Staff writers Ryan Parker and Austin Briggs contributed to this report.



Gov. Hickenlooper statement about recall election results

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper released this statement Tuesday night about the recall elections in Pueblo and El Paso counties:

“Our democracy gives the people the right to vote for their elected representatives. Tonight, voters in two Senate districts have spoken. We are certainly disappointed by the outcome of the recall elections.

“It’s now time we refocus again on what unites Coloradans — creating jobs, educating our children, creating a healthier state — and on finding ways to keep Colorado moving forward.”