24 November 2022
To: Governor Polis
Copy: Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers
Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez
Colorado Attorney General Philip J. Weiser
Dear Governor Polis
We the undersigned members of gun law reform group One Pulse for America are shocked and outraged by the mass shooting in Colorado Springs at Club Q: the suspect should have been banned under red flag laws from owning a weapon. The victims should be alive and well today: Colorado has red flag laws.
The suspect threatened to use a bomb one and a half years ago: the public had to evacuate homes. And yet here we are.
The woman who owed the home his mother lived in – the mother he threatened to blow up – said: “If the justice system had followed through with something, anything … he wouldn’t likely have had access to be able to get a weapon and five people wouldn’t have died,”
The AP published their findings: “An Associated Press analysis earlier this year found Colorado courts issued 151 gun surrender orders since the state’s red flag law took effect in 2020, three surrender orders for every 100,000 adults in the state. That’s a third of the average ratio of orders issued for the 19 states and District of Columbia with surrender laws on their books.”
We demand that law enforcement, the state’s judicial system hold an enquiry into how this man was allowed to have a gun, and to where feasible review and proactively seek out any other individuals who have so far evaded the state’s very loose net: before another tragedy strikes.
We call on you Governor Polis to take ownership of this situation – because clearly law enforcement and the state’s prosecutors have not done so.
Please respond to our concerns with action, and with correspondence to Suzanne Kelly by return.