Sen. Chris Holbert, R-Parker, is contributing a column to this week’s print edition. The Colorado Statesman is publishing the column in serial form online this week.

Yes, that too has happened during my five years in the legislature. In 2011, I was proud to pass “Constitutional Carry” through the state House for the first time. The bill passed on a vote of 40 “Yes” to 25 “No” with all 33 Republicans, plus seven Democrats voting in support of the bill. That bill later died in the Senate Committee on State, Veterans & Military Affairs on a vote of 3-2. Forty representatives voted that bill out of the House and three senators stopped it from reaching the floor of the Senate. Unfair? Maybe. But, that’s how our Constitution, statutes and rules of the General Assembly work. That’s our legislative process, and I honor it.

This session, we just saw that process work in the opposite direction, but with the same result. I am grateful to Sens. Cheri Jahn, D-Jefferson County, Leroy Garcia, D-Pueblo County, and Kerry Donovan, D-Eagle County, for joining with all 18 Senate Republicans in support of Senate Bill 15-175, which sought to repeal the so-called “mag ban” set in place during the 2013 session.

Recently, critics have dismissed SB 15-175 as a forgone conclusion because it has since died in the House Committee on State, Veterans & Military Affairs. Such convenient hindsight ignores the pushback that Democrats received inside the Capitol and within their respective districts for supporting the bill. SB 15-175 was not a partisan statement; it was a true bi-partisan effort to repeal an ineffective and poorly conceived law. I’m proud that SB 15-175 passed the Senate with a vote of 21 “Yes” to 14 “No” votes. I’m proud to have had bi-partisan support in the House as well. Rep. Ed Vigil, D-Alamosa, voted against the original “mag ban” in 2013 and has supported its repeal since.

Sen. Chris Holbert is a Republican representing northern and western Douglas County.