Sixty Years Ago This Week: At a meeting of the Denver Young Democrats, state House Minority Leader Allen Dines, D-Denver, claimed that “some splits” were “developing in the Republican ranks” and that large swaths of GOP legislators were even slightly resentful of newly-elected fellow Republican Gov. John Love.

In his presentation to the youthful gathering of eager-minded Dems, Dines claimed that GOP leadership felt Love was little more than an upstart who should not have been leading the party. 

Dines said that internal party problems had resulted from the hard-line stance that some GOP members had taken on the party’s proposed 15% income tax reduction across the state’s progressive tax brackets.

“There is beginning to be a little speculation as to whether or not they’ll be able to do it again on 1963 income,” Dines said. “Some Republican leaders want to spend money rather badly for other things. It falls on Republican leadership to say ‘no’ to everything. I think they’ll find it quite difficult to hold the line on their budget.”

House Republicans also clashed with their Senate colleagues over the passing of a school aid bill, which faced fierce opposition from Senate GOP leadership.

“If this happens,” Dines said, “Lord knows what Senate Majority Leader Ranger Rogers (R-Littleton) is going to do. But it’s going to hurt the Republican Party.”

While the party infighting might have seemed trivial, Dines advocated that Democrats remain clear-headed about the implications of Republican strategy. He argued that Republicans had made a “calculated effort to do as little as possible in the legislature in 1963,” but were pushing a concerted effort to secure the political machinery of the state “and to run it with Republican bias and Republican control.”

The pro-Republican reapportionment legislation that had been introduced was a clear example, Dines said, as it would greatly hamper any possibility of Democrats regaining control of either chamber of the Legislature in future.

Twenty Years Ago: After Gov. Bill Owens asked legislators to come up with a statewide concealed carry permit bill during his State of the State address before the General Assembly in January, he indicated in mid-March that he would sign Senate Bill 03-24, which would have set statewide regulations for concealed weapons permits.

Under the legislation, only eligible citizens, 21 and over, who passed a criminal background check and took a firearms safety course would be granted a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

A companion bill, SB 03-25, had been crafted to essentially overpower local laws in favor of a less restrictive statewide law. Owens, widely considered a proponent of gun rights, had not stated specifically whether he would sign SB 25, as it lacked a major premise Republican legislators were keen on, local control.

The Colorado Municipal League voiced its strong opposition to SB 25, stating that the bill, flouted “local control with impunity and we’re tired of it.”

Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter, who was among many mayors and local officials from around the state who gathered at the state Capitol to officially protest, said the new legislation would essentially wipe out Denver’s more restrictive gun laws.

Denver Mayor Wellington Webb said that he would consider legal action if SB 25 was signed into law since it would preempt home rule in Denver.

Tom Mauser, father of Columbine shooting victim Daniel Mauser, said, “While sponsors of SB 25 claim it will make gun laws more uniform, in practice it will make them uniformly weaker. This bill takes away the tools that local law enforcement use to fight gun violence. It’s a terrible mistake to be making state laws that hinder our local police’s ability to keep our citizens safe.”

Rachael Wright is the author of the Captain Savva Mystery series, with degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing writer to Colorado Politics and The Gazette.