This week’s proposal by Gov. Jared Polis and Attorney General Phil Weiser to use Colorado tax money to hire prosecutors to loan to the feds to prosecute laws in opposition to our own is as hypocritical as it is misguided.

On March 12, 2021, less than one year after the George Floyd incident and despite Colorado’s crime tsunami, the now-defunct Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ) considered a bill entitled “Misdemeanor Reform.” Deceptively, the bill gutted the felony charge of Possession of Weapon by a Previous Offender. The bill Trojan-horsed in a provision decriminalizing gun ownership by tens of thousands of Colorado felons convicted of burglary, drug dealing, organized crime, treason, inciting a riot, sedition, arson and car theft.

Weiser was a voting member of CCJJ and had input on which bills received their stamp of approval and support. At the March 2021 meeting, Weiser specifically “expressed his support (for the bill) and echoed that the recommendation should be approved….” His hand-picked representative on CCJJ voted accordingly.

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As the head of a party cowed by the criminal justice reform rioters – er, “peaceful protesters” – the decision to permit the lawful re-arming of tens of thousands of convicted felons was easier than standing up for common sense and public safety. Buoyed by Weiser’s support, Polis signed the bill without any expressed reservation.

The outcry by the public, law enforcement and victims was loud and persuasive and forced the CCJJ and Democrat-controlled legislature to re-address their months-old reckless guns-for-crooks effort. Again, CCJJ had the first whack at the bill. Democrat and Republican district attorneys from Adams, Arapahoe and El Paso counties strongly encouraged CCJJ to re-criminalize gun possession by convicted drug dealers and car thieves. Weiser attended a Feb. 11, 2022 CCJJ meeting at which his same hand-picked representative encouraged support for the unamended bill – continuing to allow drug dealers and car thieves to lawfully possess guns. But Weiser did more than that.

Weiser’s deputy seconded a “poison pill” provision that would withdraw CCJJ’s support at the General Assembly if any legislator dared to amend the bill to disarm drug dealers and car thieves. During the legislative hearing, Weiser’s deputy recommended passage of the unamended bill. As a result, it passed.

Again, without hesitation, Polis signed the bill into law.

For Polis and Weiser, they had appeased the scary, pro-criminal activists of their party.

Only five months later, at an August 2022 candidate forum during his second AG campaign, Weiser was confronted with his weak-on-crime efforts. His response was to claim he had the same position as the Arapahoe DA. He did not.

Polis and Weiser are each politically ambitious. Weiser wants Polis’s job and Polis wants Biden’s. With violent crime continuing to grab Colorado’s headlines, both can see their previous support for “firearm for felons” laws will be used to bludgeon them politically.

Without any sense of hypocrisy, shame or even a humble offer of apology for what they did to our laws, Polis and Weiser now unveil a plan to spend more than $600,000 of taxpayer monies to fund state prosecutors to help the feds prosecute federal gun laws. Coincidentally, those laws are just like Colorado’s old felony gun laws – the ones Weiser and Polis helped to scuttle.

Under Weiser, the budget and staffing of our AG’s office has exploded like none before it. Weiser is not done kingdom-building. Despite the fact Colorado’s AG has a deliberately miniscule footprint in criminal prosecution and lacks the experience and expertise of locally-accountable district attorneys, Weiser wants to hire a team of state prosecutors using Colorado tax money to loan out to the U.S attorneys office to prosecute – federal crimes. Huh?

First, the feds are gifted at vigorously taxing us and deficit-spending our great grandkids into destitution. If the feds believe they need more prosecutors – they should get Congress to do what Congress does: spend federal tax monies.

Second, local prosecutors – not the AG’s office – should make their individual decisions about whether to fund federal prosecution of gun crimes in their jurisdictions.

Finally – and extra hypocritically of Polis and Weiser – are the efforts to use Colorado government resources to enforce a federal law that is inconsistent with our own. It seems like only yesterday Colorado’s Democrats proudly passed – and Polis signed – laws prohibiting state officials from doing anything to support the enforcement of federal immigration laws, including barring local sheriffs from contracting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold those illegally in America in county jails. Democrats boldly argued the state has no business enforcing federal laws. It was the feds’ job to do that. As a result, then-President Donald Trump moved to withhold federal funds from Colorado. Weiser sued Trump to stop him from doing so.

Now, Weiser and Polis are all-in for helping the Feds enforce their immigr – er, gun – laws with our tax money. Question for the AG: do felons with guns deserve felony convictions with 10 years for prison, as the fed law says, or should it be lawful for them to possess guns? You’ve now taken both positions.

Get the popcorn ready for the legislative session starting next month. Democrats who followed Weiser’s advice on our own gun laws will likely (hopefully) demand an explanation for the ol’ switcharoo in position. Coloradans must be reminded elections have consequences. But once we have single-party government, nothing else does.

George Brauchler is the former district attorney for the 18th Judicial District. He also is an Owens Early Criminal Justice Fellow at the Common Sense Institute. He hosts “The George Brauchler Show” on 710KNUS Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Follow him on Twitter(X): @GeorgeBrauchler.