Senate Republicans on Tuesday charged that legislation seeking to effectively ban lawmakers from bringing firearms into the state Capitol is unconstitutional.

Senate Bill 131, as introduced, would have banned firearms, including concealed weapons, from 19 identified “sensitive spaces,” including schools, colleges, parks, recreation centers, protests and rallies, and local government buildings.

The bill’s Democratic sponsors, Sens. Sonja Jaquez Lewis of Longmont and Chris Kolker of Centennial, narrowed its scope in a Senate Judiciary Committee last week. The panel not only changed the bill’s title – a fairly unusual move – but also added the state Capitol to the list of “sensitive spaces,” while removing more than a dozen others.

The bill title change is meant to denote the bill would comply with two U.S. Supreme Court rulings. Firearms have been prohibited at the state Capitol for members of the public since 2007, but lawmakers have long carried weapons into the building, included loaded weapons. 

The Senate committee whittled down the list to a few areas – to colleges, universities and schools; local government offices and courthouses; and, polling locations.

Kolker told reporters the bill’s intent is to address firearms on college campuses. 

But the modified bill would also prohibit firearms virtually anywhere in the state Capitol, including in lawmakers’ offices, on the floor of the House or Senate, and in committee hearing rooms.

The practical effect is that it would ban lawmakers from bringing weapons into the state Capitol.

Jaquez Lewis said after the hearing that “legislative spaces” are considered “sensitive places.”

But that didn’t go over well with Senate Republicans during Tuesday’s nearly five-hour debate.

Sen. Jim Smallwood, R-Parker, noted that Article 5, Section 16 of the Colorado Constitution addresses legislators’ privileges.

Members of the General Assembly are privileged from arrest from their attendance at the Capitol in either chamber or in committees, including travel to and from the Capitol premises, he said.

The only exception is when a lawmaker commits treason or a felony.

“They shall not be questioned in any other place,” Smallwood read. That means legislators can’t be arrested, “we can’t even be stopped or detained to be questioned,” he said. 

The bill contemplates a misdemeanor crime, Smallwood said. So, he asked, how could a police officer stop him for carrying a firearm in the Capitol, or even from the state Capitol parking garage given the constitutional protections? 

He offered an amendment that reiterated the constitutional language. 

“Why should legislators be above the law?” asked Jaquez Lewis, noting members of Congress are not allowed to bring guns onto the floor of the U.S. House or Senate.

Sen. Faith Winter, D-Westminster indicated some lawmakers have not behaved appropriately with firearms. She recounted how, in 2018, when she was at the center of the #MeToo scandal in the House, a state representative was expelled for sexual harassment. Winter was among the victims and said several people protected her during that session. Two Democratic lawmakers told the House during the debate prior to the expulsion vote they wore bulletproof vests because they feared for their lives. 

The amendment failed, as did several other Republican-sponsored changes that would remove schools and college campuses from the bill. Rural Republican lawmakers, in particular, pointed out that some schools are an hour away from local law enforcement, and that prohibiting guns would put students at risk. The bill does allow school resource officers to carry weapons.

Lawmakers then turned their attention to what sponsors called the main focus of the bill – getting guns off the campuses of the state’s public colleges and universities.

Jaquez Lewis said some of the most compelling testimony in the hearing came from students at the University of Colorado, who begged lawmakers to get guns off their campuses. That included students from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, where a student is accused of shooting his roommate and another individual dead.  

“Students are really upset about what is happening on their campuses,” including faculty members being killed, Jaquez Lewis said calling college campus shootings “an epidemic.”

Students should be worried – this legislates them into being victims, said Sen. Kevin Van Winkle, R-Highlands Ranch.

He pointed to the Virginia Tech massacre that took law enforcement two hours to get into the building after 32 people were killed. 

“We are leaving the people of Colorado defenseless,” he said.

“I have never felt unsafe in this building,” added Sen. Cleave Simpson, R-Alamosa.

Outside the building is another matter, he said.

The legislation would eliminate his ability to feel safe, he said. 

The bill won preliminary approval on a voice vote and heads to a final vote, possibly as soon as Wednesday.