The intersection of Hunter Biden’s prosecution for lying on a federal firearm application in Delaware with prevailing public opinion regarding reasonable gun policy has largely gone unmentioned. Universal background checks, which are supported by better than 80% of Americans, including gun owners, likely would have identified Biden as a poor candidate for purchasing a handgun. Colorado has done a better job than most states, relying on Democratic legislative majorities, to pull its gun laws into the realm of sanity. Other states, usually under Republican rule, have experienced difficulty placing possession restrictions on the mentally ill, domestic abusers and violent felons; thereby risking public safety.

I recently caught an interview with a Second Amendment zealot who declared this constitutional provision guarantees, “My God given right to own an AR-15.” I’m no theologian, but I doubt the Prince of Peace is pleased with the proposition that widespread possession of rapid-fire weapons of war offers us a blessing deserving of his protection. The past few years I’ve started noticing discreet decals on pick-ups and SUVs with a black-on-white profile of an AR-15. Presumably, these advertise the driver’s enthusiasm for and probable ownership of just such a rifle. It’s estimated more than 20 millions of these rifles have been sold in the United States, meaning Colorado’s share would be 400,000 to 500,000.

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Although they were outlawed for nearly a decade at the federal level, it is far too late to reverse their legalization after Congress allowed the prohibition to expire. Not only would a buyback program fail to find a significant portion of these weapons but the cost, which would run into the billions, would fall primarily on the 95% of taxpayers who never purchased one. Instead, we are left to restrict their use, storage and licensing.  Eight new bills passed the legislature and were signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis in 2024. Another handful of proposals failed, including a ban on the purchase, sale and transfer of assault weapons. Perhaps the most disappointing failure was HB-1270, which would have required the purchase of firearm liability insurance on the part of every gun owner. We require auto insurance, why not insurance on private arsenals?

Voters will be asked to approve a 6.5% excise tax on weapon sales in November to fund assistance to crime victims, provide school security measures and behavioral health programs. Safe storage requirements in personal vehicles and a crackdown on gun dealers are also on the way. Additional red flag restrictions in domestic violence cases were also approved. There is considerable irony that despite opposition to the original red flag law from all but a single Colorado Sheriff, it is now county sheriffs who file the majority of requests for temporary restraining orders. They are, of course, the men and women (as are their deputies) who find themselves most frequently at risk. There have been no requests for repeal.

Colorado carries a history of frontier settlers for whom firearms were as much a survival tool as they were a weapon. Wolves, bears, bandits and rustlers were genuine threats. No one knew this more than law enforcement. I recall my father’s memory of my great-grandfather, Mahlon Hudson, who wore a gun whenever he went to town until the day he died in 1934. He had served as U.S. Marshall for eastern New Mexico in the late 1800s through the Colfax County wars. As a small boy, my Dad asked Mahlon why he always wore his gun when leaving the ranch and his grandfather’s reply was, “If I didn’t, there are people who would try to shoot me.” That may have been an exaggeration, but it speaks to a vastly different world.

I still have my grandfather’s .22 rabbit gun, which has been in our family for well more than a century. It’s a remarkably accurate rifle after all this time. I also carried a .45 caliber pistol as a Naval officer and have fired any number of shotguns, rifles and, yes, semi-automatic assault weapons. I don’t own any of the latter because I no longer hunt and see no need to own one in the 21st century. I am truly mystified by gun owners who claim they need an AR-15 as a defense against their government should a rebellion become necessary. Have they never watched modern warfare on their television screens? Do they not see what remains of Gaza or Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan cities. Before that, there was the Russian reduction of Grozny to rubble in Chechnya. With GPS guidance, air-to-ground missiles can seek you out while standing in your shower.

Returning to Hunter Biden: he was not the first nor will he be the last to misrepresent his personal history while purchasing a gun. Even a cursory review of recent applications, which would occur automatically if we required universal background checks, would keep ATF agents busy for the next decade. Biden’s lie concerning his drug addiction would never have been noticed if his girlfriend at the time, who was concerned he might use his pistol to commit suicide, had not tossed it into a dumpster where it found its way into the hands of a homeless man who was later arrested. Stricter gun laws, aimed at prevention, could have derailed the subsequent chain-reaction pileup of poor decisions resulting in Biden’s felony convictions.

Miller Hudson is a public affairs consultant and a former Colorado legislator.