Thirty Years Ago This Week: General Felix Sparks, U.S. Army (Ret.), who had commanded the brigade that liberated the Dachau concentration camp during World War II, and later served as director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, and then on the bench of the Colorado Supreme Court, was recognized for his work with People United — No Children’s Handguns (PUNCH).

The Civil Justice Foundation of Washington D.C. awarded Sparks with the Community Champion Award for his unrelenting work in getting guns off of Colorado streets and out of the hands of its youth.

In March 1993, Sparks’s grandson, 16-year-old Lee Pumroy, had been killed by another teenager wielding an automatic weapon. Sparks immediately became active in PUNCH and pressed his considerable weight on the statehouse to lobby for firearms reform.

The CJF, a grant-making foundation supported by trial lawyers, annually awarded one person for his/her “extraordinary work on behalf of injury prevention or consumer advocacy.”

“At a period in his life when he could understandably have grieved privately, Sparks has sacrificed travel and retirement to fight a rough battle,” said Colorado Trial Lawyers Association president Larry Schoenwald. “We admire his commitment of time, money and energy to protect the public safety. His efforts deserve this kind of national recognition.”

In other news, former State Rep. Pat Miller, R-Arvada, who was running for Congress in the second congressional district, and William Woodley announced that their Parent Involvement Initiative had gained enough signatures to earn it a place on the November ballot.

The initiative would require that a custodial parent or guardian receive at least 24 hours notice before an abortion was performed on an un-emancipated or minor child, unless emergency medical treatment was needed in order to prevent injury or death. The initiative would also impose civil and criminal penalties if the parental notification requirements were not met.

While Miller had largely removed herself from the petition effort to focus on her congressional race, Woodley had pushed forward. He admitted to The Colorado Statesman that a ballot position was not yet completely secured because opponents still had 30 days to file a protest in the District Court.

Ten Years Ago: Protect Colorado Values, an independent-expenditure group funded by the Democratic Governors Association, was blasted as meddling and manipulative by the Colorado Republican Party for running attack ads against leading Republican gubernatorial candidates in the state during their primary race.

The initial ad buy was estimated at $250,000 and attacked former U.S. Reps. Tom Tancredo and Bob Beauprez. Tancredo was criticized in the ads as “too conservative for Colorado” and for his opposition to President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform. Beauprez was labeled “Both Ways Bob” and “another Washington politician Coloradans can’t trust.”

“While the Colorado Republican Party will not endorse or oppose a candidate in a contested primary,” Colorado Republican Party Chairman Ryan Call said, “the fact that Colorado Democrats and East Coast liberals have decided to influence our primary is unacceptable.”

Beauprez told The Statesman that Gov. John Hickenlooper was hiding “in the shadows and ordering his liberal attack dogs to do his dirty work. They take away the right of honest Republicans to choose their own nominee for Colorado governor,” he said.

Tancredo, on the other hand, had high praise for the ads, saying that “Democratic bosses are finally telling the truth about my strong opposition to their Obamacare fiasco … voters know I’m the guy who can win over Independents needed to win in November.”

Call said that the strategy was not new, noting that the ads were similar to a previous attempt in 2010 by by the Colorado Freedom Fund to steer GOP voters to a more conservative candidate whom they considered easier to beat in a general election.

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.