So, I was 15 years old when Columbine happened. My friends and I were outside the school when the shooting broke out. Immediately after the shooting, we all actually gathered in my elementary school. I will never forget seeing a father that I had known since I was a young child running around looking for his son, asking me, “Have you seen my son?” He never did. He never got to see his son alive again.
From that point on, I kind of wanted to make a difference. And that’s why I joined the Army. It’s a big reason why I do what I do now. It’s because that that moment really seared into me that life’s important, and we only have one chance to do this right.
So, I remember being a college student myself and actually going through and getting the training and obtaining a concealed carry permit myself. And at the time in Colorado it was illegal to conceal and carry on a college campus. So if there was one place that I felt like I really needed to protect myself, it was on a college campus. And I couldn’t do that back then.
And so, that was really my first time of realizing that these gun-free zones just don’t work. They don’t work. And then after I got out of the military and I got into office, the day I decided to run for office I knew I was going to run this bill. This is my fourth year, this year, running it. And each year I run it because as we’ve seen, Columbine was 19 years ago, and things haven’t gotten any better.
We keep doing the same policies over and over. When I was in Columbine, it was in the middle of an assault weapons ban, and they obtained their guns illegally. All the different gun control measures that are being talked about wouldn’t have stopped it. They don’t work. The only thing that actually works is repealing the gun-free zones, and letting good people defend our kids.
So, my bill does exactly what we’re talking about ,which ends the policy of the gun-free zones. It says that we’re no longer going to just try to protect kids with some flashy sign on the door – that I think, frankly, invites criminals intent on doing harm. Instead, it says that if you have a concealed carry permit – and in Colorado that requires some training, a background check, and fingerprints – then you are legally allowed to carry on school grounds.
I’ve had a lot of Columbine students reach out and say, “I would speak out with you, but thanks for doing for us. I just can’t can’t be public because I worry they’re going to say the same nasty stuff about me that they’re saying about you.” Most people see this is a commonsense measure, that’s a must-do measure to protect our students. We just don’t get all the attention that the anti-gun crowd gets, because we’re not quite as nasty about it as they are.
I was lucky enough to marry my high school sweetheart. I met her when I was 16, so it was after Columbine; and she actually didn’t go to Columbine, but we worked together. And now we have three beautiful daughters ourselves. And two of them are in public schools right now, and it just freaks me out as a father. I think about school shootings all the time. I thought about it a lot after Columbine and going through college. And the day after the Parkland shooting happened, dropping my kids off at their own school just absolutely scared me as a father. I was practically in tears all the way up here in the Capitol, because I just didn’t feel like they’re protected. They’re sitting ducks inside their school.
And what makes me even more angry is I know for a fact that there are teachers in my own kids school willing to protect them, willing to do that; and by state law we prohibit them. And I think that’s just outrageous, and we actually have to act.