West

Blue state gun crackdown called out as threat to law-abiding owners

Published

1 year ago

November 26, 2024

Press Room

Blue state gun crackdown called out as threat to law-abiding owners

Join Fox News for access to this content

Plus special access to select articles and other premium content with your account – free of charge.

By entering your email and pushing continue, you are agreeing to Fox News’ Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which includes our Notice of Financial Incentive.

Please enter a valid email address.

A new state tax on guns and ammunition could hurt people who want to protect themselves in Colorado, some residents said, with one county official telling Fox News Digital the move is meant to “turn law-abiding gun owners into criminals” and “reduce gun ownership.”

Colorado imposed a 6.5% excise tax on gun sales in addition to pre-existing federal taxes, the latest in a slew of gun control measures that have passed this year. Proposition KK, the first such measure to be established through a ballot referendum, garnered 54.4% of votes on Nov. 5.

“The fact that they think that all this crime is caused by guns is ridiculous,” El Paso County Commissioner Stan VanderWerf told Fox News Digital. “It’s not caused by the guns at all, it’s caused by evil intent – these laws turn law-abiding gun owners into criminals. But … the point is to reduce gun ownership. The point is to eliminate points of sale to make it harder to purchase, own and procure a gun.

“If the Democrats in the legislature had their way, they would get rid of guns altogether. Because they know that they’re up against the Second Amendment, they’re following a lot of processes that the state of California has done – they slowly close things off on the fringes and then slowly close into the middle.”

COLORADO DEMS PUSH SWEEPING GUN CONTROL LAWS THAT ARE FLYING UNDER NATIONAL RADAR: ‘PUBLIC IS FED UP’

Hammer Down Firearms owners Mike Rickert, left, and Chris Jandro, right, in Wheat Ridge, Colorado characterized Proposition KK as the latest attempt “to kill small gun stores.” (Chris Jandro)

The tax could also hurt small business owners, critics said.

Chris Jandro and Mike Rickert, who have owned Hammer Down Firearms in the far-out Denver suburb of Wheat Ridge since 2012, said they wish that politicians would take a different approach to combating crime. Their store, they said, has seen 34 attempted burglaries since they opened – one successful burglary in 2017 resulted in $200,000 in losses.

“Nobody seems to care about that, but we’re going to pass laws to affect law-abiding citizens,” Jandro said last week. “Isn’t it fascinating? You have to be taxed for a constitutional right!”

Guns are already taxed at 10 to 11% on a federal level. Rickert and Jandro said that, in addition to the federal tax, they must charge an 8% sales tax in the city of Wheat Ridge.

“This bill was intended to kill small gun stores – it creates an effective tax rate of about 25%,” Rickert said. “That’s a poll tax, a sin tax – you can’t exercise your constitutional rights as a gun owner.”

The tax will apply to all sales by licensed firearms dealers, manufacturers and ammunition vendors operating within Colorado – but Jandro and Rickert said that the tax will disproportionately impact businesses like theirs.

“[Big sporting goods chains] have a team of lawyers. It’s easier to put us out of business, because we don’t have the deep pockets that big box stores do,” Jandro said.

Expected to generate $39 million annually, the funds will be directed toward mental health and public safety initiatives throughout the state – particularly toward services for victims of domestic violence, according to the bill.

Majority leader and state Rep. Monica Duran – a Democrat, major advocate of the bill, and Wheat Ridge resident – said that Coloradans had “made the right choice to step up and help fill funding gaps in crime victim services” by voting for Prop KK.

SEMI-AUTOMATIC GUN BAN NIXED IN COLORADO’S DEMOCRATIC-CONTROLLED STATEHOUSE AFTER HISTORIC PROGRESS

Rep. Monica Duran (D), left, talks with Rep. Marc Snyder (D) at house chambers during a special session of the Colorado legislature at the Colorado Capitol in Denver, Colorado, on Friday, November 17, 2023. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)

“Without the support from crime victim services as a young single mother trapped in an abusive relationship, there is no way I’d be here today celebrating the passage of Prop KK,” Duran wrote in a statement. “From navigating the challenging judicial system to helping secure child care, crime victim services play a major role in uplifting survivors by providing them the resources they need to start anew. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your support of Prop KK.”

“If you were a domestic violence victim, you think you would want some protection,” Jandro said. “We get a lot of women – because there’s a restraining order, because of their ex, because they want to be protected. Now these women can’t protect themselves from domestic violence, because [Colorado State Representative] Monica Duran thinks they’re safer without a gun.”

VanderWerf called the suite of gun control laws “insensitive to public safety,” saying that additional fines and hoops to jump through will inordinately affect “people that don’t have a lot of resources and feel like they need a firearm to provide for their own personal protection,” especially victims of domestic abuse.

COLORADO HOUSE PASSES SEMIAUTOMATIC FIREARM BAN THAT FACES UPHILL BATTLE IN STATE SENATE

A photo of various handguns on display. (iStock)

“This applies to women who may need to overpower someone more powerful than them,” he said. “A woman who might be a single parent, trying to raise two kids – do they have time to take all these courses? To do all this kind of work? To pay all this money in order to carry a firearm? No, it’s difficult to them.

“It’s like saying if someone robs a bank, the state government will produce an excise tax that will force the other account owners in the bank to pay for the losses. The real way to solve these problems is to deal with mental health correctly, not to treat it as an artifact of something about guns.”

Duran could not be reached for comment at press time.

Proposition KK is the latest in a suite of anti-gun legislation that has passed through the state. Last year, a three-day waiting period was imposed on all gun purchases in the state.

Another Colorado Senate bill passed this year, 24-066, requires credit card companies to give firearm purchases a specific merchant category code to make those purchases easier to track and tip off law enforcement when an alarming number of gun purchases are made.

Gun sellers are now required to get state permits on top of their federal permits through the ATF, and undergo training through the state under SB 24-1353.

As of this year, gun owners also must lock their firearms in a container when leaving them inside their locked car, under SB 24-1348; another bill requires concealed carry permit holders to undergo an eight-hour training course, rather than a three-hour course, and refresh that training every five years.

Read the full article from Here

San Francisco, CA

Watch Bob Weir Perform ‘Touch of Grey’ with Dead and Co. at His Final Live Appearance

Published

1 hour ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Watch Bob Weir Perform ‘Touch of Grey’ with Dead and Co. at His Final Live Appearance

The music world was busy mourning David Bowie on the 10-year anniversary of his death on Saturday when the devastating word hit that we lost another icon of almost indescribable significance to rock history: Bob Weir.

“He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could,” the Weir family wrote in a public statement. “Unfortunately, he succumbed to underlying lung issues.”

The road was Weir’s home from the moment the Grateful Dead formed in 1965 all the way through last summer. His projects outside the Grateful Dead included RatDog, Furthur, Bob Weir and Wolf Bros, and Dead & Company. At almost any given time, he had shows on the books with at least one of them.

“The interesting thing is, I’ve never made plans,” he told Rolling Stone‘s Angie Martoccio last March. “And I’m not about to, because I’m too damn busy doing other stuff, trying to get the sound right, trying to get the right chords, trying to get the right words, trying to get all that stuff together for the storytelling. And really, making plans seems like a waste of time. Because nothing ever works out like you expected it to, no matter who you are. So why bother?”

Dead & Co. wrapped up a farewell tour in July 2023, but they continued to play residencies at Sphere in Las Vegas throughout 2024 and 2025. And they came together one last time in August 2025 for three shows in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park to celebrate the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary. Throughout the three evenings, they were joined by Billy Strings, Trey Anastasio, Grahame Lesh, and Sturgill Simpson.

These were joyous concerts filled with Deadheads from around the globe, but Weir was holding a secret: He was diagnosed with cancer weeks earlier, and had just started treatment. “Those performances, emotional, soulful, and full of light, were not farewells, but gifts,” the Weir family wrote. “Another act of resilience. An artist choosing, even then, to keep going by his own design.”

Editor’s picks

The final night wrapped up with “Touch of Grey,” perhaps the most famous tune in the Dead songbook. Weir sang lead, and the band stretched it out for nearly eight minutes. At the end, Weir took a group bow with the full band, waved to the crowd, and then took a special bow with Mickey Hart, the only other original member of the Dead in Dead & Co., before they walked off together. It was his final live appearance.

“There is no final curtain here, not really,” wrote the Weir family. “Only the sense of someone setting off again. He often spoke of a three-hundred-year legacy, determined to ensure the songbook would endure long after him. May that dream live on through future generations of Dead Heads. And so we send him off the way he sent so many of us on our way: with a farewell that isn’t an ending, but a blessing. A reward for a life worth livin’.”

It’s way too early to seriously contemplate the future of Dead & Co., but it’s somewhat hard to imagine them continuing outside of a tribute concert to Weir. He was the heart and soul of the group.

That said, Weir himself once said he hoped to see the band outlive him. “I had a little flash while we were playing one night,” Weir told Rolling Stone‘s David Fricke in 2016. “It was toward the end of the tour. I don’t remember what city it was in. We were getting into the second set, setting up a tune. We were all playing, but the tune hadn’t begun yet. We were all feeling out the groove, just playing with it. Suddenly I was 20 feet behind my own head, looking at this and kind of happy with the way the song was shaping up. I started looking around, and it was 20 years later. John’s hair had turned gray. Oteil’s had turned white. I looked back at the drummers, and it was a couple of new guys. I looked back at myself, the back of my head, and it was a new guy. It changed my entire perception of what it is we’re up to.”

The members of Dead & Co. will ultimately make the call. And no matter what happens, Grateful Dead music will continue to live on concert stages for decades and decades to come. They are responsible for a significant chapter of the Great American Songbook.

Source link

Denver, CO

Broncos designate LB Drew Sanders for return from injured reserve

Published

2 hours ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Broncos designate LB Drew Sanders for return from injured reserve

Broncos linebacker Drew Sanders was back on the practice field Saturday for the first time in 5 1/2 months. Denver designated Sanders to return from injured reserve. He had last practiced July 26 in training camp, when he suffered a torn ligament in his foot and then had surgery. The Broncos did not put Sanders […]

Source link

Seattle, WA

Paul Arriola, Pedro de la Vega and the Seattle Sounders return in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

Published

2 hours ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Paul Arriola, Pedro de la Vega and the Seattle Sounders return in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

Forgotten. Absent. Inconsistently healthy. Weights of expectation.

These heroes offered glimpses and scenes of their greatness in 2025.

Paul Arriola, X Man

Paul Arriola gave us a glimpse of his former greatness before his injury. Once a DP, once the highest value transfer within MLS, once recruited to skip MLS entirely for what was at the time a much better league, Arriola’s all comps contributions per 90 would compare to wingback style players Jordi Alba and the now-gone Ali Ahmed.

Arriola slides right in that space, with his 0.57. Now, a discerning reader such as yourself will imagine small sample sizes and opponent quality. You would be correct. But Paul also put up similar numbers in MLS in 2018, 2021 and 2022. His time in MLS as a whole is .40/90 (in the realm of last season’s Christian Espinoza).

Defining Arriola’s role is always going to be hard. He’s played as many wide roles as exist in the modern game. With Seattle, he could be a left or right winger in a four-front if they choose to run a 3-2-4-1, or a wingback in a 3-4-2-1 or a conventional winger in a 4-2-3-1. No matter his role, he’s been strong. His calls to the US National Team ran every year from age 20-27, when he put up better numbers there than he did in league play. He’s now 30.

Pedro de la Vega, the injury saga

Sounders fans know how bright Pedro can burn. So do, Lanus fans, Argentina fans, Cruz Azul fans, Santos Laguna fans, Tijuana fans, Puebla, Galaxy, Inter Messi and a smattering of other MLS teams. The Leagues Cup player of the year and wonder goal nominee is absolutely thrilling, when available.

Lanus, Argentina and Seattle also know his history of injuries. Injuries are why he’s in Seattle.

PdlV only played 41% of available minutes in all competitions. A healthy winger of his quality should be around 66% or so. His absolutely stellar all comps performance of 0.72 is on par with Hany Mukhtar, at 20th in MLS play. Pedro is ahead of Diego Rossi, Djordje Mihailovic, and Dejan Joveljić.

When you think about how the Seattle Sounders will make up ground for the inevitable decline of Danny Musovski the names Arriola and de la Vega should be bandied about.

They weren’t merely better than the people who replaced them on the Sounders – they’re better than the majority of high-profile players in the league.

In 2025 Craig Waibel raised the floor and the peak. Injuries gave us only a few glimpses of that peak.

2026 is when the multi-competition heroic Sounders can once again show their prowess and why their presence as a top tier club is eternal.

Use our affiliate links to support your bloggers when buying merch and tickets.

Catching up on Sounder at Heart

Here’s what you missed on the site this week.

Sounders

Next match: Sunday, February 22, 2026 v. the Colorado Rapids | 6 p.m. PT | Apple TV/FS1

Reign

Schedule to come next week.

Defiance

Schedule to come.

Looking back at the news

Everything else you need to know

Remembering ‘the Mia way.’ Family, teammates honor UW goalie Mia Hamant (KUOW)
Winner Takes Millions: The 2026 FIFA World Cup’s $727M Jackpot (Yahoo Sports)
US actions in Venezuela put the 2026 World Cup in disgraceful company (The Guardian)
Minnesota United coach Eric Ramsay to take West Brom job (Twin Cities)
Meghann Burke on why the NWSLPA opposes the High Impact Player rule (Full times on Spotify)
KC Current hire ex-USMNT star Armas as coach (ESPN)
USWNT to face Argentina, Canada, Columbia in 2026 SheBelieves Cup (Stars & Stripes FC)
Suwon FC Women Re-Sign South Korea’s Top Female Footballer Ji So-yun (Chosun Daily)
Man admits racist abuse of footballer Jess Carter (BBC)
X Didn’t Fix Grok’s ‘Undressing’ Problem. It Just Makes People Pay for It (Wired)