Judge Rejects Challenge to Gun Show Measure

A judge on Thursday rejected a challenge to a ballot initiative that would require background checks on all buyers at gun shows, bringing the measure one step closer to a spot on the ballot.

District Judge J. Stephen Phillips rejected a gun-rights advocate’s claim that most signatures submitted in support of the measure were gathered too early and are invalid.

“This is going to make it onto the ballot in November,” said Tom Mauser, the father of a boy killed in the April 1999 massacre at Columbine High School and a spokesman for Sane Alternatives to the Firearms Epidemic.

The judge issued his decision hours after hearing arguments in the challenge filed last month by Ari Armstrong, a researcher for Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.

Armstrong’s lawyer, Paul Grant, asked the judge to order Amendment 22 off the ballot because voter signatures were gathered before a court ruling rejected a challenge of the measure’s wording.

The amendment would require background checks on all buyers at gun shows. Current law allows dealers who are not federally licensed to sell guns at the shows without checking out the buyer.

Polls have indicated voters overwhelmingly support the measure.

SAFE Colorado was created in the wake of the slayings at Columbine, the suburban Denver school where two seniors fatally shot 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves.

A friend of the gunmen, Robyn Anderson, said she bought three of the four guns used in the shootings at a gun show and was not subjected to a background check, which she said might have given her cold feet.

SAFE launched its initiative drive in March after the state Legislature rejected a bill that would have accomplished the same goal.