Hickenlooper Re-Reverses Himself on Colorado’s Magazine Ban

Colorado's Gov. John Hickenlooper, who recently expressed misgivings about signing the state's 15-round magazine limit into law, now says he supports it again.

In other words, he was for it, before he was against it, before he was for it.

Last week, Hickenlooper said that he signed the magazine ban only for several rather baloneyous reasons. No, "baloneyous" is not a real word, but Hickenlooper's reasons don't sound like real reasons.

Hickenlooper said he didn't know that people in Colorado already owned 300,000 magazines holding more than 15 rounds. He said he didn't know that the state's sheriffs thought the ban was unconstitutional and impossible to enforce. He said his staff failed to anticipate how strongly voters were opposed to gun control. And, he said some unnamed member of his staff promised some other unnamed person that he would sign the ban, thinking it wasn't going to pass the legislature anyway, and he didn't want to renege on the promise.

But that was last week. Now, the Denver Post reports, after taking flak from a gun control supporter for walking back on the ban, "The governor said Friday that any promises made by staffers were at his own direction" and that if the ban were on his desk today, "I'd sign it again." Hickenlooper's spine must be about as stout as 6-pound monofilament, because the gun control supporter was former senate president John Morse, who was removed from office in a recall election after championing the magazine ban and other gun control legislation through the senate.

In a related flip-flop, Hickenlooper previously claimed that he had not spoken to anti-gun activist Michael Bloomberg before signing the magazine ban and separate legislation to impose "universal" checks on firearm transfers. But that claim was discovered to have been a lie, so Hickenlooper now admits that he spoke to Bloomberg, but claims that it didn't affect his decision to sign the legislation.

The Post reports that Hickenlooper has repeatedly declined the newspaper's request for an interview "to have the governor explain his videotaped June 13 comments and their apparent contradiction with published accounts of the debate and the gun laws' passage."

Perhaps the Post should wait a week and make another request for an interview; by then, Hickenlooper may have changed his mind.