“I’m against the bill, it doesn’t pertain to the mentally ill, it doesn’t help them . . . . ” Commissioner Randy Granzella, April 9, 2019
We are disheartened by Commissioner Randy Granzella’s statement in the April 9, 2019, BoCC meeting regarding Sheriff Speeze’s request that the county declares itself a gun rights Sanctuary County.
Commissioner Granzella is sadly mistaken. HB19-1177 does pertain to the mentally ill. This bill safeguards the mentally ill from suicide by gunshot – a statistically MAJOR threat to mentally ill or unstable individuals, especially men in the rural West. Equally important, HB19-1177 safeguards their loved ones. A shockingly high number of gunshot injuries and deaths are inflicted on unstable men’s wives, girlfriends and domestic partners – and their children.
Yes, the bill is not perfect, and perhaps not complete. But the realistic – and compassionate – course, is to move forward on the bill and work for additional mental health services in an additional bill.
In the meantime, people are dying. Should we quibble over the perfect bill or should we prioritize saving lives?
We are very grateful to Commissioner Felt and Commissioner Baker for their courageous and well-considered decision.
Katherine and Michael McCoy
Salida, CO
The issue here that many in opposition have is that there is no money in the bill for mental health. And it does nothing for the person in question. It simply resorts to confiscation of private property without due process. So, if by “imperfect” you mean this is fundamentally unconstitutional, then you are correct. Not only does it allow for confiscation of private property, but it puts no limits on the search once law enforcement is granted the order.
Further, there is already a law on the books that would allow law enforcement to deal with an individual that is a danger to themselves or others, which is what needs to happen. See the following link: https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/ib_17-38_mental_health_holds_2.pdf
With that in view, it begs the question, why do we need another law? The appearance is that it is more about scoring political points and the ability to confiscate fire arms than about protection of life or property.
And finally, the law that will trump this law is the law of unintended consequences. This is the law that will surely be at play here as we start to see abuses of the law while resulting in the burden of proof being placed on the accused rather than the accusers.
In Ms. Wondra’s recent opinion she implies that creation of Chaffee as sanctuary county would flout the constitution. I respectfully disagree and submit that it would, in fact, protect the constitutional rights of individuals against unlawful confiscation of personal property without due process.
Please have Katherine and Michael McCoy expound on their statement of “especially men in the rural west” as being and mentally ill and unstable individuals. It appears that they are making are a lot of assumptions and exposing a good deal of prejudice on their part.