“One Life is Too Many Lives”: New Coalition of Gun Owners Fight Gun Violence in Colorado

• January 24, 2019

Fighting gun violences takes Americans from all walks of life speaking out for stronger gun laws—whether you’re republican, democrat or somewhere in between.

That’s why in Colorado, a group of hunters, sport shooters and collectors has come together to do exactly that. On Tuesday, January 22, they launched Colorado Gun Owners for Safety.

Their mission? Fight for stronger gun laws while observing their Second Amendment freedom and promoting responsible gun ownership.

During a meeting at the Denver Public Library, they went around the room describing their experiences—often lifelong—with firearms:

Mike Heyka was raised on a farm in Kansas. He grew up around guns and said “bird hunting is in [his] DNA.”

Don Macalady ordered his first gun from an NRA catalog. He canceled his NRA membership early on because of their increasingly polarizing rhetoric.

Roland Seno is a hunter and retired Fire Chief. He was an initial responder at the Columbine shooting 20 years ago, where he remembers seeing pairs of shoes scattered outside the high school. “These students were literally running out of their shoes,” he said.

Together, this alliance is prepared to carry out three goals: reduce gun violence in Colorado, shift culture, and promote responsible gun ownership.

“We’re not gun grabbers, nor do we believe that arming everyone with guns is the answer. We’re the moderate middle,” said Mike Heyka, a founding member of the group.

Focusing on the state capitol, Colorado Gun Owners for Safety will push for two major initiatives:

• Extreme risk protection orders, which empower families and law enforcement to temporarily remove guns from people at risk of hurting themselves or others.
• A law that would require lost and stolen guns to be reported so law enforcement can better ensure firearms don’t fall into dangerous hands. Gun owners bring a powerful perspective to the conversation on gun safety—and it goes a particularly long way in demanding lawmakers tackle this growing public health crisis.

The fact is that gun violence has reached its highest level in decades, and these gun owners aren’t going to sit by while more and more people die. Because as Frac Plonkey put it: “One life is too many lives.”