By: José Niño

The Biden administration wasted no time in calling for gun control following the grisly massacre that took place in Boulder, Colorado on March 22, 2021.

The 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, a naturalized American citizen of Syrian origin, killed 10 people in a shooting rampage at a King Soopers supermarket, which prompted Democrat President Joe Biden and his congressional colleagues to call for gun control measures the following day.

What Biden and his Democrat colleagues don’t get is that Colorado already has very stringent gun control legislation. In the aftermath of the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting, the state went under a gun control spree by passing universal background checks and a ban on “high capacity” magazines. Then-Governor John Hickenlooper turned what was one of America’s most solid pro-gun states into a new hub for gun control legislation. Following in Hickenlooper’s anti-Second Amendment footsteps, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed a red flag gun confiscation order in 2019.

To argue that Colorado is a pro-gun paradise would be the height of misleading assertions. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) noted this in a tweet she published on March 24, writing:

“Colorado already has:

-universal background checks

-a red flag gun control law

-large capacity magazine bans

-domestic violence gun laws

-an extended background check period

-state database background checks

-gun-free zones Killers like Ahmad Al-Issa don’t follow the law.”


In another tweet, Boebert also observed that violent crime in Colorado rose by 25 percent from 2013 to 2017 —following the passage of Colorado’s vast gun control package. On the other hand, violent crime decreased nationwide in this period. It stands to reason that civilian disarmament measures do little to stop crime, and in many cases, facilitate criminals’ ability to carry out their evil deeds.


Because of Colorado’s notable gun control wave of the last decade, Colorado fell from 37th place in 2013 to 40th place in 2020, according to Guns & Ammo magazine’s Best State for Gun Owners rankings. No amount of gun control would have stopped Alissa from carrying out this atrocity. Should Colorado continue down the civilian disarmament path, similar incidents could likely multiply after criminals pick up on the fact that large swathes of the state will be disarmed.

If Coloradans want safer venues, they should consider relaxing the state’s gun laws, or at the very least, bolster public and private security at places that could fall victim to deranged gunmen. At the end of the day, gun control only carves out safe spaces for criminals.

José Niño is a freelance writer based in Austin, Texas. Sign up for his mailing list here. Contact him via Facebook, Twitter, or email him at [email protected]. Get his e-book, The 10 Myths of Gun Control, here.