While gun-rights supporters were among the big winners in last week’s midterms, gun-control advocates claimed a few high-profile victories as well.
Ironically, two of these victories happened in Colorado
— a state where voters elected a Republican U.S. senator for the first time since 2002. The GOP also won enough state Senate races to win control of that chamber, now with 18 seats compared to the Democrats’ 17.
But even as Democrats licked their wounds, local gun-control backers were celebrating several important victories of their own, including the defeat of two Senate Republican gun-rights advocates who won September 2013 recall elections.
One was Sen. Bernie Herpin of Colorado Springs, who had defeated state Senate President John Morse, a Democrat.
Herpin lost 52 percent to 42 percent to former state representative and retired teacher Michael Merrifield
— a Colorado coordinator for Mayors Against Illegal Guns, an advocacy group financially supported by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The other was Sen. George Rivera of Pueblo, who lost to Democratic challenger Leroy Garcia 55 percent to 45 percent. Angela Giron, the Democrat who lost the seat in last year’s recall election, said she found the outcome "vindicating."
A third Democratic state senator resigned rather than take on a recall election.
Last year’s recalls came in reaction to gun-control legislation passed by the Legislature following a series of mass shootings in the United States, including a July 2012 attack in an
Aurora, Colo., movie theater in which 12 people were killed and 58 injured.
Colorado Democrats rammed through the Legislature bills to expand background checks for private gun sales and limit the size of ammunition magazines. The measures drew ferocious opposition from local sheriffs and the unanimous objection of Republican lawmakers.
The dramatically different results highlight the importance of election turnout. Last year, Republicans and pro-gun advocacy groups appeared to have been more energized. This year, however, the shoe appeared to be on the other foot, as local gun-control advocates went all-out to send a message of their own by in effect nullifying the recall elections.
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