In a phone interview Monday afternoon with The Gazette, Colorado Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Udall said that “military-grade” firearms — often referred to as assault weapons — should be part of a “multi-faceted approach” to gun control legislation.

“I’m not sure that military-grade weapons should be on our streets,” said Udall, but he stopped short of supporting a ban, which many Democrats across the country are clamoring for.

Udall said he wants to strike a balance between public safety and Second Amendment rights for sportsmen and self-defense.

“I’d like to believe that a multi-faceted approach that would include a ban on assault weapons could be crafted that works for our sportsmen, preserves our heritage and can and will save lives,” Udall said. “The more I hear from military personnel, law enforcement and other experts, increasingly people are saying, when you put that kind of firepower in a school or theater or mall… we’re going to have tens of casualties, and it just seems like there’s more we can do to make that less likely to happen.”

Udall made his comments on the eve of a presentation by Vice President Joe Biden, who has been working on Capitol Hill with members of Congress to put together a new package of gun control laws. The package is expected to include a ban on assault weapons, high-capacity gun magazines, and expanded background checks.

Washington Republicans have said any assault weapons ban won’t have enough bipartisan support to pass.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, D-CO

Colorado’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Udall will make three stops in Colorado Springs on Tuesday, to talk about education priorities and alternative fuel development.

Udall will visit the U.S. Air Force Academy at 10:30 a.m., to talk about their common goal of helping the Department of Defense develop alternative fuel, and will tout his work on keeping prohibitions on such research out of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013.

Then Udall will make two appearances at Pikes Peak Community College, to speak with students at 12:30 p.m. about their priorities and concerns, and see the college’s manufacturing lab at 2 p.m. The senator will discuss his role in extending the Wind Production Tax Credit.

Despite getting more than 34,000 signatures, President Barack Obama has denied a petition started in November by a man from Longmont to have the federal government build a Death Star. The man, identified only as “John D” on the petition, wrote that building a Death Star would strengthen national defense and “spur job creation” in construction, engineering, and space exploration.

For those who have never seen Star Wars, the Galactic Empire’s Death Star was a moon-sized space station that was used to blow up the planet Alderaan, home of Princess Leia.

The White House is required by law to issue an official response to any petition that gets 25,000 signatures, and the Death Star petition elicited a sarcasm-laced statement from Paul Shawcross, chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget. (The title of the statement is a spinoff from a classic line by Obi-Wan Kenobi, who told a Stormtrooper, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”)

This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For

By Paul Shawcross

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

• The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
• The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
• Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

However, look carefully (here’s how) and you’ll notice something already floating in the sky — that’s no Moon, it’s a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that’s helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts — American, Russian, and Canadian — living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We’ve also got two robot science labs — one wielding a laser — roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.

Keep in mind, space is no longer just government-only. Private American companies, through NASA’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO), are ferrying cargo — and soon, crew — to space for NASA, and are pursuing human missions to the Moon this decade.

Even though the United States doesn’t have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we’ve got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we’re building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.

We don’t have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke’s arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.

We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White House science fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country’s future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.

If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star’s power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

Paul Shawcross is Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget

Colorado’s version of the controversial federal DREAM Act, which helps illegal immigrants become legal residents, is about to be introduced at the state Capitol. The state version, called ASSET, is focused on higher education, and would create a new tuition category for children of illegal immigrants who graduate from Colorado high schools.

Last year’s version of the bill, which died in the Republican-controlled state House of Representatives, would allow Colorado kids who are here illegally to get college tuition at a slightly higher rate than in-state tuition, but at a much lower rate than out-of-state students pay. This year’s bill, however, may simply allow illegal kids to get in-state tuition, with no middle-ground compromise, according to the Associated Press.

Supporters of the measure are gathering at the Capitol on Tuesday to speak to press about the 2013 version of the bill, which is virtually certain to pass, given that Democrats control both chambers of the Legislature.

Gov. John Hickenlooper said during his State of the State last week, “Let’s find an equitable and fair way for undocumented kids — kids who have grown up here and done well in school — to pursue a higher education.” He didn’t, however, come straight out and say they should pass this year’s version of ASSET.

The 2012 ASSET bill would have granted the discounted college tuition rate to students who attend a Colorado high school for at least three years and sign a waiver indicating their intent to become legal residents.

The bill is being pushed by the Higher Education Access Alliance, which is comprised of the Bell Policy Center, the Colorado EducationAssociation, the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, the Colorado Latino Leadership Advocacy and Research Organization, the Latin American Educational Foundation,  Metropolitan State University of Denver, Padres y Jóvenes Unidos, SEIU Local 105, Stand for Children, and Together Colorado.

Sen. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley

This was introduced last Wednesday, the first day of the legislative session, but I missed it at the time — a Republican measure that would allow school boards, both public and charter, to let teachers carry concealed handguns.

The measure, Senate Bill 9, was introduced in the upper chamber by Sens. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley, and Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, both known as staunch gun rights advocates. The House sponsor is rookie Republican Lori Saine, from Weld County.

The bill will first be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee (though it hasn’t been scheduled yet), and I’m going to go ahead and guess it’ll die there, at the hands of Senate Democrats, who control the committee by a 3-2 majority. Of course, that’s just a guess.

The Denver weekly news magazine Westword has a good story about the upcoming gun rights fight in the Legislature. Enjoy.

Plenty of bills at the state Capitol have already been introduced, and some of them are definite eye-brow raisers. A few are obvious and have been a long time coming, such as the Democratic measure to establish civil unions for gay couples, and some have flown under the radar, such as an abortion ban from a lone Republican legislator.

The Make My Day Better bill has been run in vain by Republicans for several years; it’s an extension of the Make My Day law, which allows homeowners to use deadly force against intruders. Make My Day Better would extend the law to businesses.

The abortion ban came out of nowhere and took many Republicans by surprise, and several expressed disdain for the measure, since it’s a virtual certainty that Democrats will kill it immediately.

Here are a few of the noteworthy measures introduced on Wednesday:

SB 11 — civil unions

SB  25 – collective bargaining for firefighters

HB 1012 - extend wildfire mitigation financial incentives

HB 1020 – testing evidence of sexual assault

HB 1021 – improving school attendance

HB 1032 – offenses against unborn children

HB 1033 – abortion ban

HB 1048 - Make My Day Better

HB 1050 – secretary of state cancelling voter registration of non-citizens

It’s that time of year.

The state Senate and House of Representatives are getting together formally for the first time at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning, and will work for the next 120 days on potential new laws for Colorado. State lawmakers will tackle a host of issues this year (as always), including recreational marijuana industry sales, gun control, the economy, education, and the slightly-growing state budget.

Wednesday is, however, almost completely ceremonial. New lawmakers will be sworn into office, and the morning will be full of speeches from party leaders. Those will include the new state Senate president, John Morse, a Colorado Springs Democrat, as well as Colorado Springs Republicans Bill Cadman, the Senate minority leader, and Mark Waller, the new House minority leader.

The only legislative leader not from Colorado Springs, the newly-anointed Speaker of the House Mark Ferrandino, will also make a speech of his own. Ferrandino is a Denver Democrat.

The Joint Budget Committee is the only committee that will meet Wednesday afternoon, though, and the real work won’t begin until after Gov. John Hickenlooper delivers his state of the state speech Thursday morning at 11 a.m. And even on Thursday and Friday, just a small minority of legislative committees will begin meeting.

On Thursday, the Joint House Health, Insurance, and Environment Committee, the Public Health Care and Human Services Committee, and the Senate Health and Human Services Committee will meet. On Friday, the Joint House and Senate Judiciary Committee will meet. The JBC will also meet Thursday and Friday afternoons.

I’ll be tweeting from the Senate this morning, and probably for a while afterwards, once I talk to the El Paso County delegation. Follow me at @Johnschroyer.

And for any information on the Legislature, check out their official site here. If anybody has questions on how to navigate the site (which can be really confusing and complex), just shoot me an email at john.schroyer@gazette.com, and I’ll help as best I can.

House Minority Leader Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs

“We’re working on a bill to eliminate the Senate.”

-House Minority Leader Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs, joking with The Gazette’s editorial board in a Friday interview. And yes, he got some laughs.

Fed up with what they see as an assault on Second Amendment rights, 11 activist groups have declared Jan. 19 to be “Gun Appreciation Day.”

The coalition is asking members of the public to swarm gun shows, ranges and stores across the country on Jan. 19, to demonstrate public support for firearms rights.

President Barack Obama, a spokesman said, “is more than willing to trample the Constitution.”

“If the American people don’t fight back now, Obama will do to the Second Amendment what he has already done to the First (Amendment) with Obamacare — gut it without a moment’s thought to our basic constitutional rights,” Gun Appreciation Day chairman Larry Ward, president of Political Media, Inc. said in a statement.

Aside from Political Media, Inc., the group includes the Second Amendment Foundation, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Special Operations Speaks, Revolution PAC, Citizens and Country, the Social Security Institute, the Committee to Draft Judge Andrew Napolitano, Conservative Action Alerts, Women Warriors PAC, and the Conservative Action Fund.

Senate President John Morse, D-Colorado Springs

“I’m a crack shot. I hate it, but I’m extremely good at it… Republican legislators are always giving me grief, and I’m always telling them, I could out-shoot you with my eyes closed.”

-Incoming Senate President John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, during a conversation about possible gun control legislation. Morse is a former police chief, and supports stricter gun laws than are currently on the books.

And he called me a “weird reporter.” I have no idea what that means.