If you're in Ag, speak up. Share your stories. "Data-Driven" Jared Polis and the Democrats in this state who "follow the science" are neither looking at data or science on gun control.
Thank you Mr. Arnusch of Keenesburg, CO.
I write often encouraging you (if you live in a rural area or if you are involved in Ag) to speak up and share your experiences and expertise with the wider audience along the Front Range.
I saw the letter to the editor linked first below written by Mr. Arnusch from Keenesburg. I know nothing about the man, but I can tell you that I greatly appreciate his taking the time to sit down and write a letter like he did.
I encourage you again to do so if you have a similar background or knowledge.
One last thing before wrapping up.
Mr. Arnush's letter is essentially about a larger field which falls under the heading of Precision Ag. We have and have had some classes on it at my school and it's a fascinating field. I put a Wikipedia link second below so you could get a jumping-off point for further learning.
If you know someone interested in making precision ag a career, Northeastern Junior College has a program (for full disclosure, this is the school where I teach), Morgan Community College has one, and so does Colorado State University.
Any of those schools' websites would have more information.
https://www.coloradopolitics.com/opinion/tech-is-driving-colorado-agriculture-forward-feedback/article_c92ce8fa-3ca9-11ee-8690-d74493a73e0e.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_agriculture
Polis and Colorado Democrats are fighting tooth and nail to maintain their ban on people under 21 from buying a gun. This form our "data-driven" governor and the Democrats that "follow the science" and is despite little to no evidence for it doing anything to prevent violence or suicide.
As promised, not too long after passage, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners sued to stop a new law by the Democrats that keeps those under 21 from buying any gun.
They secured an injunction by a Federal judge (not a ruling mind you, the injunction was there to prevent enforcement of the law until the lawsuit proper can be heard).
Undeterred Polis et. al. are now fighting the injunction asking the same judge to pull the injunction until the 10th Circuit of Appeals can rule on the injunction.
The (rather histrionic in my opinion) language by Polis' attorneys, attorneys you get to pay for incidentally, is in the screenshot attached. This comes from the first link below.
Is this law a "critical component ... to combat gun violence, teen suicide and mass shootings"? Is it true that "Colorado is suffering, and will continue to suffer, irreparable injury each day that SB23-169 remains preliminarily enjoined"?
I question those statements (thus my comment about it being histrionic).
Take a look at the second and third links below.
A recent RAND study on gun control and gun violence found no evidence in any credible study that there is an association between young people owning or buying a gun and gun violence**. I took a screencap of the RAND summary and attached it.
This lack of association (again, carefully note that this would be for gun violence--specifically in this case for firearm homicides) seems to extend even to handguns, which were already illegal for those under 21 to purchase per an existing Federal law.
Young people are indeed often irresponsible and struggle with impulse control. Still, if there is little to no evidence that they harm others whether or not it's illegal for them to purchase or possess guns (especially long guns), why are Polis and the other Democrats running this state hanging on so tightly here?
One might reasonably argue that we should also include suicides here. After all, more people die with guns from suicides than violence after all.
I turned to the same RAND meta study as earlier though this time asking for results on suicides vs. age minimums for purchasing and possessing firearms. I put a screenshot of the results up and put the link to the study fourth below. I put up a longer block of text on this one because to fully understand, you should read the whole context.
The short answer is that there does seem to be limited evidence that an age minimum on gun possession could reduce suicides, but I'd point you to the forest plot from that same RAND link so you can get a visual of just how limited limited is. To wit, any circle lying on or near the vertical dotted line indicates the study found no effect on suicide rates by changing the age to possess a firearm, any circle below indicates that a law upping the possession age was associated with a reduction in suicides and any circle above indicates the law upping possession age was associated with an INCREASE (!!) in suicides.
Don't be too wowed by RAND citing limited evidence. You can clearly see results are all over between no effect, lowering, and increasing suicide rates.
Turning to more recent studies, there does seem to be some evidence of an association between youth suicide reduction and safe storage laws. That's the last link below.
Colorado already has a safe storage law, however, and it's not being contested here.
So again, I return to the question above, why are Polis and the Democrats hanging on so tightly here to a policy that AT BEST seems to be associated with limited evidence of reducing harm by guns.
After all, wasn't Jared Polis the one who repeatedly claims he follows the data? Isn't he the data-driven governor we've all come to know and love?
Aren't Democrats the party that continually sermonizes about following THE science, "the" here in all caps to remind us all that there is only one brand of science, it cannot be debated, and they alone possess the key to it?
Golly a more cynical man might get the impression that they are playing fast and loose with the truth here.
**Take note of the specific language in the screenshots. I use the umbrella term "gun violence" for brevity here. Do not stray outside of what the study authors are claiming!
https://coloradosun.com/2023/08/15/jared-polis-appeals-gun-law-ruling-federal-court/
https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/minimum-age/violent-crime.html
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2770131
https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/minimum-age/suicide.html
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2761305
Update:
After writing this, but before today, a ruling came down. Judge said he would not reverse the injunction.
https://coloradosun.com/2023/08/18/rmgo-lawsuit-jared-polis-stay-declined/