WASHINGTON — Gov. John Hickenlooper skirted a question Sunday on whether he believes in bans on assault weapons and limiting high-capacity ammunition magazines, in a morning appearance on CBS’ Face the Nation.
Asked what was his highest priority in strengthening the nation’s guns laws, Hickenlooper said he wanted to focus on universal background checks and “mental health issues.”
“Our highest priority has been mental health issues, and addressing that … just to make sure we don’t put guns in the wrong hands,” said Hickenlooper, who shared a table with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
Hickenlooper said he believed in “universal background checks.” He said last year 320,000 people in Colorado underwent a background check, which led to finding “more than 1,000 felons” with criminal records and “more than 100 arrests, Hickenlooper said.
“We want to expand that,” he said.
Colorado’s state legislature is amid vigorous debate on strengthening the state’s gun laws. The state’s House of Representatives just passed four gun control measures that include limiting ammunition capacity to 15 rounds. The proposal now heads to the state’s Senate for debate.
Hickenlooper also said Sunday the looming sequester — roughly $85 billion of automatic federal spending cuts that will take place Friday unless Congress acts will be “significant and people will feel them.”
He said, particulary in education, school districts will have “difficult, impossible choices.”
The White House said Sunday Colorado will get its federal education programs cut by $8.4 million this year if the sequester takes hold.
On immigration, Hickenlooper said he doesn’t have a problem securing the border, before figuring out a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants.
Most Democrats in Congress hope a comprehensive immigration package both secures the border and solves the status problem for the illegal immigrants living here.
“I don’t have as much of a problem in doing the border security first,” Hickenlooper said. “In the end you really have to focus on the whole problem at the same time. You got to look at employment identification and making sure that 20 years down the road we’re not going to get into the same position, that requires not just a secure border but an employment verification system that’s rigorous.”