Station:      KLZ, 560 AM

Show:        Grassroots Radio Colorado with Ken Clark and Jason Worley

Guests:      Renfroe

Link:          http://grrc.podomatic.com/

Date:         December 18, 2012

Topics:      Gun Control, Gun Restrictions, Newtown, Connecticut, School Shooting, Gun Safety, Leftist Activists, Governor Hickenlooper, Second Amendment, Violence, Photo radar, Photo Enforcement, Red Light Cameras, Revenue, City Government, County Government, State Government, Municipalities, Safety, Traffic Engineering, High Capacity Magazines, Waiting Period, Private Sales, Gun Grabbing, Constitution, Compromise, National Rifle Association, Democrat House Majority, Senate Majority, Assembly, Bipartisan, Kill Committee, Redistricting, Gerrymandering, Morgan Caroll, Majority Leader, Senate President John Morse, Capitol, Demonstrations, Progressive Issues

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HOST KEN CLARK:  We have Senator Scott Renfroe on the line with us.  Scott, welcome back to Grassroots Radio!  It’s been a while.

COLORADO STATE SENATOR SCOTT RENFROE:    Thanks for having me on tonight, guys.

CLARK:  No worries.

HOST JASON WORLEY:  You walked right into a hornet’s nest this week, didn’t you?

CLARK:  Yes, you did!

RENFROE:  Yes.

CLARK:  So we’ve been talking about this gun thing, and I know that you had called for another reason, but first of all, tell everybody what district you represent.

RENFROE:  I represent Senate district thirteen, which is mostly Weld County.

CLARK:  All right.  Very good.  So, I’m sure you aware, there’s going to be a ton of gun bills dropped in the Assembly this year.  Have you been –?

RENFROE:  You mean, “anti-gun bills”

CLARK:    Anti-gun bills, yeah, that’s what I mean.

WORLEY:  Yes!  Gun-grabbing bills.

RENFROE:  Yup.  Anti-freedom, anti-liberty, anti-Constitution, [inaudible –“any and all of that”????]

CLARK:  Any idea what some of those will look like, besides, you know, the usual suspect Perlmutter ?

RENFROE:  Well, I think you’ve hit on quite a few, you know, we’re going to see, obviously, the high capacity magazines, um, I’ve heard waiting period of up to 30 days to buy a gun,  no private sales.  I mean, you could go down the list of things we’ve heard as potential bills.  And you know, what I believe is going to happen is I think they’re going to introduce them, they’re going to run them,  and I bet you anything the governor has already picked out the ones he thinks that– the ones that he wants to pass.  And he’s going to say, “Oh, we have these crazy ones that I was at least reasonable.”   But they’re all crazy bills and un-American bills.  And so I think that, you know, that’s a false front that he’s going to put forward and we need to call him on it.

WORLEY:  And there is one thing that reassures me a little bit.  Passions do fade.  What happens, right now,  is your in a really emotional time.  There’s a lot of emotion running wild.  People are just, you know, they’re really upset about things.  But what always is true, is every time Democrats seem to get this notion that it’s a really good idea to run a whole bunch of gun bills, they get their rear ends handed to them in the next election.  They—it — Every time!  Is that any, at least, condolences?  Does that make you feel any better?

RENFROE:  Well, I– no, it doesn’t make me feel any better because it’s taking away our freedoms and our rights now.  And frankly, we’ve had Republicans that have passed gun restricting legislation in the past.  You know, the NRA has been at the table making compromises.  So, unfortunately, we don’t put the best people forward from the Republican Party to stand for liberty, either.  And we need to do a better job at that.   And this issue is going to be at the forefront, and I’d rather try to kill everything we have and move forward, as opposed to rely on the next generation of elected officials to fix something that we do now.

CLARK:  Senator, I’ve got to ask a question.  What do you think our chances are of getting most of these, if not all of them, killed in the Assembly, with the makeup, going forward?

RENFROE:  Well, obviously, the Democrats control the House, the Senate, and the Governor’s Office.   So, it lays exactly at the Governor’s feet, um, and how much pressure, how much people show up at the capitol.  You know, he’s got to run for re-election […].  So, I think that if he is wanting to be re-elected, citizens will need to show up at the capitol, just like you’ve seen the massive demonstration at other capitols on progressive issues.  And they need to have their voice heard, and do it in a respectful way, and see if we can move him to be – to have some common sense and honor the Constitution.

[…]

[Conversation follows regarding Renfroe’s proposed bill banning photo radar and red light camera traffic enforcement:]

[Then, at 10:55]

CLARK:   But, they’re—municipalities, city governments, state governments–they are notorious for doing this kind of crap! [re: tricky, infringing ways to get revenue]  So, how do you stop it?  Do you think this thing will get any legs?

RENFROE:  Well, I hope that my colleagues will look at the data, the studies that I bring forward.  There was new study just done by the Kansas City Police Department themselves that said red-light cameras increase accidents.  And, uh, so if can listen to things like that, I think it’s pretty obvious that this should be something that would be moved forward, that should have bi-partisan support.  But unfortunately, what I’m hearing through the grapevine, is that Senator Morse, the President of the Senate, has laid his –put his foot down that no Republican-sponsored bill of any kind will leave the Senate.  And so, we’ll have to see if he’s true to his word with that or if [inaudible]

[WORLEY and CLARK:  Emotive interruption of dismay and request for reiteration of this statement]

RENFROE:   Yeah, well, I’ve heard rumors that there is not going to be  a Republican bill come out of the Senate and – A Republican sponsored bill.  So we’ll have to see if that proves true, and if that’s his words and if that’s where we end up in this session.  But, you know, we always try and reach across the aisle.  I think this is a perfect time for Democrats to see if they will reach across the aisle, even in the majority that they have.  Um, a lot of people don’t realize this, but two years ago, when we had the Senate elections, the Senate Republicans actually gained more votes in the state than Senate Democrats.  And we haven’t pulled the data for this last election on the same thing, but obviously the Democrats hold a majority in the Senate.  And that shows what redistricting does and the gerrymandering that happened through that process.  And so, I think that to represent the people fairly, you need to be bipartisan, and at least listen to those ideas.  And we’ll see if he does.  And, uh–

WORLEY:  This is same –

RENFROE:  –hopefully, we will.

WORLEY:  Senator, this is the same party that screams “obstructionism”—screams, yells it—I mean, they go up to the top of the building and yell, “Obstructionist, obstructionist, obstructionist Republicans!”   And this is the President [of the Senate] – who by the way,  hyperpartisan,  barely got elected, instead of somebody who I think would have probably been a better choice.  But this is the guy, you know, and he’s – the interesting part is he’s term-limited.  He comes from a still moderately – a moderate district.  He–there’s a pretty good shot that that district will turn.  I hope those people in Colorado Springs hear this show, hear what you just said.

RENFROE:  Yeah.  We’ll see if he holds to that, if that’s true.  I’ve heard it from other, different sources.   And, uh, he hasn’t said it to me directly, but, you know, it’s not the way you want to start off the session, but that’s kind of the word is in the capitol right now.

CLARK:  So he’s going to send pretty much everything to the “kill” committee.

RENFROE:  Yeah, and they did that – another thing that the Democrats did, that Morgan Carroll, Senator Carroll did, the Majority Leader, they restructured our committees in the Senate to where they only have three Democrats and two Republicans on a lot of committees.  So they made them smaller.  Which in fact, what that does is that gives less voice of representation to the State.  And, so there will be senators this year in our caucus that will have only one committee to sit on, because that’s all the spots that are available to fill the committees.  And I guess, yeah, you might get rolled everything three to two anyways, so what’s it matter if you have three sitting there or two, but having that voice, those ears, and that representation of that district is lost with the smaller committee sizes that we will have this year.

WORLEY:  It’s kind of — well, they don’t want any voice.  They just want to do what they want to do.

RENFROE:  That’s what I think.  That’s exactly right.  And it will free it up and move it quicker.

CLARK:  That’s unbelievable.  You know what, we’re going to follow that.  We’re going to follow that very, very closely.  And, –oh, man!  That’s just wrong!

WORLEY:  That’s – if that’s — I have a feeling that Senator Morse is probably too smart to actually repeat that to you.  But if he does, call in.  We will put you on air immediately!

RENFROE:  Oh, yeah.  I will definitely ask him the next time I see him, because I’ve heard it.  And that is kind of the talk at the capitol amongst the lobby and amongst people there.  So we’ll see if he’ll reach out across the aisle.

WORLEY:  That’s just abs—We’ll see.  I’m stunned that he would actually say that.  I’m just sh—I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at all.  But, that’s—so much for being the, you know, the kinder, gentler Democratic Party.

CLARK:  Yeah, that’s just unbelievable.  Senator, that’s just not good.  That’s—

WORLEY:  And I sincerely hope you have good luck pushing through this bill.  It is — We need to get rid of these, these red-light cameras.  It’s a joke!

CLARK:  You know, there’s going to be some really good quality bills coming out of the Senate.  I’ve been talking to a lot of senators-elect, to people who have been there for a while.  There are some good things that Republicans put forward.    Not always, but there are some good things, that are bipartisan, that are good for everybody.  This is one of those things.  You know, Senator—

RENFROE:  Right. Well, we’ll do our best to make the points, and to garner people  on the other side of the aisle to sign on.  And we’ll see if we’re successful or not.  And then we’ll see once the session starts how the votes go.

CLARK:  Yeah, well, keep us informed.  You know you’ve always got an open invitation to join us here, so please keep us informed.

WORLEY:  Senator Scott Renfroe, thank you for your time.  We’ll be back on the other side of the hour.