Station:    KFKA, 1310 am

Show:       Gail Show

Guests:    Cooke, John

Link:

Date:        October 4, 2017

Topics:      Gun Safety, Gun laws, Politicizing Tragedy, Bump Stocks, Las Vegas Mandelay Bay Shooting, Special Session of Colorado Legislature, SB17-267, Rural Sustainability, Drafting Error, Weld County Council, Weld County Commission

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[On Gun Control and politicizing tragedy:]
HOST GAIL FALLON: But wasn’t it Rahm Emanuel that said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste”?

COOKE:  Right.

GAIL: And it’s so predictable that we see — immediately — the Democrats dusting off their 30-year-old talking points when it comes to gun control and the conversation very quickly — and some Republicans, as well – but the conversation very quickly turns political in terms of gun control.  […]

COOKE: Right

GAIL:  And it appears as though what we’re trying to do, here, is legislate evil.

COOKE: To the first point: Just disgusting. That the Democrat and some Republicans are talking about gun control to politicize this, is – just like I said – disgusting and repugnant. It, uh, — now is not the time. [,..] and you know, if we put more gun control on, this guy, what he probably would’ve done, was, you know, do a bomb! And be there, and you know, put a bomb in the midst of the people. You can’t control human behavior like this. And it’s not the firearm, it’s the heart of man.  And when somebody is that evil, they’re going to find ways around anything – any laws, anything that we pass. They’re going to find ways around it.  And we cannot legislate – we can’t legislate, you know, what people do.

 

[…]

 

[On Bump stocks]:

COOKE:  [responding to Gail’s characterization of bump stocks as a way to convert semiautomatic weapon into a machine gun]. Yeah, I mean, from what I know about it — yes. But the thing — and I think the manufacturer of that that stock, um, I think they have stopped making those, But that doesn’t mean you can’t get them.  You know, and it’s not illegal to own machine guns.  People — you can apply for a permit to get a machine gun. They’re not illegal in this country. And you know, on the black market you can pick them up fairly easily. […] But it is mainly transfers of automatic weapons. So,um, I mean, you can get them.  It’s – they’re – people think, “Oh,well you can’t own a machine gun.” But you really can. And this type of –you know – stock, where it makes it fully automatic, I believe the manufacturer went out of business on that.

[…]

[On the special session]:

GAIL:  Let’s talk about the special session, that wasn’t all that special!

COOKE:  [very hearty laughter] Yeah, not very special at all.

GAIL:  Yeah, uh, expensive but really not that productive. What was going on with that?

COOKE:  You know, I don’t know where the governor got his information where he thought that this – according to him—“simple fix” would be a simple fix, because it really wasn’t. It’s not simple and it wasn’t a fix.  And so, I think he got bad information.  I know our leadership, once he called us, said, “Don’t do it! You don’t have the vote!  Why waste taxpayer money? Why waste time?  Let’s just, you know, call off the special session.”  And the Governor wouldn’t do it.  He thought he could either bully us or he could bribe us into passing what he wanted passed. And when I say “bribing” it was because he reached out to the special districts and asked them to pay for the special session, which to me, stinks!  I mean, it doesn’t pass the smell test! He was – you know, it was, like, “Let’s bribe the legislature. And if the bill passes, the special districts will pay for it” – which is totally wrong.

[On the intent of SB17-267]:

GAIL: Hey, but the intent of the bill was to include that [clause whereby special districts could collect 2.9% from marijuana sales]. Is that correct?

COOKE:  The intent of the – well, yeah. I think p—yes.  The intent of the bill was, but it was – like you said, a drafting error.  And people didn’t catch it.

GAIL:  So, I guess my question –and again, I tend to approach things very simply. If the intent of the bill was to include these issues that we are talking about when it comes to special districts — how they’re being affected by hundreds of thousands of dollars they’re missing each month as a result of the error, why wasn’t that — and I’m not in favor of 267, don’t get me wrong — but unfortunately, it was kind of game, set, and match. The bill was passed!

COOKE:  Right.

GAIL:  Why not just fix the bill? Get some White-Out and  — you know what I’m saying?

COOKE:  [hearty laughter] Well, because TABOR is very specific. There is no “oops” – like, “Oh! We got it wrong, and so we have this “oops” and let’s fix the bill.” Because what happened was, the Governor signed it into law.  It took away the taxing authority of RTD and the other special districts. So, now they have no taxing authority. So it’s basically the law of the state that if you don’t have taxing authority, you have to go to a vote of the people. And so that was our argument. It was like, “You know what? The Governor and all these people, they missed it. And it is the law of the state. And so therefore we’re going to follow the Constitution. The Constitution says that if you want taxing authority, you have to go to a vote of the people.

GAIL:  So, are you going to have to deal with this next session?

COOKE:   I think so. I think it’s going to come up. You know, I think they’re going to try and press another fix.  And my position is, the only fix is that – going back to a vote of the people

[On the Weld County Council being considered to be disbanded on the recommendation of the Weld County Commission]:

COOKE:   The bill was passed and I my position is the only fix is it going back to the vote of people’s dealings between about 10 commissioners and the County Council and speaking of expense the tax REVENUE neutral died. It’s going to cost about as well. County hundred $50,000 this November when initiative to disband the Council one is on the ballot. What is your take on this. John, you know, again, the path of the County Counsel withholding the commissioners accountable and couple to commissioners didn’t like it and I don’t like being held accountable. They want to do whatever they want to do and the Council to know not to play that game if you wanted a performance audit. The clerk and recorder to do a performance audit on you don’t like that and so they want to do away with the County Counsel because they don’t want to be held accountable and so I’m going to vote no on that initiative. I think the commissioners need accountability and oversight because they think they can do whatever they want and they can run roughshod over you know all the different county agencies and over the public, and I think they need to be held accountable. I hope it doesn’t pass because I couldn’t pass the smell test. They get criticized in audit. Now they want to do away with them