Tom Sullivan's never-ending gun fight
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Colorado state Rep. Tom Sullivan listens during a community forum on gun violence in 2019. Photo: AAron Ontiveroz/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Colorado lawmakers are ending the 2026 legislative session Wednesday with a slate of new gun restrictions — returning state Sen. Tom Sullivan to a fight that began nearly 14 years ago.
The big picture: Sullivan, the Centennial Democrat whose son, Alex, was murdered in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, has become Colorado's most relentless advocate for gun violence prevention — even as he tells Axios the political attacks and personal abuse "never end."
Driving the news: While Colorado Democrats notched victories on gun restrictions this session, the Trump administration is escalating a sweeping legal challenge to some of the state's cornerstone gun restrictions — including its 15-round magazine limit.
- The U.S. Department of Justice argued this month that the measures amount to unconstitutional "political virtue signaling."
- Colorado enacted the magazine limit months after the Aurora theater shooting killed 12 people and wounded dozens more.
The DOJ lawsuit says Colorado's magazine cap violates Americans' constitutional rights because magazines holding more than 15 rounds are "standard capacity."
- Sullivan argues the restrictions saved lives during last year's Evergreen High School shootings and accuses the Trump administration of siding with gun manufacturers that profit from fear and political division.
Zoom in: The legal challenge comes after Sullivan spent this legislative session pushing bills to expand Colorado's red flag law and tighten restrictions on so-called ghost guns. Gov. Jared Polis signed both into law.
- One expands who can ask courts to temporarily remove firearms from people deemed a danger to themselves or others.
- The other cracks down on homemade and 3D-printed weapons by banning most people from manufacturing potentially functional firearms.
Sullivan's "ghost gun" measure received much of this session's attention because those firearms are difficult to trace and their owners can avoid background checks.
Yes, but: Democrats stripped a provision from the bill that would have banned distributing 3D gun-printing instructions after lawmakers worried Polis would veto the measure.
- Sullivan calls the pullback disappointing and says he's "really looking forward to the next [governor's] administration to see where they might land" on gun legislation.
Flashback: Sullivan entered politics after his son's murder and has built a legislative career centered on tightening gun laws and confronting the firearm industry's influence.
What they're saying: The DOJ has "nothing to stand up to a parent of a murdered child," he says. "They don't care about people and those who've been impacted by gun violence."
The bottom line: For Sullivan, every legislative session's end means the beginning of another chapter in a fight that's inextricably bound to a personal loss that brought him to the Capitol in the first place.