S. O. S. From Colorado – Save Our State

 

Colorado has a cancer, and it is slowly dying from it.

When I was in high school, I watched—unable to help—while my mother wasted away in pain and agony until she died. It was cancer. Years later, I watched the same thing happen to my father. He too, wasted away in agony until another life was lost. Again, cancer.

The worst thing about cancer is that you often cannot see it coming. It sneaks up on you, catches you when you are unaware, and by the time you realize it is there, the damage has already begun.

Today, I see something similar happening in Colorado.

There is a cancer in the Governor’s Mansion, and it is beginning to spread. Its influence is creeping into places that were once thought safe, quietly trying to catch us unaware. Sometimes, if cancer is detected early enough, you can save yourself by cutting it out—by purging it from the body before it spreads too far.

The same thing must happen in Colorado before it is too late. We must remove the cancer before our state can no longer be saved.

Like a cancer, Governor Polis has been quietly advancing his anti-hunting agenda, hoping people won’t notice until it is too late. And it is working.

Last week, his influence crept quietly and coldly into the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) Commissioners meeting. You could feel it in the room as commissioners—puppets appointed by the governor—moved forward with decisions that align with his agenda of pushing all hunting, trapping and firearms completely out of this once-great state.

It was most evident during the discussion of the proposed fur ban. Despite overwhelming opposition to the ban, the objections of hundreds of hunters, trappers, sportsmen, and sportswomen who attended the meeting in person, and the factual scientific evidence presented by CPW staff who recommended against the ban, the commissioners still voted to move the proposal forward into rulemaking. We had a chance to stop it, but the Governor’s agenda, the cancer, lives on.

It was evident again when CPW staff presented the agency’s 2026-2027 Strategic Plan for approval. In the entire lengthy document, hunting was mentioned only three times. One commissioner was brave enough to question the absence of any real focus on hunting, but her concern was dismissed. CPW’s Strategic Plan moved forward with its emphasis on the “P” in CPW rather than the “W”, and wildlife and hunting were ignored, again—and the cancer lives on.

It was also clear when the commissioners discussed the new Firearms Safety Program scheduled to take effect on August 1, 2026. The program will require individuals seeking to purchase or transfer a firearm to first report to the sheriff’s office, be fingerprinted, apply for an eligibility card, and then complete an exhaustive four- or 12-hour CPW-certified hunter education course. The issue was barely even discussed. One commissioner, who openly admitted he does not own firearms and has never hunted, asked a few questions—but not nearly enough. And once again, the policy moves forward.

The cancer lives on.

The governor’s fingerprints were all over the series of troubling decisions made by the commissioners, his appointed minions, last week. The overwhelming presence of hunters, trappers, sportsmen and sportswomen in the room did not sway them from their assigned mission: advance the fur ban, remove hunting from CPW’s Strategic Plan, and keep the Firearms Safety Program moving forward to make hunting, trapping, and firearm ownership as difficult as possible, so the cancer can live on.

So, what can be done?

We must remove this cancer from our state before it spreads further. We must vote it out of office before it is too late.

Thankfully Governor Polis’s term is ending, but he has other puppets, and allies, ready to step in and continue his agenda to keep the cancer alive and kill hunting and recreational shooting sports in Colorado.   

The turnout at the CPW meeting was a good start, but it is not enough.

We must make our voices heard at the ballot box. Next November, we must show up at the polls and elect a Republican governor, not another Polis clone. We need someone who will represent everyone in this state—not just those living in Boulder and Denver.

Colorado can still be saved, but only if we act now.

We must cut out the cancer and Save Our State.