Max's Minute | Blogspot

The 2026 legislative session has ended, but the questions it raised are far from over. Every session produces bills. Some pass. Some fail. Some improve the law. Some make government larger, costlier, and less accountable. But beneath the titles, fiscal notes, amendments, and floor votes, this session asked one deeper question again and again: Who does government trust? Does it trust parents, homeowners, taxpayers, small businesses, law enforcement, local communities, and voters? Or does it trust centralized power in Denver to make more decisions for them? That question shaped nearly every major debate this year. Colorado families entered this session under real pressure. Housing remains unaffordable for too many families. Public safety remains a serious concern. The cost of living keeps rising. Employers continue to face a tax and regulatory climate that makes it harder to invest, hire, and grow. The state budget is strained. Communities like Castle Rock, The Pinery, Castle Pines Villa...

Representative Max Brooks’ recent remarks on the House floor during debate on Senate Bill 26-018 reached far beyond a procedural amendment. They addressed something deeper. The meaning of truth. The responsibility of conscience. The role of Christians in public service. His response drew more than 14,000 views online. That level of attention signals something important. People are paying attention because the issue is not technical. It is moral. Senate Bill 26-018 suppresses court record visibility and removes traditional public notice requirements when minors petition for legal name changes. Supporters describe the bill as protecting dignity. That goal deserves respect. Every child deserves safety and care. The question raised during debate was different. Should people of faith be required to remain silent when law conflicts with what they believe is true about the human person? Representative Brooks defended an amendment that would have protected religious conscience. The amendment...

This week at the Colorado General Assembly , I opposed the expansion of Colorado’s red flag firearm seizure authority because it represents another step away from the constitutional structure that protects the rights of every Coloradan. SB26-004 has now passed the legislature and is headed to Jared Polis . The bill expands who may petition courts to remove firearms from citizens who have not been convicted of a crime. It adds institutional actors such as certain health care facilities, behavioral health treatment facilities, K-12 schools, and colleges and universities. That change increases the number of pathways through which the state can suspend a constitutional right based on allegation rather than adjudication. That is not a technical adjustment. It is an erosion of due process protections. The Second Amendment exists to limit government authority. It does not exist to make firearm ownership conditional on whether institutions believe a citizen should retain that right. When t...

There is something deeply wrong and deeply dangerous about a mayor using the machinery of city government to place law enforcement in tension with law enforcement. That is exactly what is happening in Denver. Let me be clear. I am 100 percent pro-law enforcement. I support the men and women who put on the badge, take the oath, and step into danger so the rest of us can live in peace. That includes local police. It includes deputies. It includes state officers. It includes federal officers. A civilized republic cannot survive without respect for lawful authority and the officers charged with carrying it out. What it cannot survive is political leadership that deliberately pits one branch of law enforcement against another for ideological theater. Mayor Mike Johnston has crossed into reckless territory. His Executive Order 152 does not read like the work of a mayor focused on public safety. It reads like the work of a politician determined to obstruct, posture, and inflame. It bars ...

The HB26-1021 Second Amendment Protection Act was killed in committee on a strict party-line vote. Despite the setback, the hearing produced strong debate and opened doors for future discussions about gun rights, constitutional limits, and policy direction. The fight over firearm law reform in Colorado is far from over. HB26-1021 aimed to repeal a large number of Colorado firearm regulations. These included background check requirements for private transfers, safe storage mandates, age limits and waiting periods, permitting requirements for dealers, local ordinance authority, magazine restrictions, gun show rules, and the Office of Gun Violence Prevention. The bill’s sponsors and supporters argued that many of these laws have not demonstrated effectiveness in reducing criminal gun violence. The bill was defeated in the House Judiciary Committee by a 7-4 vote along party lines. Opponents framed it as a threat to public safety because it would have repealed nearly all of Colorado’s g...

I serve in the Colorado House of Representatives to represent the citizens of House District 45 first. Public safety is not an abstraction. It is the condition that allows families to thrive, businesses to grow, and communities to trust one another. The rule of law is the foundation that makes that possible. A proposal advanced this week at the Capitol, allowing lawsuits against federal immigration agents for carrying out lawful duties, strikes at both. This legislation does not exist in a vacuum. It reflects a growing impulse to treat enforcement itself as a moral failing. That impulse is misguided. When a state punishes those tasked with enforcing the law, it creates hesitation where decisiveness is required. It replaces clarity with confusion. In that vacuum, criminal networks flourish, victims multiply, and order erodes. No society can remain safe when those sworn to protect it are treated as adversaries. America has always been a nation of immigrants, but it has never been a nati...

As the representative for Douglas County in the Colorado General Assembly, I see every day how unique and exceptional our community truly is. We don’t just talk about safe neighborhoods, responsive government, and principled leadership - we live it. That’s why I strongly support the Douglas County Home Rule initiative and have stepped up to run for a seat on the Charter Commission. At its core, Home Rule is about protecting the values that have made Douglas County a model for governance in Colorado, especially our uncompromising commitment to public safety and law enforcement. While other jurisdictions have defunded police, tied the hands of officers, or turned a blind eye to rising crime, Douglas County has taken the opposite approach: we invest in safety. We back our deputies, equip our first responders, and keep our communities secure. Home Rule gives us the ability to preserve that model and strengthen it. Douglas County Attorney  Jeffrey A. Garcia  has prepared and publ...

The Colorado General Assembly has passed Senate Bill 25-276 , a piece of legislation that directly violates federal law, obstructs the work of law enforcement, and threatens the safety of every community in our state. As someone who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and protect Coloradans, I opposed this bill in the strongest terms possible. SB25-276 prohibits state and local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities, including in cases where individuals have been charged with or convicted of serious crimes. It creates bureaucratic “no-go zones” for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and shields illegal immigrants, including those with violent records, from lawful deportation efforts. This is not speculation. The Justice Department has already filed suit against the State of Colorado for this flagrant disregard of federal immigration law. And let me be clear: they are right to do so. SB25-276 is a direct affront to the Supremacy Clause of...

When SB25-003 was introduced, it was clear from the beginning that this legislation was not merely flawed - it was unconstitutional. This bill, now signed into law, criminalizes the future sale, transfer, and even possession of widely owned semiautomatic firearms and firearm components that law-abiding Coloradans use every day to protect themselves and their families. It redefines long-standing tools of self-defense as “dangerous weapons,” pushing the boundaries of both state and federal constitutional protections. Let me be clear: this was never a legitimate public safety bill. It was a political maneuver to erode your Second Amendment rights and test how far progressive lawmakers could push Colorado away from the Constitution. And House Republicans fought it every step of the way. What We Did We debated this bill for over 13 straight hours on the House floor - the longest debate of the session. We offered more than 30 substantive amendments to introduce real public safety measures, ...

Let’s call HJR25-1023 what it really is - a backdoor attempt to erase the Taxpayer Bill of Rights and overturn the will of the voters through the courts. TABOR has been upheld by Colorado voters time and again, and no resolution - however cleverly worded - should be used to nullify their voice.” This is the plain truth behind House Joint Resolution 25-1023, now under consideration at the Capitol. While its sponsors dress it up as a neutral legal inquiry into constitutionality, what it really seeks is permission from the courts to dismantle the very structure that protects Coloradans from unchecked government growth: the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR. Let’s be clear - this resolution isn’t about clarity. It’s not about good government. It’s about eliminating accountability and handing the State of Colorado a blank check. And that check will be drawn from the budgets of working families who are already living under the pressure of inflation, tax layering, and a cost of living that ke...

Last Friday, the Colorado Senate passed SB25-003 , the so-called “Semiautomatic Firearms & Rapid-Fire Devices” bill, as amended by the House – and with that vote, the legislation is now on its way to the Governor’s desk. It’s a deeply flawed and constitutionally questionable bill that infringes on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens, and I want to take a moment to explain just how hard Republicans fought this – and why our work is not done. When this bill came to the House floor, Republicans from all over the state stood together in a unified, tireless effort to defeat it. We brought forward dozens of thoughtful, reasonable, and constitutional amendments in good faith. We stayed on the floor until late in the evening, debating this bill with everything we had. I’ve never been prouder to stand beside my colleagues in defense of the Constitution, public safety, and the rights of law-abiding Coloradans. But after more than 13 hours of floor debate and every amendment ...

Last Friday, March 21, the Colorado House of Representatives spent over 13 grueling hours debating SB25-003 - legislation aimed at banning a broad swath of semi-automatic firearms and firearm accessories under the guise of public safety. As Republicans, we fought tooth and nail, offering more than 30 sensible, reasonable amendments to improve or at least mitigate the damaging effects of this bill. Yet every proposal fell on deaf ears. Instead of engaging in good-faith debate, the majority party plowed ahead, rejecting every attempt to inject logic, fiscal sanity, or constitutional restraint into their legislation. Let’s be clear: SB25-003 will do nothing to reduce gun crime. Criminals, by definition, do not abide by laws. The firearms targeted in this bill are widely owned by law-abiding citizens for sport, hunting, and self-defense. Stripping these citizens of their rights does not disarm violent offenders - it simply punishes responsible Coloradans exercising their constitutionall...

On Friday, SB25-003 (Semiautomatic Firearms & Rapid-Fire Devices) passed through the House Finance Committee despite clear constitutional, fiscal, and logistical concerns. The bill, which seeks to criminalize the future ownership, sale, transfer, and purchase of many common semiautomatic firearms and accessories, is not only a blatant violation of the Second Amendment but also a reckless financial burden on a state that is already drowning in a $1.4 billion (and growing) budget deficit. As if the bill itself weren’t problematic enough, an amendment ( L.055 ) was added to strip funding from Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) - an agency funded not by general tax dollars, but by hunters, anglers, and park visitors who pay for the conservation and recreational programs that sustain our state’s outdoor economy. This amendment does nothing to reduce the financial burden of the bill but instead drains resources from conservation efforts, leaving Parks & Wildlife underfunded while s...

SB25-003, the so-called " Semiautomatic Firearms & Rapid-Fire Devices " bill, has passed its second reading in the Colorado Senate and is now on its way to a third. Along the way, it has been amended multiple times, adding layers of complexity and, critically, a massive price tag that now requires a fiscal note. This is where the bill will collapse under the weight of its own reckless ambition. The reality is this: SB25-003 is not just unconstitutional - it is fiscally indefensible. An Unaffordable Power Grab This bill is a sweeping attempt to criminalize law-abiding gun owners under the false pretense of public safety, but in doing so, it creates an entirely new law enforcement agency under the Department of Revenue - one that the state simply cannot afford to implement or sustain. Let’s look at the numbers: The Department of Natural Resources will need $550,000 in FY 2025-26 and another $275,000 annually after that. The Department of Public Safety will require $1.8 mill...