Supporters of Colorado's concealed-carry weapons program cheered a surprise move by Republicans today that stopped an attempt to curb out-of-state permits. The move blindsided newly elected Colorado Springs Democrat Sen. John Morse, who had been catching heat from right-to-arms advocates over his bill.

Some of Morse's fellow senators dubbed the development an embarrassment to him and the Democrat leadership.

Morse, a rookie legislator serving in his first elective office ever, watched in silence as his first proposal, Senate Bill 34, was manhandled by critics--including three members of his own party--and rewritten into the opposite of what he intended.

“He never saw it coming,” said Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray. “The next time that Senator Morse wants to take away the rights of law-abiding citizens, he’d better get up a little earlier in the morning."

SB-34, as originally written, would have restricted Colorado's recognition of valid out-of-state concealed-carry firearms permits. The bill became an immediate, top-priority target of opposition from gun-rights groups led by the National Rifle Association, or NRA.

"The purpose of this bill is to require everyone who wants to carry a concealed weapon to have a permit from their home state to do so," said Morse. "The trick is monitoring them [permit holders] to make sure that a day later, a week later, a month later, a year later, that they continue to qualify for that permit."

Yet, critics of the bill pointed out there is no point in creating another bureaucratic hurdle to concealed-carry permit holders arriving in Colorado from other states because, like permit holders in Colorado, they are overwhelmingly law-abiding citizens.

That sentiment prompted a coup by Senators Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, and Brophy, who re-wrote the bill to expand the current law so that Colorado would recognize every valid concealed-carry firearms permit issued to legal citizens of the United States.

“This bill as introduced is an unnecessary restriction on concealed-carry permit holders,” said Brophy. “This amendment confirms that we will have true reciprocity in the state of Colorado with law-abiding citizens in other states.”

“This amendment actually fixes this bill, it makes it a good bill, a better bill for the state of Colorado,” he continued. “It becomes a bill that recognizes the Second Amendment and an individual’s right under the second amendment.”

Democrat Senators Jim Isgar of Hesperus, Lois Tochtrop of Thornton, and Bob Hagedorn of Aurora, stood with a united Republican caucus to approve the amendment. Sen. Gail Schwartz, a newly elected Democrat from Snowmass Village near Aspen, who had been heavily lobbied by the NRA and other right-to-arms groups, did not vote with the three Democrat dissenters in support of the amendment.