August 27, 2025 • 35 mins
Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams reflects on the horror of a mass shooting at a Catholic church and school in Minneapolis and the ineffectiveness of 'red flag laws.'
Rep. Ty Winter (R-47), House assistant minority leader in the Colorado General Assembly, recaps the special session called by Governor Jared Polis to address a $1.2 billion budget shortfall. Was there anything meaningful accomplished in addressing the state deficit?
Rep. Ty Winter (R-47), House assistant minority leader in the Colorado General Assembly, recaps the special session called by Governor Jared Polis to address a $1.2 billion budget shortfall. Was there anything meaningful accomplished in addressing the state deficit?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Dan capless and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to
give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to the Dan Capleas Show. Here with well can
you Shriff? Steve Riems filling in as your guest host
on day two of two. For me, I don't know
who will be here tomorrow, maybe Hidinggan All or one
of the other buddy.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Oh is it is it Hora?
Speaker 4 (00:26):
It's Hori.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Oh my goodness, I'm sorry listeners. Jorge is going to
be here tomorrow. George Brocler. Now he's an entertaining guy.
He and I are not usually allowed to set at
events together because we cause problems. It's kind of like
when you had two rowdy kids in a classroom and
you know, they said on opposite corners. That's the way
that George Brockler and I are usually treated when we
go to events. But on I think September ninth, we're
(00:50):
going to both be in this studio and there's certain
that something's going to catch on fire or break or
one of us is going to end up with a
head injury. Again, It's something I'm sure something entertaining will happen.
But I'm looking forward to guest hosting with George Brockler
in one of the upcoming shows again. I think that's
September ninth, but tune in tomorrow he'll be here. But
(01:12):
for today, you got me well Kenny Sheriff Steve Riams Again.
It's always a pleasure to fill in for Dan, but
usually it's under far different circumstances. And I have to
tell you, you know, show prep is always kind of
one of those things that you tackle, no matter if
you're Dan each day or Ryan or whomever's doing the show.
You try to figure out, Okay, what are the listeners
gonna want to hear? And I kind of had some
(01:33):
stuff planned for today, and then you know, the stuff
happened in Minnesota, and that causes you to shift gears
because I don't think anybody who's doing a talk radio
show can ignore what happened today, And especially with some
of my circumstances in life and the job I do
as a law enforcement officer, it would be completely impossible
for me to do a radio show today and not
(01:56):
have this as a point of discussion because I think
there are so many aspects of these school these shootings,
these mass shooting school shootings, uh that just you know,
it gives us, it gives us points to tackle and
talk about as a society that you know, whether we
like it or not, these are things that are part
of the fabric of America now. And I hate saying
it that way, but it's become so commonplace, uh, in
(02:19):
our in our in our world, that you know, we
we have to find some kind of solution for these issues.
And what we do know is that the Democrats every
time are going to roll out we need more gun control.
And despite all that, and despite their attempts every time
to come up with red flag laws or eliminating certain
kind of guns, it never tackles the issue. And with
(02:40):
each one of these folks, we we always know there's
an underlying mental health concern, you know, in this particular issue,
we'll dive into that a little bit, uh, with with
this shooter. But in all of these situations, I don't
think you can look at any one of these shooters
and say, oh, yeah, it was totally normal. Anybody who
makes the decision that they're going to open fire in
(03:01):
a crowded area for whatever reason. Obviously he's got a
mental concern going on of some kind. Now, they're varying
degrees of those things, and we can debate that all
day long. I heard Ryan Show when I was coming
in talking a little bit about red flag laws, and
anybody who's paid any attention to Colorada politics knows my
stance on red flag laws is that they do not work.
(03:22):
They're pointless, and quite honestly, I think they're I think
they're a little cruel to the people who are targeted
by red flag laws, not because you're taking their guns away,
but because you're leaving them in such a terrible circumstance
and assuming that you fix the problem by potentially taking
away their weapons. All that being said, let's get to
some of the some of the details of the shooting
(03:45):
that we know of in Minnesota, and we might play
just a little bit of sound from the mayor out there,
who I'm not impressed with, but you know, he is
the mayor of their town, so we'll give him a
chance to repeat his comments once again on these waves.
But from what I was able to dig up today,
the alleged shooter's name is let's see here, Robert changed
(04:09):
that to Robin I believe in twenty twenty, last name
of Westman. He's a transgender male now identifying as a female.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Twenty three years old.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Again changed his name in twenty twenty when I guess
he was seventeen years old. And I'm not going to
get real particular on whether we're referring to the shooter
by the correct pronouns, because quite frankly, they don't deserve it.
But anyway, the shooter identified as a female male by birth.
(04:40):
By all accounts, it looks as if they became very
obsessed with the Sandy Hook shooting and had some kind
of deep lying obsession with just wanting to see what
this kind of shooting would feel like. And in one
of the manifesto recordings, I think Ryan played some of
that in his show. There was a talk about potentially
(05:02):
this person thought that they had they had some form
of cancer from a heavy vaporing use, and so since
the shooter believed that they were going to die anyways,
this was going to be their last act. According to
you know, some of the documents and some of the
recordings that are out there on YouTube, and this was
the way they were going to go out with a
(05:25):
blaze of glory, so to be said. So, the targeting
was of the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, about
eight thirty in the morning. At this point, we know
that an eight year old and a ten year old
were killed while sitting in their church pews, actually taking
part in a morning mass at this Catholic church. And
(05:45):
in that process, fourteen other kids were injured, and I
believe three adults as what I most heard or most
recently heard reported. And this is from watching all the
different news feeds throughout the day and trying to pick
up stuff from different news so says you know, on
this on this shooter's weapons, things were emblazoned such as
(06:06):
kill Donald Trump and this one's for the kids, or
something along those lines. I think that tells you that
this was a highly disturbed individual, obviously not connected with
society in any normal way. And it's just it's sad
because I don't know how someone like that exists in
society and no one notices it. I mean, when you're
(06:27):
out there, you know, spewing the rhetoric that this person
was likely spewing, and kind of going through life in
a very we'll just say, unorthodox way. It had to
draw attention, and just the fact that the mom was
part of a name change back in twenty twenty. You know,
you want to talk talk the term red flag. There's
(06:49):
definitely a red flag that we're going down a path
that is not normal for most young children, most young
young adults. And it does kind of go into this
this question we've had about transgender ideology in the United States,
and you know, is this is this the right path?
And we know the Democrats love to beat the drum
and say let them identify how they choose, But yeah,
(07:11):
I think there's some underlying deep issues there that uh,
quite honestly, as a society we're not tackling yet. We're
not even we're not even getting close. And we'll talk
about red flag laws as they intertwine with this, but uh,
quite frankly, you can do all the the red flag
(07:32):
applications on a person like this, you can you can
do all the things you want to do to try
to protect this self from protect this type of person
from harming others. But if they're allowed to function in
society with the ideologies that they have they're going to
commit violence. They're going to find a way to commit
violence if they choose to do so, whether you whether
you allow them to go buy a gun legally or
(07:54):
they have to attain it illegally, or they use some
other weapon, They're going to find a way to do
bad things. And a person whose ideology, mindset is that
they want to harm other persons, whether you red flag
them or not. I think if someone meets the criteria,
especially in Colorado, the terminology is an imminent threat to
(08:14):
themselves or others. Well, if they're an imminent threat to
themselves or others, they probably should be disconnected from society,
not just have some guns removed. And the problem is
we don't want to as a society figure out what
is that burden of proof that we place in our
court system and our legal system to say someone can
no longer exist amongst us. They need to be in
(08:34):
an institution. And we've deinstitutionalized all kind of mental health
issues which manifest themselves in so many ways. But this
is just one more example that our mental health system
in the United States is wrecked. It's broken, and it
doesn't work. I see it each and every day. The
Weld County Jail is the largest de facto mental health
(08:56):
center in welld County by far, and a lot of
the people that are in there definitely suffer from some
kind of underlying mental health disorder. They've also committed a crime,
but they suffer from some underlying health or mental health disorder.
And the question has to be are we treating them
the kindest by locking them up or would they be
safer in a facility where, hey, maybe their needs can
(09:19):
be treated, but they don't necessarily have the same freedom
they would have out out in the world. This is
a huge issue to tackle. I don't know exactly how
we're going to answer it, but I do know this,
it's not by making guns illegal. And Ryan, if we could,
I'd like to get to the cut from may Or
for I believe it's cut three, if we can play
that just real quick.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
Before we go to We don't just say this is
about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying.
It was the first week of school, they were in
a church. These are kids that should be learning with
their friends. They should be playing on the playground. They
should be able to go to school or church in
(10:00):
peace without the fear or risk of violence, and their
parents should have the same kind of assurance. These are
the sort of basic assurances every family should have every
step of the day, regardless of where they are in
our country.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Think about those comments as we go to break. When
we come back, we're going to switch gears a little
bit and have Representative ty Winner on to recap what
we were covering yesterday, which is the debacle that happened
down at the state Legislature. But we had to start
off the show at the shooting. We'll go to break,
we come back, we'll have Tie Winner on the line.
You're listening to Dan Capless Show here with well Kenny
Shriff Steve Raams as your guest.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
Host, and now back to the Dan Kapless Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Welcome back to the Dan Capless Show here with well
Kenny Shriff Steve Riams, and we're going to switch gears
a little bit from that first segment where we were
talking about the shooting out in Minnesota to something that's
equally is depressing for a lot of folks here in Colorado,
and that's the latest special session of the Colorado General Assembly.
And with us on the line, is Representative Tie Winner
out of HD forty seven House District forty seven. He's
(10:59):
also the assistant minority leader and was definitely in the well,
fighting the fight. And oftentimes as a person who is
involved in politics or you get a chance to meet
some you know, not so spectacular folks, but then on
occasion you meet some that are just true rock stars,
and Ty Winter represents that true rock star.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Ty.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Thanks for being on the show with us, and how
you recovering after that special session?
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Well, thanks, Sheriff. I appreciate the comments. And you're a
heck of a good man yourself, so it means a
lot coming from you, you know, to be honest, if you, sir,
got home and exhausted. I was telling somebody to hey
that that six days felt like about the last thirty
of regular session.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yeah, I can imagine.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
You know what you hurt seven more is what happened
to the people of Colorado. Sure you know we went
there as Republicans. We brought out policy ideas as you
saw fighting from the well, I said numerous times, we
have ideas or business owners and managers and we've done things,
and why don't you bring us to the table to
try to help us fix this problem? Sheriff, That's never
what it was about. You know, everybody had a nickname
(12:03):
for it. Representative to Graft called it rubber Stampaluza, Representative
Richardson was calling it not so special session, and that's because, yeah,
it was just crazy. So yeah, it was. It was tough, Sheriff.
It was really tough to be honest.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Well, and you know, we talked yesterday with Representative Carlos Baron,
Representative Dusty Johnson, and then we also had Senator Bard
Kirkmyron here and they kind of laid out that, Hey,
you walked into the session full well knowing that this
was just a game. You know, the call that went
out from the governor didn't give you guys the ability
to actually go in and do any kind of budget reduction.
(12:37):
So what was the game plan going in? I know
that you had to been part of that leadership strategy
if one could be developed. So you know, kind of
what did you guys think you could get accomplished? And
were you able to really get to anything that was
meaningful or did you just get shut down?
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Well, you know, I think there was some meaningful things
that happened, because if you look at the press from this.
This is the first time sitting up there, I've said, heck,
they're favorable press coming towards us, because I think that
the majority parties backed themselves in a corner, Sheriff to
where you know, things are getting so bad on the
streets with crime, and these are getting so bad with drugs,
and now things financially are getting tougher and tougher for people.
(13:17):
So you know, I think they really backed themselves in
a corner, and I think what we're getting from this,
the only thing we could get from this that I
think that's tagentible to move forward is we've got them
on records saying they're attacking the taxpayer Bill of Rights.
We've got them on record going to take tax breaks
away from all businesses. We've got them on records saying
that they're going after the big guy. But then they
(13:37):
turn around and they got to the little cell tax
credits to the big guy. So it was all over
the place. I mean, there was even Democrat analysts that
are on Twitter saying what a dumpster fire cess assessm was.
So I think we had some wins there. So now
when it come to it, our team, the Mighty twenty
two at this point mighty twenty one. We got up,
We fought hard, and I was proud of how the
(13:59):
Minority Party, I mean, everybody got up. We were concise,
we were on point with our messaging, and I think
that we did a really good job of representing you know,
not only Republicans in the state, but Colorados that want
to fix this state. So we just need to keep
getting the word out on what they did and how
we could fix it. And I think the people of
Colorado they're looking for solutions and I think we have
(14:19):
them well.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
And with us on the line is House Assistant Minority
Leader Tie Winner from HD forty seven, kind of recapping
what went on in the special session. You know, I
think you make a good point of the press kind
of has to be on your side with this issue,
and I think most voters have to be on your
side with this issue. You know, as a person who
lives on a budget, which most people in the state
(14:40):
of Colorado do, maybe others than the governor, you know,
if you don't have as much money coming in, you
got to figure out how to not have as much
money going out. And that really does seem to be
the issue with the state. I mean, it's not a
revenue issue. It's a spending issue from what I can tell.
And did it feel like that messaging was resonating even
outside the CA capital, maybe even across.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
The aisle, Yes, it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
You could.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
I think that the majority party is so fixated on
the federal administration. To be honest with you, I don't
think that it's resonating over there. You know, they have
their drunk on power shaff and you know, and the thing,
let's let's take some takeaways. They raised one hundred and
fifty three million dollars in new taxes this budget here,
and then they increase general fund spending by one hundred
(15:25):
and three million, and we were called there to cut money.
They weaken the tax payer Bill Rights again. I mean,
they obviously refuse to respect the voters where we know
that Taxpayer Bill Rights has between a seventy and a
seventy five percent approval rating across the major party. Sure,
and then instead of relief for families and small businesses
and local governments, they're all going to be asked to
(15:45):
pay more. So you know, there's a shouldering more burden
on not only the businesses of Colorado, but now the
people of Colorado, all while oblivious to what's really going on.
And it was never about solving the seven hundred million
dollar budget cap It was about raising taxes. It's about
rejecting our proposals. And we would if you go back
(16:06):
and look at our proposals, we'd probably save really half
a billion dollars and increased affordability. But we were shut out.
None of our proposals were brought forward, and they had
their pre big ideas that the call was centered around
to have this special session.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
And that was all that was going to occur.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
So representative when I've had a couple of people ask me,
just offline, you know how much did this special session
cost the state? And I don't really have an answer
for this. And I think the question where this leads is,
you guys got to be paid to be down there.
I assume you get per dms for being down there,
and I would assume this is in addition to what
you make during a regular session. Has a has pen
(16:44):
been put to paper about just mechanically what it costs
to have staff down there for the six days that
you guys were in session.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
I've heard thirty five to ninety thousand dollars a day.
Sure I never put pen to paper myself. Kind of
the numbers that were thrown around, and you can actually
go There was a very tense moment in the chamber.
Representative Camacho got up and actually accused our members of
filibustering and wasting the people of Colorado's time standing up
(17:13):
for our constituents, and I threw fire at him. I
was not going to let him do that to us
because the amount of money that they waste. And then
on top of that, we sat for hours we went
in the last two days. We called us in at
noon on Monday and we didn't hit the foort till
nine thirty that day.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
And I'm here.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
We're sitting there waiting for the Minority party to quit
their squabbles amongst chambers, and then they were going to
point out to us that the taxpayer dollars that we
were spending was a waste of time because they want
us just to go in and lay down, and our
caucus wasn't going to lay down. So I made sure
to let Rep. Camacho know that there's no way he
was going to beat up on my caucus. And I
(17:51):
let that, you know, chamber know that us as the
Minority leadership team. We were going to stand up for
our members and they deserve the right to speak with
their people.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Well, and I know there was some tense moments down there,
and we're going to stay away from a few of them,
but you got to one that I do actually want
to cover, and that was the silencing of your guys's voices.
And we only have a few more seconds in this
particular segment, so I'll hold you over until the next segment,
but we'll tease this out before we go to break,
because I know there was that back and forth between
(18:22):
you and Representative Camacho, and I think the voters need
to hear exactly what that entailed and kind of how
you guys fought back, but also what the long term
effects of that's going to be when you get back
in regular session. So we'll go to break, stick with us.
Ty Winer will be back with us on the other side,
and we'll really break down the rest of the ugliness.
You're listening to the Dan Capless Show here on six
(18:43):
point thirty k HOW with well Kunty Sheriff Steve Raams
as your guest host.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
You're listening to the Dan Kapliss Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Welcome back to the Dan Capless Show here with well
kunt of Schriff Steve Rams. And when we went to break,
we were speaking with House Assistant Minority Leader Ty Winner
out of HD forty seven, kind of recapping what did
or did not happen down at the State Legislature for
the special session. And while we were in break, I
just thought i'd tell you this, Ty. We got a
really nice text message that came in said, Sheriff, thank
(19:18):
you for having Ty Winner on the show. He is
my rep. We are proud of him, and he does
a great job. And I couldn't agree more. You do
a great job down there as the mighty twenty one
or twenty two.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
As it should be.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
But when we went to break, you were kind of
regaling a little bit about some of the comments that
were made and the attempt to shut your voices down.
And I know that that didn't happen just once. I
believe there were like four different bills you guys were
trying to give testimony on and he basically got railroaded.
One how does that happen?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
And two? Why is it important to fight back against
that stuff?
Speaker 4 (19:51):
So how it happened is a majority just decides when
we want to shut us up, and you know, we
go up there and what we're trying to do is
convince them of why their policies are hurting our people.
When they get tired of hearing us, or I guess
they don't really hear us. They listen to this a
lot of times the chambers empty. People that come out
of the Capitol. You look over there, the majority party,
(20:13):
a lot of them aren't in there. And then they'll
just go up and say on. So the rule fourteen
us on seconds, which means they can limit debates. So
when they have enough of hearing us talk on the
first three bills that day, then they rule fourteen to
us on the next four bills, which they let set
a limit to an hour, and that includes any time
any of them get into the debate or running of
any amendments. So they spoke on a couple of bill
(20:35):
schriff and not only give our literally twenty one representatives
a limited amount of time to speak for you know,
eighty thousand times that in their district. And then rule
sixteen is when they rule us on thirds, and that's
when they call the question, and they allowed for no
third reading debate on some of these bills, so and.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
We have to fight.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
You're one hundred percent correct. I mean, they're silencing our
first amendment right first and foremost. They're just taking it over.
But it's not just it's the people that we represent
that elected us to go up there and convince them
of what they're doing and how it's hurting our areas well.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Was there a more egregious attempt to silence you because
it's a special session or is this something that you
see just pretty routinely even in a regular session.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
Well, you know, it is something that we're seeing more routinely,
and it's unfortunate because my first year there, when they
pulled it out, everybody was in shock. There was you know,
people running around saying, this haven't happened in so long,
you know, this is this This has been forever since
this has happened. So we're seeing it more and more.
And what it comes down to is I give our
caucus a lot of credit because I've been there three
(21:39):
years now with two different caucuses, and even this year,
they tested our metal. Then we showed them we could
go forever. And I'm proud of the people I serve
with because you know, there are signs we all don't
get along outside the building because everybody has strong opinions.
But when we get in there and we work together,
we're a formidable opponent. And you know what, it's hard
for us to get silence for our constituents, but in
(22:01):
a way that lets our constituents so that we're fighting
pretty hard when it gets to the point where you know,
they don't want anymore, and you know, and we'll keep
doing that for them.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Well, you know, I know there's not a lot of
positives in this special session. You know, you may have
there may have been about three hundred three hundred million
that you know has taken off the number that that
needs to be taken off of, but you know it's
put on the taxpayers back. You know, I guess a
lot of a lot of listeners, myself included. Okay, so
(22:31):
you didn't you didn't get that one point two billion
dollar fund. Figured out that that money hasn't been hasn't
been reduced out of the budget, and now we know
it's just going to go to the governor and he's
going to make those decisions. Do you have any influence
over that or is this the point where it's just
the governor, you know, redlining through whatever he chooses.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Well, the governor will consult with the JBC. I don't
I don't know how that dance works because you don't
Representative Tagger a senator. There are DBC representas and they're
good at what they do, and that's more of a
niche part of what the building does. But I know
that he does meet with the JBC, but they didn't
and you mentioned it. I don't know what the Governor's
(23:11):
going to do because right now our structural shortfall is
going to be even worse with this legislation. Yeah, Corre,
I mean, and they just chose short term cash grabs.
And if you don't mind me going over a.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Couple of numbers, please do, please do?
Speaker 4 (23:23):
Yeah, okay, So in the fiscal year twenty five to
twenty six, there's one hundred and fifty three million, two
hundred thousand dollars in new taxes and that equates to
seven hundred around seven hundred and ninety seven million dollars
over the next three years, and then they reduced revenue
by two hundred and fifty million dollars well well, raising
the taxes. So then we show up thinking, Okay, the
(23:45):
call is very narrow. We wrote legislation that's trying to
make it fit under the call. And then we showed
up with plans that was going to reduce spendings by
about two hundred and thirteen million dollars, it was going
to close the structural deficit by about seven hundred and
forty million dollars, and it would increase it would have
increased taxpayers bill of rights refunds by a little over
(24:06):
half a million dollars or I mean five hundred million dollars.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
So I don't know.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
I mean it just as a tale of two cities basically.
But what really upset me, sheriff, is I called this
session myself. Everybody had their nickname, but I called it
the rules for thee not for me session, because we
sat there and listened to the majority party whine about
HR one and what the federal government was taking from them. Well,
ever since then, Governor Polus and the Democrats have been
(24:32):
in charge, and they have levied unfunded mandates on all
of our counties, which us a sheriff knows exactly what. Oh,
and then the governor recently told counties that weren't going
to follow his housing plan that buffed him that he
was going to withhold two hundred and eighty million dollars
from funds from them that they didn't get in line. So,
I mean, how hypocritical was that? And how well does
(24:52):
that not fit under the rules for thee not for me,
because that's exactly what we saw in that building. And
I reminded them that about every time I got in
the well, because the hypocrisy just stunk in that room.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Well, I know that this has been a long six
days for you. It's been a brutal battle down there.
If there's one more comment, you can leave us with
what should the listeners know about this special session? And
you know what can you take forward into the regular
session that maybe is a springboard of something that's positive
to come.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Well for the people out there, the people at Colorado,
you need to realize that your families, they deserve leaders
who are going to prioritize kitchen table budget over the
state happetite for spending money. The Republicans offered real solutions
to try to stabilize the budget and work on the shortfall,
try to protect the taxpayers bill of rights, and we
want to make Colorado more affordable, and that's without raising
(25:45):
taxes first and foremost. And you know what, sir, We're
just going to keep on swinging that act. The House
Republicans are going to show up session this next year
and we're going to keep chopping that wood. And you know,
all I can ask the listeners out there is find
out who you're representative and your senators and support them
with prayers, help them get reelected. This is going to
take a true grassroots revival.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
And you know.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
We have to do something.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
And just know that we're going to keep fighting for
your sheriff. And you know we can use all the
prayers and help on the outside that we can get.
And we need to unify is one unified group and
we need to bury the hatchet and whatever has been
dividing everybody together because now it's not about who's right
and wrong within the Republican Party. It's about we need
to save the state of Colorado for our children and grandchildren.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
I couldn't agree more well with us. Has been House
District forty seven representative, tie winner Assistant Minority leader down
at the State House. Ty, your insights are very valuable.
We appreciate you being on the show, and we'll be
sure to have you back on in the coming weeks
and months, because I know you're going to be ramping
up for a lot more to come. Again, thanks for
being on the show with us.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Awesome, Sure, I appreciate you, Brotherren. God blessed Colorado and
God bless the United States of America.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Thank you, sir. There he goes, so you know, again
more of the same. The special Session was not a
great victory for Republicans, but at least we're shining the
light on the fact that, you know, we've got some
pretty irresponsible spinders down at the State House. We're going
to go to break just a little early so that
when we come back we can get back on the
(27:16):
topic of school shootings. The text line has been blown
up from that first segment and I want to read
some of those texts and get back to that topic.
But stick with us, we'll go to break. You're listening
to the Dan Capless Show here on six point thirty
k HOW with Well County Sheriff Steve Riams as your
guest host.
Speaker 6 (27:33):
And now back to the Dankaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Welcome back to the Dan Caplas Show here with Well
County Sheriff Steve Riams as your guest host again. When
we went to break, we were talking with Ty Winner
a little bit about the special Session, and we let
off the show talking about the shooting out in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Such a tragic event, and that's sparred a lot of
texts from you guys. You know, yesterday I'd asked you
the text in give me some ideas on what you
(27:56):
thought we could do in the state to cut the
budget and get and whatnot at the state level under control.
You can do that again today. You can text into
five seven, seven, three nine, start your text with Dan
so it'll get to me. Or you can call in
at three oh three seven one, three eight, two five five.
We're gonna have a couple of segments where I can
take some calls. So if you want to talk about
the special session, you want to talk about this shooting
(28:18):
that happened in Minneapolis, or what we could do in
this nation to curb this this I guess epidemic of
violence that we seem to keep encountering. I'm all ears man,
I've got a few ideas, but I'm definitely not all knowing.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
But we'll read a few of the texts here.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
This one's kind of yeah, it's kind of creative, it says,
maybe foolish, and critics may think it's completely stupid. But
what if potential mass shooters had a chance to just
self report, set up a hotline and just say, hey,
if you're thinking about grabbing a gun and going to
a public space to fire into crowds, call this number.
Maybe it'll work. Maybe it won't, but maybe it would
stop just one mass shooting. Certainly what we're doing right
(29:00):
now isn't working, you know what. I don't think that's
been tried.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
I would always argue that person could call nine one
one and say I got problems. But there's the ramifications
of I'm probably gonna go to jail if I report this,
So he might be onto something here.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
There's all kinds of helplines out there, and I think
maybe it's just a question of is there just one
number that people know to call. It's certainly out of
the box, but you know, maybe that's on point. Here's
another one. This is a righteous criticism. I said this
when we were going to talk about the special session.
(29:36):
This texture says, as equal to I had made the
comment that the special session might be as equally depressing
as a school shooting. That's I shouldn't have said that.
That's not the appropriate thing to say. I don't think
there's much things in the world that are more depressing
than a school shooting. And I can say that as
a person who lived through one. When I was in
high school in am Moroillo, Texas in nineteen ninety two,
(30:00):
coming back from a PEP rally early in the morning,
walking into the main hall of my high school, Polydera
High School on September twelfth of nineteen ninety two, a
little I'm just going to call him a gangbanger, want
to be gangbanger, decided he was going to have it
out with a rival gang. He pulled out a revolver,
(30:20):
a twenty two revolver, and started firing at his perceived enemies.
The problem is when you fire a gun and a
crowded hallway, people scatter, and so did the people that
you're trying to shoot at. So he ended up shooting
six people and another person got trampled in the process.
That shooter went running right past me with a gun
(30:41):
in his hand, and of course, as a stunned you
know sixteen seventeen year old. I really didn't know what
had just happened. This person bumps past me and right
on his tail within just a few minutes after that
two seconds actually was our school resource officer, Police Officer
Dockery was. He was hot on this guy's tail, chasing
(31:02):
down about three or four blocks. Was able to get
the suspect in the custody, took him, you know, put
him under arrest, and the rest is history. Guy ended
up going to prison for quite some time and did
his time. He's back out in the community of Amarillo,
and I think they re interviewing him every once in
a while. But some of my friends definitely got heavily
injured that day. Thankfully, no one was killed. So when
(31:26):
I speak about these school shooting incidents, I don't speak
from it from just a law enforcement perspective. I mean,
I was in the firing zone when that whole thing happened,
but for the grace of God, I wasn't one of
the people hit. And luckily the shooter only came equipped
with a small caliber handgun that was capable of only
firing a few rounds. I don't know if it was
a revolver that held six, or he only had six loaded,
(31:49):
or only pulled.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
The trigger six times.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
But to that textas point, school shooting is nothing to
take lightly, and I shouldn't have made that comparison. That's
good criticism. Again, if you want to call in and
talk about school shootings, I'm.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Happy to have that debate as well.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Another one here, Sheriff Steve, is there any limit on
how much mental illness in society people will ignore despite
the mayhem caused by doing so? And that's Stephen little
Tony's retired law enforcement officer. You know, I don't know
the answer to that, Steve, but I can tell you
that we've gotten to a point, in my opinion, where
society is pretty accepting of just, you know, some crazy
(32:29):
existing on the street. And at some point we've got
to say that's enough. And here's another little critical comment.
I talked about the shooter in Minneapolis being a transgender
person and that kind of being a Hey, this person
is struggling mentally with some issues in their life, and
I don't think you can say that every transgender person
(32:50):
is going to become a shooter. And that's exactly what
this person is saying. It says Sheriff. I respect your
point of view, but identifying as a trans isn't the
core problem here. I am a male to female trans
a person, I own guns, and I am an FFL
here in Colorado. The issue here is no doubt one
of mental health. But being part of the community, this
shooter does not represent the rest of us. I am
(33:10):
a two eight advocating American and I will die to
defend that amendment to our Constitution. I can also say
that I have never ever planned on harming another person,
especially children. This was to be a different story if
they were being bullied and chose to snap on those
doing them harm. But anyone who chooses to kill children
is very mentally unstable, but pure evil. Also, that's a
(33:35):
great point, and I'm not trying to equate that transgender
people are naturally going to become your shooters. But I
think even you, as the Texter, would agree that being
a transgender person creates a stress in your life that
you probably wish you didn't have to tackle. I mean,
I have to assume that that's not something that most
people want to figure out how to navigate the world with.
(33:58):
I mean, I certainly wouldn't want to none of us
like abnormal stressors in our life, and that's just one
more thing to deal with in a time when you're
going through some pretty rough points in your life as
a sixteen, seventeen year old, eighteen year old trying to
figure out what the world's going to be like. I'm
certainly not making any excuses for this shooter in Minneapolis,
(34:18):
But again, when you've got parents that are kind of
going along for the ride and not maybe maybe engaging
with their children and just setting back and blindly, blindly
advocating for them, I'm not sure if that's the right
approach either. Regardless, what happened in Minneapolis can't continue to happen.
(34:40):
I think we can agree that this is just one
more very tragic incident in a line of many. One
more here from Alexa, one of our famous Texters. Why
do we know more about this shooter and thirty minutes
after the event and we know about the shooter in Butler,
PA thirteen months ago? Great question. I think it has
(35:00):
to do with who's in office as president right now
and the way the media looks at things depending on
who's in charge of what. Yeah, that's the best example
I can give. And then one more here, Sheriff, thank
you for your stance regarding the red flag law. I
think it's too easy to abuse it, and I could
not agree more. I also think it's just a heartless
(35:22):
way of dealing with someone who's having a mental break.
We got a couple of callers on the line. We'll
have them hold until this next segment and we'll get
to you right away. If you're listening to the Dan
Caplis Show here on six point thirty k HOW with
Well Kenny, Sheriff, Steve Raams
This is Dan capless and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to
give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to the Dan Capleas Show. Here with well can
you Shriff? Steve Riems filling in as your guest host
on day two of two. For me, I don't know
who will be here tomorrow, maybe Hidinggan All or one
of the other buddy.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Oh is it is it Hora?
Speaker 4 (00:26):
It's Hori.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Oh my goodness, I'm sorry listeners. Jorge is going to
be here tomorrow. George Brocler. Now he's an entertaining guy.
He and I are not usually allowed to set at
events together because we cause problems. It's kind of like
when you had two rowdy kids in a classroom and
you know, they said on opposite corners. That's the way
that George Brockler and I are usually treated when we
go to events. But on I think September ninth, we're
(00:50):
going to both be in this studio and there's certain
that something's going to catch on fire or break or
one of us is going to end up with a
head injury. Again, It's something I'm sure something entertaining will happen.
But I'm looking forward to guest hosting with George Brockler
in one of the upcoming shows again. I think that's
September ninth, but tune in tomorrow he'll be here. But
(01:12):
for today, you got me well Kenny Sheriff Steve Riams Again.
It's always a pleasure to fill in for Dan, but
usually it's under far different circumstances. And I have to
tell you, you know, show prep is always kind of
one of those things that you tackle, no matter if
you're Dan each day or Ryan or whomever's doing the show.
You try to figure out, Okay, what are the listeners
gonna want to hear? And I kind of had some
(01:33):
stuff planned for today, and then you know, the stuff
happened in Minnesota, and that causes you to shift gears
because I don't think anybody who's doing a talk radio
show can ignore what happened today, And especially with some
of my circumstances in life and the job I do
as a law enforcement officer, it would be completely impossible
for me to do a radio show today and not
(01:56):
have this as a point of discussion because I think
there are so many aspects of these school these shootings,
these mass shooting school shootings, uh that just you know,
it gives us, it gives us points to tackle and
talk about as a society that you know, whether we
like it or not, these are things that are part
of the fabric of America now. And I hate saying
it that way, but it's become so commonplace, uh, in
(02:19):
our in our in our world, that you know, we
we have to find some kind of solution for these issues.
And what we do know is that the Democrats every
time are going to roll out we need more gun control.
And despite all that, and despite their attempts every time
to come up with red flag laws or eliminating certain
kind of guns, it never tackles the issue. And with
(02:40):
each one of these folks, we we always know there's
an underlying mental health concern, you know, in this particular issue,
we'll dive into that a little bit, uh, with with
this shooter. But in all of these situations, I don't
think you can look at any one of these shooters
and say, oh, yeah, it was totally normal. Anybody who
makes the decision that they're going to open fire in
(03:01):
a crowded area for whatever reason. Obviously he's got a
mental concern going on of some kind. Now, they're varying
degrees of those things, and we can debate that all
day long. I heard Ryan Show when I was coming
in talking a little bit about red flag laws, and
anybody who's paid any attention to Colorada politics knows my
stance on red flag laws is that they do not work.
(03:22):
They're pointless, and quite honestly, I think they're I think
they're a little cruel to the people who are targeted
by red flag laws, not because you're taking their guns away,
but because you're leaving them in such a terrible circumstance
and assuming that you fix the problem by potentially taking
away their weapons. All that being said, let's get to
some of the some of the details of the shooting
(03:45):
that we know of in Minnesota, and we might play
just a little bit of sound from the mayor out there,
who I'm not impressed with, but you know, he is
the mayor of their town, so we'll give him a
chance to repeat his comments once again on these waves.
But from what I was able to dig up today,
the alleged shooter's name is let's see here, Robert changed
(04:09):
that to Robin I believe in twenty twenty, last name
of Westman. He's a transgender male now identifying as a female.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Twenty three years old.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Again changed his name in twenty twenty when I guess
he was seventeen years old. And I'm not going to
get real particular on whether we're referring to the shooter
by the correct pronouns, because quite frankly, they don't deserve it.
But anyway, the shooter identified as a female male by birth.
(04:40):
By all accounts, it looks as if they became very
obsessed with the Sandy Hook shooting and had some kind
of deep lying obsession with just wanting to see what
this kind of shooting would feel like. And in one
of the manifesto recordings, I think Ryan played some of
that in his show. There was a talk about potentially
(05:02):
this person thought that they had they had some form
of cancer from a heavy vaporing use, and so since
the shooter believed that they were going to die anyways,
this was going to be their last act. According to
you know, some of the documents and some of the
recordings that are out there on YouTube, and this was
the way they were going to go out with a
(05:25):
blaze of glory, so to be said. So, the targeting
was of the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, about
eight thirty in the morning. At this point, we know
that an eight year old and a ten year old
were killed while sitting in their church pews, actually taking
part in a morning mass at this Catholic church. And
(05:45):
in that process, fourteen other kids were injured, and I
believe three adults as what I most heard or most
recently heard reported. And this is from watching all the
different news feeds throughout the day and trying to pick
up stuff from different news so says you know, on
this on this shooter's weapons, things were emblazoned such as
(06:06):
kill Donald Trump and this one's for the kids, or
something along those lines. I think that tells you that
this was a highly disturbed individual, obviously not connected with
society in any normal way. And it's just it's sad
because I don't know how someone like that exists in
society and no one notices it. I mean, when you're
(06:27):
out there, you know, spewing the rhetoric that this person
was likely spewing, and kind of going through life in
a very we'll just say, unorthodox way. It had to
draw attention, and just the fact that the mom was
part of a name change back in twenty twenty. You know,
you want to talk talk the term red flag. There's
(06:49):
definitely a red flag that we're going down a path
that is not normal for most young children, most young
young adults. And it does kind of go into this
this question we've had about transgender ideology in the United States,
and you know, is this is this the right path?
And we know the Democrats love to beat the drum
and say let them identify how they choose, But yeah,
(07:11):
I think there's some underlying deep issues there that uh,
quite honestly, as a society we're not tackling yet. We're
not even we're not even getting close. And we'll talk
about red flag laws as they intertwine with this, but uh,
quite frankly, you can do all the the red flag
(07:32):
applications on a person like this, you can you can
do all the things you want to do to try
to protect this self from protect this type of person
from harming others. But if they're allowed to function in
society with the ideologies that they have they're going to
commit violence. They're going to find a way to commit
violence if they choose to do so, whether you whether
you allow them to go buy a gun legally or
(07:54):
they have to attain it illegally, or they use some
other weapon, They're going to find a way to do
bad things. And a person whose ideology, mindset is that
they want to harm other persons, whether you red flag
them or not. I think if someone meets the criteria,
especially in Colorado, the terminology is an imminent threat to
(08:14):
themselves or others. Well, if they're an imminent threat to
themselves or others, they probably should be disconnected from society,
not just have some guns removed. And the problem is
we don't want to as a society figure out what
is that burden of proof that we place in our
court system and our legal system to say someone can
no longer exist amongst us. They need to be in
(08:34):
an institution. And we've deinstitutionalized all kind of mental health
issues which manifest themselves in so many ways. But this
is just one more example that our mental health system
in the United States is wrecked. It's broken, and it
doesn't work. I see it each and every day. The
Weld County Jail is the largest de facto mental health
(08:56):
center in welld County by far, and a lot of
the people that are in there definitely suffer from some
kind of underlying mental health disorder. They've also committed a crime,
but they suffer from some underlying health or mental health disorder.
And the question has to be are we treating them
the kindest by locking them up or would they be
safer in a facility where, hey, maybe their needs can
(09:19):
be treated, but they don't necessarily have the same freedom
they would have out out in the world. This is
a huge issue to tackle. I don't know exactly how
we're going to answer it, but I do know this,
it's not by making guns illegal. And Ryan, if we could,
I'd like to get to the cut from may Or
for I believe it's cut three, if we can play
that just real quick.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
Before we go to We don't just say this is
about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying.
It was the first week of school, they were in
a church. These are kids that should be learning with
their friends. They should be playing on the playground. They
should be able to go to school or church in
(10:00):
peace without the fear or risk of violence, and their
parents should have the same kind of assurance. These are
the sort of basic assurances every family should have every
step of the day, regardless of where they are in
our country.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Think about those comments as we go to break. When
we come back, we're going to switch gears a little
bit and have Representative ty Winner on to recap what
we were covering yesterday, which is the debacle that happened
down at the state Legislature. But we had to start
off the show at the shooting. We'll go to break,
we come back, we'll have Tie Winner on the line.
You're listening to Dan Capless Show here with well Kenny
Shriff Steve Raams as your guest.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
Host, and now back to the Dan Kapless Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Welcome back to the Dan Capless Show here with well
Kenny Shriff Steve Riams, and we're going to switch gears
a little bit from that first segment where we were
talking about the shooting out in Minnesota to something that's
equally is depressing for a lot of folks here in Colorado,
and that's the latest special session of the Colorado General Assembly.
And with us on the line, is Representative Tie Winner
out of HD forty seven House District forty seven. He's
(10:59):
also the assistant minority leader and was definitely in the well,
fighting the fight. And oftentimes as a person who is
involved in politics or you get a chance to meet
some you know, not so spectacular folks, but then on
occasion you meet some that are just true rock stars,
and Ty Winter represents that true rock star.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Ty.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Thanks for being on the show with us, and how
you recovering after that special session?
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Well, thanks, Sheriff. I appreciate the comments. And you're a
heck of a good man yourself, so it means a
lot coming from you, you know, to be honest, if you, sir,
got home and exhausted. I was telling somebody to hey
that that six days felt like about the last thirty
of regular session.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yeah, I can imagine.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
You know what you hurt seven more is what happened
to the people of Colorado. Sure you know we went
there as Republicans. We brought out policy ideas as you
saw fighting from the well, I said numerous times, we
have ideas or business owners and managers and we've done things,
and why don't you bring us to the table to
try to help us fix this problem? Sheriff, That's never
what it was about. You know, everybody had a nickname
(12:03):
for it. Representative to Graft called it rubber Stampaluza, Representative
Richardson was calling it not so special session, and that's because, yeah,
it was just crazy. So yeah, it was. It was tough, Sheriff.
It was really tough to be honest.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Well, and you know, we talked yesterday with Representative Carlos Baron,
Representative Dusty Johnson, and then we also had Senator Bard
Kirkmyron here and they kind of laid out that, Hey,
you walked into the session full well knowing that this
was just a game. You know, the call that went
out from the governor didn't give you guys the ability
to actually go in and do any kind of budget reduction.
(12:37):
So what was the game plan going in? I know
that you had to been part of that leadership strategy
if one could be developed. So you know, kind of
what did you guys think you could get accomplished? And
were you able to really get to anything that was
meaningful or did you just get shut down?
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Well, you know, I think there was some meaningful things
that happened, because if you look at the press from this.
This is the first time sitting up there, I've said, heck,
they're favorable press coming towards us, because I think that
the majority parties backed themselves in a corner, Sheriff to
where you know, things are getting so bad on the
streets with crime, and these are getting so bad with drugs,
and now things financially are getting tougher and tougher for people.
(13:17):
So you know, I think they really backed themselves in
a corner, and I think what we're getting from this,
the only thing we could get from this that I
think that's tagentible to move forward is we've got them
on records saying they're attacking the taxpayer Bill of Rights.
We've got them on record going to take tax breaks
away from all businesses. We've got them on records saying
that they're going after the big guy. But then they
(13:37):
turn around and they got to the little cell tax
credits to the big guy. So it was all over
the place. I mean, there was even Democrat analysts that
are on Twitter saying what a dumpster fire cess assessm was.
So I think we had some wins there. So now
when it come to it, our team, the Mighty twenty
two at this point mighty twenty one. We got up,
We fought hard, and I was proud of how the
(13:59):
Minority Party, I mean, everybody got up. We were concise,
we were on point with our messaging, and I think
that we did a really good job of representing you know,
not only Republicans in the state, but Colorados that want
to fix this state. So we just need to keep
getting the word out on what they did and how
we could fix it. And I think the people of
Colorado they're looking for solutions and I think we have
(14:19):
them well.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
And with us on the line is House Assistant Minority
Leader Tie Winner from HD forty seven, kind of recapping
what went on in the special session. You know, I
think you make a good point of the press kind
of has to be on your side with this issue,
and I think most voters have to be on your
side with this issue. You know, as a person who
lives on a budget, which most people in the state
(14:40):
of Colorado do, maybe others than the governor, you know,
if you don't have as much money coming in, you
got to figure out how to not have as much
money going out. And that really does seem to be
the issue with the state. I mean, it's not a
revenue issue. It's a spending issue from what I can tell.
And did it feel like that messaging was resonating even
outside the CA capital, maybe even across.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
The aisle, Yes, it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
You could.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
I think that the majority party is so fixated on
the federal administration. To be honest with you, I don't
think that it's resonating over there. You know, they have
their drunk on power shaff and you know, and the thing,
let's let's take some takeaways. They raised one hundred and
fifty three million dollars in new taxes this budget here,
and then they increase general fund spending by one hundred
(15:25):
and three million, and we were called there to cut money.
They weaken the tax payer Bill Rights again. I mean,
they obviously refuse to respect the voters where we know
that Taxpayer Bill Rights has between a seventy and a
seventy five percent approval rating across the major party. Sure,
and then instead of relief for families and small businesses
and local governments, they're all going to be asked to
(15:45):
pay more. So you know, there's a shouldering more burden
on not only the businesses of Colorado, but now the
people of Colorado, all while oblivious to what's really going on.
And it was never about solving the seven hundred million
dollar budget cap It was about raising taxes. It's about
rejecting our proposals. And we would if you go back
(16:06):
and look at our proposals, we'd probably save really half
a billion dollars and increased affordability. But we were shut out.
None of our proposals were brought forward, and they had
their pre big ideas that the call was centered around
to have this special session.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
And that was all that was going to occur.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
So representative when I've had a couple of people ask me,
just offline, you know how much did this special session
cost the state? And I don't really have an answer
for this. And I think the question where this leads is,
you guys got to be paid to be down there.
I assume you get per dms for being down there,
and I would assume this is in addition to what
you make during a regular session. Has a has pen
(16:44):
been put to paper about just mechanically what it costs
to have staff down there for the six days that
you guys were in session.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
I've heard thirty five to ninety thousand dollars a day.
Sure I never put pen to paper myself. Kind of
the numbers that were thrown around, and you can actually
go There was a very tense moment in the chamber.
Representative Camacho got up and actually accused our members of
filibustering and wasting the people of Colorado's time standing up
(17:13):
for our constituents, and I threw fire at him. I
was not going to let him do that to us
because the amount of money that they waste. And then
on top of that, we sat for hours we went
in the last two days. We called us in at
noon on Monday and we didn't hit the foort till
nine thirty that day.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
And I'm here.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
We're sitting there waiting for the Minority party to quit
their squabbles amongst chambers, and then they were going to
point out to us that the taxpayer dollars that we
were spending was a waste of time because they want
us just to go in and lay down, and our
caucus wasn't going to lay down. So I made sure
to let Rep. Camacho know that there's no way he
was going to beat up on my caucus. And I
(17:51):
let that, you know, chamber know that us as the
Minority leadership team. We were going to stand up for
our members and they deserve the right to speak with
their people.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Well, and I know there was some tense moments down there,
and we're going to stay away from a few of them,
but you got to one that I do actually want
to cover, and that was the silencing of your guys's voices.
And we only have a few more seconds in this
particular segment, so I'll hold you over until the next segment,
but we'll tease this out before we go to break,
because I know there was that back and forth between
(18:22):
you and Representative Camacho, and I think the voters need
to hear exactly what that entailed and kind of how
you guys fought back, but also what the long term
effects of that's going to be when you get back
in regular session. So we'll go to break, stick with us.
Ty Winer will be back with us on the other side,
and we'll really break down the rest of the ugliness.
You're listening to the Dan Capless Show here on six
(18:43):
point thirty k HOW with well Kunty Sheriff Steve Raams
as your guest host.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
You're listening to the Dan Kapliss Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Welcome back to the Dan Capless Show here with well
kunt of Schriff Steve Rams. And when we went to break,
we were speaking with House Assistant Minority Leader Ty Winner
out of HD forty seven, kind of recapping what did
or did not happen down at the State Legislature for
the special session. And while we were in break, I
just thought i'd tell you this, Ty. We got a
really nice text message that came in said, Sheriff, thank
(19:18):
you for having Ty Winner on the show. He is
my rep. We are proud of him, and he does
a great job. And I couldn't agree more. You do
a great job down there as the mighty twenty one
or twenty two.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
As it should be.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
But when we went to break, you were kind of
regaling a little bit about some of the comments that
were made and the attempt to shut your voices down.
And I know that that didn't happen just once. I
believe there were like four different bills you guys were
trying to give testimony on and he basically got railroaded.
One how does that happen?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
And two? Why is it important to fight back against
that stuff?
Speaker 4 (19:51):
So how it happened is a majority just decides when
we want to shut us up, and you know, we
go up there and what we're trying to do is
convince them of why their policies are hurting our people.
When they get tired of hearing us, or I guess
they don't really hear us. They listen to this a
lot of times the chambers empty. People that come out
of the Capitol. You look over there, the majority party,
(20:13):
a lot of them aren't in there. And then they'll
just go up and say on. So the rule fourteen
us on seconds, which means they can limit debates. So
when they have enough of hearing us talk on the
first three bills that day, then they rule fourteen to
us on the next four bills, which they let set
a limit to an hour, and that includes any time
any of them get into the debate or running of
any amendments. So they spoke on a couple of bill
(20:35):
schriff and not only give our literally twenty one representatives
a limited amount of time to speak for you know,
eighty thousand times that in their district. And then rule
sixteen is when they rule us on thirds, and that's
when they call the question, and they allowed for no
third reading debate on some of these bills, so and.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
We have to fight.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
You're one hundred percent correct. I mean, they're silencing our
first amendment right first and foremost. They're just taking it over.
But it's not just it's the people that we represent
that elected us to go up there and convince them
of what they're doing and how it's hurting our areas well.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Was there a more egregious attempt to silence you because
it's a special session or is this something that you
see just pretty routinely even in a regular session.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
Well, you know, it is something that we're seeing more routinely,
and it's unfortunate because my first year there, when they
pulled it out, everybody was in shock. There was you know,
people running around saying, this haven't happened in so long,
you know, this is this This has been forever since
this has happened. So we're seeing it more and more.
And what it comes down to is I give our
caucus a lot of credit because I've been there three
(21:39):
years now with two different caucuses, and even this year,
they tested our metal. Then we showed them we could
go forever. And I'm proud of the people I serve
with because you know, there are signs we all don't
get along outside the building because everybody has strong opinions.
But when we get in there and we work together,
we're a formidable opponent. And you know what, it's hard
for us to get silence for our constituents, but in
(22:01):
a way that lets our constituents so that we're fighting
pretty hard when it gets to the point where you know,
they don't want anymore, and you know, and we'll keep
doing that for them.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Well, you know, I know there's not a lot of
positives in this special session. You know, you may have
there may have been about three hundred three hundred million
that you know has taken off the number that that
needs to be taken off of, but you know it's
put on the taxpayers back. You know, I guess a
lot of a lot of listeners, myself included. Okay, so
(22:31):
you didn't you didn't get that one point two billion
dollar fund. Figured out that that money hasn't been hasn't
been reduced out of the budget, and now we know
it's just going to go to the governor and he's
going to make those decisions. Do you have any influence
over that or is this the point where it's just
the governor, you know, redlining through whatever he chooses.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Well, the governor will consult with the JBC. I don't
I don't know how that dance works because you don't
Representative Tagger a senator. There are DBC representas and they're
good at what they do, and that's more of a
niche part of what the building does. But I know
that he does meet with the JBC, but they didn't
and you mentioned it. I don't know what the Governor's
(23:11):
going to do because right now our structural shortfall is
going to be even worse with this legislation. Yeah, Corre,
I mean, and they just chose short term cash grabs.
And if you don't mind me going over a.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Couple of numbers, please do, please do?
Speaker 4 (23:23):
Yeah, okay, So in the fiscal year twenty five to
twenty six, there's one hundred and fifty three million, two
hundred thousand dollars in new taxes and that equates to
seven hundred around seven hundred and ninety seven million dollars
over the next three years, and then they reduced revenue
by two hundred and fifty million dollars well well, raising
the taxes. So then we show up thinking, Okay, the
(23:45):
call is very narrow. We wrote legislation that's trying to
make it fit under the call. And then we showed
up with plans that was going to reduce spendings by
about two hundred and thirteen million dollars, it was going
to close the structural deficit by about seven hundred and
forty million dollars, and it would increase it would have
increased taxpayers bill of rights refunds by a little over
(24:06):
half a million dollars or I mean five hundred million dollars.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
So I don't know.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
I mean it just as a tale of two cities basically.
But what really upset me, sheriff, is I called this
session myself. Everybody had their nickname, but I called it
the rules for thee not for me session, because we
sat there and listened to the majority party whine about
HR one and what the federal government was taking from them. Well,
ever since then, Governor Polus and the Democrats have been
(24:32):
in charge, and they have levied unfunded mandates on all
of our counties, which us a sheriff knows exactly what. Oh,
and then the governor recently told counties that weren't going
to follow his housing plan that buffed him that he
was going to withhold two hundred and eighty million dollars
from funds from them that they didn't get in line. So,
I mean, how hypocritical was that? And how well does
(24:52):
that not fit under the rules for thee not for me,
because that's exactly what we saw in that building. And
I reminded them that about every time I got in
the well, because the hypocrisy just stunk in that room.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Well, I know that this has been a long six
days for you. It's been a brutal battle down there.
If there's one more comment, you can leave us with
what should the listeners know about this special session? And
you know what can you take forward into the regular
session that maybe is a springboard of something that's positive
to come.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Well for the people out there, the people at Colorado,
you need to realize that your families, they deserve leaders
who are going to prioritize kitchen table budget over the
state happetite for spending money. The Republicans offered real solutions
to try to stabilize the budget and work on the shortfall,
try to protect the taxpayers bill of rights, and we
want to make Colorado more affordable, and that's without raising
(25:45):
taxes first and foremost. And you know what, sir, We're
just going to keep on swinging that act. The House
Republicans are going to show up session this next year
and we're going to keep chopping that wood. And you know,
all I can ask the listeners out there is find
out who you're representative and your senators and support them
with prayers, help them get reelected. This is going to
take a true grassroots revival.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
And you know.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
We have to do something.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
And just know that we're going to keep fighting for
your sheriff. And you know we can use all the
prayers and help on the outside that we can get.
And we need to unify is one unified group and
we need to bury the hatchet and whatever has been
dividing everybody together because now it's not about who's right
and wrong within the Republican Party. It's about we need
to save the state of Colorado for our children and grandchildren.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
I couldn't agree more well with us. Has been House
District forty seven representative, tie winner Assistant Minority leader down
at the State House. Ty, your insights are very valuable.
We appreciate you being on the show, and we'll be
sure to have you back on in the coming weeks
and months, because I know you're going to be ramping
up for a lot more to come. Again, thanks for
being on the show with us.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Awesome, Sure, I appreciate you, Brotherren. God blessed Colorado and
God bless the United States of America.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Thank you, sir. There he goes, so you know, again
more of the same. The special Session was not a
great victory for Republicans, but at least we're shining the
light on the fact that, you know, we've got some
pretty irresponsible spinders down at the State House. We're going
to go to break just a little early so that
when we come back we can get back on the
(27:16):
topic of school shootings. The text line has been blown
up from that first segment and I want to read
some of those texts and get back to that topic.
But stick with us, we'll go to break. You're listening
to the Dan Capless Show here on six point thirty
k HOW with Well County Sheriff Steve Riams as your
guest host.
Speaker 6 (27:33):
And now back to the Dankaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Welcome back to the Dan Caplas Show here with Well
County Sheriff Steve Riams as your guest host again. When
we went to break, we were talking with Ty Winner
a little bit about the special Session, and we let
off the show talking about the shooting out in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Such a tragic event, and that's sparred a lot of
texts from you guys. You know, yesterday I'd asked you
the text in give me some ideas on what you
(27:56):
thought we could do in the state to cut the
budget and get and whatnot at the state level under control.
You can do that again today. You can text into
five seven, seven, three nine, start your text with Dan
so it'll get to me. Or you can call in
at three oh three seven one, three eight, two five five.
We're gonna have a couple of segments where I can
take some calls. So if you want to talk about
the special session, you want to talk about this shooting
(28:18):
that happened in Minneapolis, or what we could do in
this nation to curb this this I guess epidemic of
violence that we seem to keep encountering. I'm all ears man,
I've got a few ideas, but I'm definitely not all knowing.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
But we'll read a few of the texts here.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
This one's kind of yeah, it's kind of creative, it says,
maybe foolish, and critics may think it's completely stupid. But
what if potential mass shooters had a chance to just
self report, set up a hotline and just say, hey,
if you're thinking about grabbing a gun and going to
a public space to fire into crowds, call this number.
Maybe it'll work. Maybe it won't, but maybe it would
stop just one mass shooting. Certainly what we're doing right
(29:00):
now isn't working, you know what. I don't think that's
been tried.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
I would always argue that person could call nine one
one and say I got problems. But there's the ramifications
of I'm probably gonna go to jail if I report this,
So he might be onto something here.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
There's all kinds of helplines out there, and I think
maybe it's just a question of is there just one
number that people know to call. It's certainly out of
the box, but you know, maybe that's on point. Here's
another one. This is a righteous criticism. I said this
when we were going to talk about the special session.
(29:36):
This texture says, as equal to I had made the
comment that the special session might be as equally depressing
as a school shooting. That's I shouldn't have said that.
That's not the appropriate thing to say. I don't think
there's much things in the world that are more depressing
than a school shooting. And I can say that as
a person who lived through one. When I was in
high school in am Moroillo, Texas in nineteen ninety two,
(30:00):
coming back from a PEP rally early in the morning,
walking into the main hall of my high school, Polydera
High School on September twelfth of nineteen ninety two, a
little I'm just going to call him a gangbanger, want
to be gangbanger, decided he was going to have it
out with a rival gang. He pulled out a revolver,
(30:20):
a twenty two revolver, and started firing at his perceived enemies.
The problem is when you fire a gun and a
crowded hallway, people scatter, and so did the people that
you're trying to shoot at. So he ended up shooting
six people and another person got trampled in the process.
That shooter went running right past me with a gun
(30:41):
in his hand, and of course, as a stunned you
know sixteen seventeen year old. I really didn't know what
had just happened. This person bumps past me and right
on his tail within just a few minutes after that
two seconds actually was our school resource officer, Police Officer
Dockery was. He was hot on this guy's tail, chasing
(31:02):
down about three or four blocks. Was able to get
the suspect in the custody, took him, you know, put
him under arrest, and the rest is history. Guy ended
up going to prison for quite some time and did
his time. He's back out in the community of Amarillo,
and I think they re interviewing him every once in
a while. But some of my friends definitely got heavily
injured that day. Thankfully, no one was killed. So when
(31:26):
I speak about these school shooting incidents, I don't speak
from it from just a law enforcement perspective. I mean,
I was in the firing zone when that whole thing happened,
but for the grace of God, I wasn't one of
the people hit. And luckily the shooter only came equipped
with a small caliber handgun that was capable of only
firing a few rounds. I don't know if it was
a revolver that held six, or he only had six loaded,
(31:49):
or only pulled.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
The trigger six times.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
But to that textas point, school shooting is nothing to
take lightly, and I shouldn't have made that comparison. That's
good criticism. Again, if you want to call in and
talk about school shootings, I'm.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Happy to have that debate as well.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Another one here, Sheriff Steve, is there any limit on
how much mental illness in society people will ignore despite
the mayhem caused by doing so? And that's Stephen little
Tony's retired law enforcement officer. You know, I don't know
the answer to that, Steve, but I can tell you
that we've gotten to a point, in my opinion, where
society is pretty accepting of just, you know, some crazy
(32:29):
existing on the street. And at some point we've got
to say that's enough. And here's another little critical comment.
I talked about the shooter in Minneapolis being a transgender
person and that kind of being a Hey, this person
is struggling mentally with some issues in their life, and
I don't think you can say that every transgender person
(32:50):
is going to become a shooter. And that's exactly what
this person is saying. It says Sheriff. I respect your
point of view, but identifying as a trans isn't the
core problem here. I am a male to female trans
a person, I own guns, and I am an FFL
here in Colorado. The issue here is no doubt one
of mental health. But being part of the community, this
shooter does not represent the rest of us. I am
(33:10):
a two eight advocating American and I will die to
defend that amendment to our Constitution. I can also say
that I have never ever planned on harming another person,
especially children. This was to be a different story if
they were being bullied and chose to snap on those
doing them harm. But anyone who chooses to kill children
is very mentally unstable, but pure evil. Also, that's a
(33:35):
great point, and I'm not trying to equate that transgender
people are naturally going to become your shooters. But I
think even you, as the Texter, would agree that being
a transgender person creates a stress in your life that
you probably wish you didn't have to tackle. I mean,
I have to assume that that's not something that most
people want to figure out how to navigate the world with.
(33:58):
I mean, I certainly wouldn't want to none of us
like abnormal stressors in our life, and that's just one
more thing to deal with in a time when you're
going through some pretty rough points in your life as
a sixteen, seventeen year old, eighteen year old trying to
figure out what the world's going to be like. I'm
certainly not making any excuses for this shooter in Minneapolis,
(34:18):
But again, when you've got parents that are kind of
going along for the ride and not maybe maybe engaging
with their children and just setting back and blindly, blindly
advocating for them, I'm not sure if that's the right
approach either. Regardless, what happened in Minneapolis can't continue to happen.
(34:40):
I think we can agree that this is just one
more very tragic incident in a line of many. One
more here from Alexa, one of our famous Texters. Why
do we know more about this shooter and thirty minutes
after the event and we know about the shooter in Butler,
PA thirteen months ago? Great question. I think it has
(35:00):
to do with who's in office as president right now
and the way the media looks at things depending on
who's in charge of what. Yeah, that's the best example
I can give. And then one more here, Sheriff, thank
you for your stance regarding the red flag law. I
think it's too easy to abuse it, and I could
not agree more. I also think it's just a heartless
(35:22):
way of dealing with someone who's having a mental break.
We got a couple of callers on the line. We'll
have them hold until this next segment and we'll get
to you right away. If you're listening to the Dan
Caplis Show here on six point thirty k HOW with
Well Kenny, Sheriff, Steve Raams
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.