SPEAKER 01 : 0:02

Welcome to Shooting the Breeze, brought to you by the team at Franktown Firearms, a family-owned, family-friendly shooting range in Franktown, Colorado. Franktown Firearms offers practical, defensive training as well as an impressive selection of firearms at the lowest tax rate, so you can develop confidence with your firearm. The team at Franktown Firearms believes the only difference between a beginner and an expert is practice. so they equip you to keep yourself and your family safe in a welcoming atmosphere. And now, here are your hosts of Shooting the Breeze.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:37

Hello, hello, hello. Happy Monday, everyone. Happy, happy, happy Monday. Thank you. Oh, you’re going to see why I’m not happy in just a few minutes here. Thank you for tuning in to Shooting the Breeze today, brought to you by the team at Franktown Firearms. My name is Karen Murray, and I am the lead instructor at Franktown Firearms. We are the one-stop shop. That’s it. One-stop shop for everything you need for your shooting needs, for your hunting, whether it’s a new handgun or a new hunting rifle or a shotgun, ammunition, accessories. even safe storage options for your guns, home training tools we have. We’ve got you covered for all of it. You can reach us by phone at 720-770-7777, or you can visit our new website. You have to check out the new website. It is RecoilFun.com. You’ve got to check it out. Very user-friendly. It actually allows you to sign up and pay for classes without having to go to that third-party site to do it. I won’t mention their name, but you guys might remember from previous shows what that site is. No longer necessary. All the information about concealed carry classes, refresher classes, private training, rifle training… All of it. It’s all right there. We are conveniently located just east of the intersection of Highway 83 and Highway 86 in Franktown. We’re open seven days a week, Monday through Saturday from 10 to 6 and Sunday from noon to 6. So just stop by and say hello. That’s all you got to do. Just stop in. If you’ve never been there, you got to come and check it out. If you haven’t been there for, I don’t know, six weeks, eight months or something, it’s a new store. It’s a new store. It’s a whole different ballgame, new range. It’s not new, but the range is there. I talked to a guy on Saturday. I was there teaching a refresher class, and there was a guy saying that he didn’t even know this place existed. So come and check it out. If you’re driving south into Franktown and you’re at that intersection of Highway 83 and 86, You’re going to go east, and we’re just on the south side of the road. So it’s right there, kind of down in a little gully, so you can’t see it immediately. Got to look for the sign and just go check it out. You have to see Franktown Firearms, I’m telling you. And if you’d like to talk about anything I’m going to discuss today, and I’m I’m having a day today, you guys. I’m having a day. So you can give us a call at 303-477-5600 and we can chat about whatever you want. So I’m going to start out today with a little bit of bean steaming. I got the blue, I don’t even know what you call it. It’s the thing that our government puts out to let us know kind of what’s going to be on the ballot coming up for, you know, an election. And I want to talk about that because I’ve had it. I’ve had it. So we’re going to bean steam about our politics and our government in Colorado and how corrupt they are. And I am really getting tired of all the taxes and fees that we’re being charged basically just to breathe and, you know, have the luxury and privilege of living in this state. And While they’re breathing in all of our hard-earned money, we’re all breathing in the crap that they’re spraying on us, but that’s a different story, and I’m having a big problem with that. Anyway, we’re going to digress into just these new proposed tax increases. So we’re going to be voting on this November 4th, and first we have Proposition L.L., And that is to retain and spend, retain and spend, tax and spend, right? All the revenue exceeding the estimate for Proposition FF that voters somehow approved in 2022. So Prop FF increases revenue. Taxes by over $100 million, reducing income tax deductions amounts for those earning $300,000 or more. And that’s household, by the way. That’s not individuals. So your deductions go from $30,000… $30,000 for single filers and $60,000 for joint filers to $12,000 for single filers and $16,000 for joint filers. Okay, so they want to take a pretty substantial chunk out of your money. It allocates revenue from the deduction change to create and fund the Healthy School Meals for All program to reimburse participating schools, participating schools to provide free meals to students and provide schools with local food purchasing grants and school food-related funding. So evidently, that $100 million wasn’t enough. So now they’ve introduced Prop LL, which will read. Now, keep in mind how this is worded, okay? It reads, without raising taxes, which is cagey, and I’ll talk about that in a second. So may the state keep and spend all revenue generated by the 2022 voter-approved state tax deduction limits on individuals with incomes greater of $300,000 or more and maintain these deduction limits in order to continue funding the Healthy School Meals for All program, which pays for public schools to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students in kindergarten through 12th grade. I love how they always say without raising taxes, as if keeping more of our money that we’ve already paid, you know, Which could normally, we’d normally get back in a refund, but that doesn’t count. So they just want to keep it. This is all kind of harkens back to Tabor, right? So I’ll continue with Prop MM, which is literally a tax increase, and they say so. It reads, shall state taxes be increased by $95 million annually to change the Colorado revised statutes to support access to healthy food for Colorado kids and families, including the Healthy School Meals for All program, and in connection therewith, increasing state taxable income only for individuals individuals who have a federal taxable income of $300,000 or more by limiting itemized or standard state income tax deductions to $1,000 for single tax return filers and $2,000 for joint tax return filers for the purpose of fully funding the Healthy School Meals for All program to continue paying for public schools to offer free breakfast. and lunch to all public school students while also increasing wages for employees who prepare and serve school meals, helping schools use basic nutritious ingredients instead of processed products and ensuring that Colorado grown and raised products are part of school meals. It goes on supporting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is SNAP. That’s you know, that we know what that is, that helps low-income Colorado families afford groceries and allowing the state to retain and spend as a voter-approved revenue change all additional tax revenue. Yeah, so I’m just, I’m over it. I’m so over the tax increases. And I’ll ask the same question that I’ve asked probably a dozen times already. What are they doing with all the money? We’ve had tax increases for a long, long time ago for Mile High Stadium. You remember that? Those taxes, as far as I know, those taxes never went away. And now they’re building a new stadium. So I don’t know what’s going to happen there. We’ve had tolls for E-470 that were promised that they would go away when the highway was paid for. That’s never going away, right? We voted for pot shops to open up all over the place, and Colorado collected over $255 million in tax revenue from that industry that was supposed to go to schools and opening new schools and, you know, whatever. We get banged for 29 cents on every single online order we place. That retail delivery fee was put on us in 2022. And the data from early 2025 says that Colorado has generated over $218 million in just that. That money was supposed to go toward funding roads and bridges. So how many of you guys drive on roads that are full of potholes? I mean, I understand. Okay, roads are being repaired. We get it. We see it all the time. We drive down, you know, X Street and whatever, and, yeah, it’s all torn up and they’re doing repairs. We see it all over the place. Construction projects everywhere. But there are still roads that are a complete nightmare, ones that should have been fixed long before others did. Of course, Colfax is under construction. It’s like this constant thing that’s been happening. It feels like forever, right? But here’s the deal, and here’s why all of this grinds my gears. Obviously, Colorado is broke. They need more of our money. They need to suck more money out of our paychecks just to live here. And if we’re so broke, why do we have all these grand plans? for a new football stadium and for a gondola over the 16th Street Mall and for all these, you know, entertainment venues and all this different thing. Why? What is going on with our government? So I asked AI, what big plans does Colorado have for improving the state? And here’s what AI threw back at me. It’s pretty interesting. It says, Colorado plans to improve the state by focusing on reducing health care costs and property taxes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Expanding affordable housing. Okay, that sounds more accurate for what Colorado would be doing. And universal preschool. Enhancing public safety and promoting clean energy through initiatives like Reimagine State Government and and Roadmap to a Future Colorado 2026. Other key plans include updating the Colorado Resiliency Framework to address climate change and natural hazards, and developing a modern, user-friendly digital government to improve service delivery. Okay, it goes on. Key state improvement plans include Reimagine State Government. This initiative aims to modernize state operations with specific goals to, number one, lower health care expenses, two, increase affordable housing options and provide property tax relief, three, offer universal access to preschool. And I’m going to ask, don’t we already have that? Isn’t that already a thing? Was it Obama? that did that whole thing, universal preschool, you know, kind of like a child pre-work, child care, whatever. I thought we already had that. But anyway, you can correct me if I’m wrong on that. Number four, promote clean energy and its benefits. And number five, improve public safety. So that’s the reimagined state government part. And then roadmap to future Colorado 2026. This roadmap outlines efforts to create a more affordable livable and sustainable Colorado by focusing on housing and affordability creating more housing options for all budgets. So yeah, we’ll get to more of that in a second transit expanding access to public transportation, including trains buses and bikes. Air quality, implementing strategic plans to improve air quality and reduce traffic congestion. Colorado resiliency framework. This framework is being updated to help the state adapt to future challenges by focusing on climate change adaption, understanding natural and other hazards, addressing social inequalities and community needs, growing a strong economy. And then modernizing digital government. The state is working to transform its digital experience for residents by improving the user-centered design of government services, making them faster and more accessible. But we still can’t have voter ID because nobody can get to the polls, and it’s just a nightmare for people to vote and that kind of thing. But I digress. And then we have climate change and energy initiatives. It says Colorado is actively working to cut climate pollution from buildings, expand its electric vehicle charging network, and achieve its climate goals. And then we have the state service plan. The 2022 to 2025 plan prioritizes leading with equity and inclusion, engaging with community partners, developing the future workforce, and using volunteerism to serve Colorado’s communities. So that’s what AI spit out at me when asking the question about what big plans Colorado has for, you know, improving the state or whatever. Understanding in my mind that Colorado is broke, and we know we’re broke. So Colorado is still obviously firmly entrenched in this whole DEI climate hoax, and now we’re using the children who can’t eat as a sledgehammer to extract more money from Colorado taxpayers. And let’s talk about this healthy and free school lunch programs. So Some people may look at this and think, okay, so, you know, a lot of people don’t have time to shop, and a lot of people don’t have really the money to shop and make their kids lunch, and some people can’t afford lunch. And I’m not talking about the vulnerable community here. I’m talking about normal people who just send their kids to school because they don’t have time to prepare breakfast for them or whatever. That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about. So, yeah. What makes this program, these programs and Prop LL and MM, any different from what Michelle Obama tried to create already with this healthy lunch program? It stunk. Everybody hated it. It was terrible. The kids hated the food. It all went in the trash, and it was a big flop. right? So what makes this different? I mean, I like the fact that Colorado farmers and ranchers will benefit because there is part of this bill that says that, you know, we’re going to try to buy local, eat local, you know, that whole thing, and that’s great. But why do we have to raise taxes instead of just rather than getting the food from, you know, I mean, I used to work for for the school system in Douglas County. I was the kitchen manager at an elementary school. And I know that we used to get boxes of processed junk to feed the kids. And I would try to do my best to make things palatable and make things healthy and put veggies in with the rice and do stuff like that. But I also remember the pizza, the boxes of pizza that we used to buy. It was just terrible, just terrible, terrible pizza, fried chicken, terrible. And I just don’t understand how, number one, when you’re dealing with, you know, some schools are bigger than others, obviously, but I remember I had about 200 kids to feed at lunch. And, you know, just doing that… took up a lot of time and I, I would go off, you know, kind of off script, I guess sometimes. And, and I would do things that I probably shouldn’t have, but I would order things that weren’t on the list on the menu list. And I would go, um, like bags of, of cake mix and stuff like that. I’d, I’d make these big sheet cakes for like Halloween and stuff like that, just to give the kids a little, a little treat or something. But to prepare, you know, organic meals with raw meat and raw food and that kind of thing, it’s way too time consuming. And, yes, they’re saying that the kitchen managers or, well, they’re just saying employees that are responsible for feeding the kids are going to get a pay raise and that whole thing because they’re going to have to get there like five hours ahead of time to make and prepare raw food ingredients for kids for lunch. And I don’t see how this is going to work. I just don’t. I just think it’s stupid ambitious. And because I have no trust of government, I think that this money is just going to go into the general fund or this pool of money, and they’re going to suck it all out anyway and use it for something else. I just, that’s kind of how I think. Why does our government have to suck even more money out of the taxpaying citizenry that we’re already taxed more than probably 90% of the country? The bottom line is that Colorado needs new leadership. I think we’re all kind of on the same page with that. We need to clean house. All of them need to go. These woke state senators, representatives, the DEI judges, and the corrupt, lying, cheating secretary of state, the feckless governor, the corrupt DAs, all of them, out. They all need to go. The Democrats that are running the show right now have no idea what they’re doing, or maybe they know exactly what they’re doing, and they have bad intentions, which that’s kind of what I think. And the Republicans can’t get anything done. because we’re so outnumbered. When the midterms roll around next year, and Pontius Polis is term-limited out, thank God, and we elect a new governor, and many seats in the State House and Senate are up for grabs, we simply have to elect actual humans and not these demons that are in there right now. We need to elect people who are dedicated to us, and not be holding to these DEI things and these green energy projects and these woke corporations, I’m done. And deciding who to elect, just look for the signs of a man or a woman who will represent you. And not to mention, we have to get the voting machine, the DEI voting machines, all the Smartmatic and Dominion and all that stuff, that’s got to go. We have to get rid of it. We need to look for people who support military and law enforcement, people who want smaller government, not bigger, people who are in favor of firing teachers if they’re grooming kids for this transgender crap. They’ve got to go. People who are in favor of bringing like the trade school subjects back to the state’s high schools, like, you know, the auto shop and woodworking shop and, you know, that kind of thing. That’s got to be in our schools again. We don’t have to force our kids into this higher education indoctrination camp that everybody thinks, oh, you got to go to college. You have to get that college. No, you don’t. No, you don’t. and we have to look for people who have Christian beliefs and Christian foundation, at least some kind of moral authority, people who recognize what happened during COVID and how we were lied to by our governor. Remember, cut up an old T-shirt and strap it on your face. It’s going to keep you safe in making sure that this kind of thing never happens again. We need people who are in favor of school choice and homeschooling and, heck, homesteading. How about that? Defending the Second Amendment. Hell, we need people to defend the First Amendment. You know, I’d like to read something that came from a potential gubernatorial candidate. His name is Victor Marks. Maybe you know him. Maybe you know his name. If he gets on the ballot, I think he’ll have my vote. He put out an Instagram video, and I was going to play it for you, but there’s music in the background. It’s kind of hard to hear over the airwaves to kind of decipher, so I’m just going to transcribe it here. He said, this state has been my home for many years. I’ve had relatives born here and buried here. I’ve watched friends, I mean good people, leave Colorado, and it breaks my heart. Young people can’t afford homes. Schools are failing. Families are being torn apart by crime, drugs, and homelessness. Energy costs skyrocket. Taxes and even traffic keep rising. The worst part is a broken system propped up by corruption and unchecked leaders that have abandoned the people. I’ve spent my life fighting battles politicians here wouldn’t dare face. protecting the vulnerable, standing with law enforcement, and proving that courage can change outcomes. Colorado doesn’t need another politician. It needs a man of conviction, a leader with the backbone to fight for families, restore justice, and give this state back to the people. He says, I’m Victor Marks, and I’m considering running for governor in order to win for you, for our children, and for Colorado’s future. So if you’re tired of the dysfunction at the Capitol, let me know. We’ll make the change together. So you can go find him on Instagram, Victor Marks. Representative Scott Bottoms is another good potential candidate. I like him. I follow him on social media. And Jason Clark is another one, very kind of no-nonsense guy. I was telling a friend this morning that I would vote for Homer Simpson before voting for anyone else. with even an inkling of transgender