Demonstrators at a recent pro-gun control march (Slowking4 via Wikmedia Commons)

The bill would crack down on people purchasing firearms for those banned from doing so themselves, according to NPR. The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the bill, and is scheduled to review three more. 

At the same time in Colorado, the site of a mass shooting in an Aurora movie theater, Democrats are pushing seven pieces of legislation for stricter gun control. 

The Colorado gun control debate is heated. Activists protesting the proposed legislation have gathered at the State capitol for several days. 

One of the more contested proposals is the elimination of a law which allows concealed weapons on public college campuses, ABC Denver reported.

A national debate about gun control and the protection of the Second Amendment, or right to bear arms, has been raging in the U.S. in the wake of a series of mass shootings over the past several years.

NRA Executive Vice President Wayne Lapierre has become prominent in this debate since his controversial press conference after the Newtown shooting, in which he proposed installing armed guards in elementary schools to protect children from "people so deranged, so evil, so possessed by voices and driven by demons that no sane person can possibly ever comprehend them."

South Dakota has just voted to take Lapierre's advice, allowing teachers to carry guns in classrooms, according to the New York Times.

For Constitutional Law professor Adam Winkler's pro-gun control interpretation of the Second Amendment, go here.

For an analysis of the best way to handle gun control "through the lens of social economics," go here.

For more Neon Tommy coverage of gun control issues, go here.

To reach Executive Producer Lauren Madow, go here. Follow her here.