Colorado ‘420’ Rally Marred By Gunfire

Colorado’s '420' rally on Saturday, April 20, meant to celebrate the state’s legalization of marijuana, took a violent turn when gunfire broke out, leaving three people wounded.

The unknown shooter fired approximately seven gunshots into the crowd that numbered around 80,000 individuals. Three people were hit, including a juvenile who sought medical attention after being grazed by a bullet, reported Yahoo News. No injuries sustained through the gunfire were life threatening.

Denver has been the home of an annual ‘420’ rally since 2003, when Ken Gorman founded it in hopes that marijuana would be legalized in the state. Every year, he was joined by like-minded allies for the cause in the city’s Civic Center. This year, it was a celebration, as last November the people of Colorado voted for a measure to make recreational use of cannabis legal.

At 4:20 p.m. on April 20, the crowd of tens of thousands exhaled marijuana smoke, creating the illusion of a massive cloud. “You’re going to be in the Guinness Book of World Records,” rally organizer Miguel Lopez told the crowd, to rousing applause. “More people will have smoked pot at ‘420’ in this location than anytime, anywhere in the history of the world.”

The shots were fired soon after the synchronized hit of the now-legal herb, shortly before 5 p.m.

Washington State recently passed a similar bill to Colorado’s Measure 64 by a sizeable margin.