Don’t know anything about oil and gas? You should sit on the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission! Know diddly squat about guns? You should write gun control legislation! Bad at math? You should chair the House Finance Committee!

It seems that ignorance is now the most important prerequisite for bill writing and board appointments for Colorado Democrats.

Most recently, Denver Democratic Congresswoman Diana DeGette became a national laughing stock for her idiotic comments claiming that gun magazines are expendable, and can be “thrown away like an empty box of tic tacs” as the left wing Denver Post editorial board mocked her.

To correct her mistake, her press flack claimed she meant clips, which are also not expendable.

It’s not like DeGette has suddenly picked up her gun control crusade recently — she’s been the lead sponsor on legislation to ban “high capacity assault magazines” for years, as her spokeswoman Juliet Johnson said. (On a side note, what in the Sam Hill is an “assault magazine”?)

In fact, DeGette has been a gun control nut for a very long time, with her office at one point having a countdown clock noting the days since the massacre at Columbine that gun control legislation has not been passed. Tasteful.

Clearly, intelligence and knowledge are not held in high esteem among the gun control crowd.

Here in Colorado, the lead sponsor on the magazine ban at the State Legislature, Rep. Rhonda Fields (D-Aurora) was exposed as a complete and utter ignoramus on guns when interviewed by 9News on her bill, and she was unable to even string together simple sentences to explain her legislation. We have to wonder whether Rep. Fields even handled a firearm before pushing a policy to ban accessories to them.

Knowledge is now a curse even in the very technical field of oil and gas. House Bill 1269 aims to remove any member of an oil and gas company from serving on the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC). It’s not like technical expertise would be beneficial to a commission regulating an industry. Much better to have more environmental activists who dress in costume and form “human oil spills” in front of Senator Bennet’s office on the Commission. Surely, they must know what they’re doing.

This trend began before the legislative session even began. Last November, House Speaker Ferrandino appointed Rep. Lois Court (D-Denver) to chair the House Finance Committee, despite Court’s previous public admission that “math and [her] aren’t best friends.” With billions of dollars in spending to be legislated why not appoint someone who struggles with basic arithmetic?

When it comes to writing laws and regulating industries, ignorance most certainly isn’t bliss. It’s bafflingly embarrassing.

Here’s a simple suggestion for Colorado Democrats — learn about something before you legislate it.