In its repeated attempts to “get guns off our streets,” Colorado’s legislature is a lot like a compulsive gambler who’s sure he has a winning hand — every time the cards are dealt. 

One difference, though: The gambler actually has a chance of success. 

The legislature, of course, hasn’t a prayer. Each round of gun control it enacts is doomed to backfire. 

Hence, news reports of skyrocketing gun sales last week — as yet another iteration of gun-control legislation was about to become law on Saturday, Aug. 1. It was as surprising as the daily weather forecast this scorching summer. 

Such stories in fact have become a fixture of media coverage: astounded gun shop owners declaring business has never been so good; buyers waiting patiently in line who say they are buying their firearm of choice before the latest ban goes into effect.

Yet, gun-control advocates in the legislature press ahead, seemingly oblivious to the fact that in a nation said to have three firearms for every two people, they never will take guns off the streets. They never will keep guns out of the hands of workaday criminals or mass murderers. 

They only will make it harder for law-abiding Coloradans to exercise their right to arms — a right guaranteed not only by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution but also by the constitution of the Centennial State.

The convoluted and very likely unconstitutional concoction that was signed into law last year but took effect on Colorado’s statute books on Saturday requires those seeking to purchase semiautomatic firearms with detachable magazines to first complete a firearm safety course administered by the state’s wildlife division. 

Previous versions pondered by the Democratic majority at the Capitol had sought to prohibit the sale, manufacture and purchase of semiautomatic weapons with detachable magazines. But lawmakers watered it down, a tad, requiring the 12-hour, $500 course as a sop to fellow Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, who balked at signing onto an outright ban. 

Under the new law, criminal background checks already long required for all gun buyers will have to be augmented by another background check performed by county sheriffs. Really.

The psychology of gun control is a curious thing to watch when it overtakes lawmakers. Plenty of them are smart people, and they certainly are motivated to succeed in public office. Surely, they must be aware no data has shown gun-control laws led to any drop in gun violence.

They also must be aware criminals don’t care if a particular make or model of firearm is “illegal” before using it in an carjacking or an armed robbery. And that ex-cons who aren’t supposed to have guns easily acquire them and routinely carry them.

All of which suggests the latest measure to become law in Colorado, like its forebears, is nothing more than an effort to legislate wishful thinking. It’s as if they believe law-abiding citizens in a civilized society really shouldn’t have guns, anyway. 

Their laws serve to make that point — even if they accomplish nothing else, and the bloodshed caused by the criminal element continues as usual.