The five remaining Republicans vying for U.S. Senate pledged to defend the Second Amendment Thursday at a debate hosted by the Pikes Peak Firearm Coalition.

There were several lighthearted moments during the debate, such as when moderator Jeff Crank asked if the candidates felt safer at the VFW in downtown Colorado Springs with several members of the audience “carrying a firearm that could do great lethal damage,” than at a gun-free rally for presidential candidate Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Everyone agreed wholeheartedly they felt safer at the VFW.

But several candidates also talked about tragedies surrounding guns.

El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn said it would be easy for him not to back gun rights because of a family tragedy. Glenn said his brother shot his wife and then killed himself.

“Women and children, if you are out there and you are threatened, you are your own first responder,” he said.

Glenn is coming off of having won the top-line on the ballot in June by sweeping the GOP state assembly on Saturday and making the ballot.

The other four candidates are petitioning onto the ballot by gathering 10,500 signatures throughout the state.

Jon Keyser, a former state Representative and a graduate of the Air Force Academy, said he had family inside New Life Church when there was an attempted mass shooting there in 2007 that killed two people. An armed member of the congregation is widely credited with stopping the shooting.

“We had a gun in the hands of law abiding citizen who knew what to do, who was trained,” Keyser said. “It was absolutely a tragedy but it could have been worse.”

Ryan Frazier, a former Aurora city councilmember, said he had breakfast recently with a survivor of the Aurora movie theater shooting. It was someone who is supporting his campaign but is also still backing the Second Amendment despite the tragedy.

“We can be safe in our communities by upholding our Second Amendment right,” Frazier said.

Jack Graham, a former athletic director for Colorado State University, said he recently met with a CSU student who had been shot in the neck.

“He’s still a Second Amendment advocate,” Graham said. He said the “root issue” with mass shootings is the media’s glorification of shooters.

Graham was the only member on stage who was not a member of a gun organization like the NRA or the local Pikes Peak Firearm Coalition. But he did talk about using his 223 rifle with a scope to take out raccoons and coyotes on his farm in northern Colorado.

Glenn was the only candidate without a favorite gun, saying he was looking forward to exploring that next chapter in his life with his daughters.

Robert Blaha, a Colorado Springs businessman and banker, said he has a small shooting range on his property.

“You do not want to come up the Blaha road after 10 o’clock at night,” he said. “We are a well-armed, well-provided-for group of folks.”

The debate got into specifics about gun legislation.

No one supported bans on high-capacity gun magazines. Everyone supported existing background checks to keep guns out of the hands of felons, at least to some extent.

“Background checks are a nice way of being able to infringe on people’s god given freedom and liberty,” Glenn said. “Let’s just call it for what it is. I always start from the assumption that everyone has a God given right to defend themselves and their family and unless you actually break the law that’s the only time your rights and liberties should be infringed upon.”

Glenn said lawmakers trying to expand background checks should be recalled, referencing the recall elections in Colorado Springs that unseated Senate President John Morse after he backed five gun control laws in 2013. Pikes Peak Firearm Coalition was key in the recall effort.

Blaha said the background checks he’s gone through to purchase firearms have been fast. He said screenings are “relevant” as long as they are fast and screen for convicted felons or “quantifiable mental situations.” He said he was concerned about records being kept at the federal level of every background check conducted.

Frazier reiterated that he opposed a registry or database.

“What really needs to be addressed is the national Instacheck system,” Frazier said. “I don’t believe that system is currently being populated with those who are dangerous or have been adjudicated mentally incompetent.”

Graham said “limited” background checks are “common sense and they make sense.” But he said many of the gun laws, including presidential executive orders, are a breach on common sense and a violation of the Second Amendment.

Keyser said background checks need to be “instantaneous and it cannot be infringing on the right to bear arms.”

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Contact Megan Schrader at 286-0644

Twitter: @CapitolSchrader

Joseph Romero.