John Hickenlooper in CNN "State of the Union" interviews during 2013

On Crime: $20M for mental health 24/7 call-in centers

HICKENLOOPER: They did have a deputy sheriff on the premise. The moment there was trouble, he was running to the scene. But there's a balance. And school administrators are trying to make a school not be a fortress. They want to be a place for education.

Q: What about the motivation of this young man?

HICKENLOOPER: There have been reports that maybe he was bullied. Last year, we put in place over $20 million for mental health 24/7 call-in centers & mobile crisis centers, and to train people how to recognize mental illness when you see it. But this kid, by all accounts, didn't exhibit the warning signs of mental illness. Obviously, it's hard to fathom why he would have done this without being somewhat crazy. But bullying does seem to be involved. We have programs now throughout the state, anti-bullying, trying to get kids to deal with that in a more constructive way.

On Gun Control: State Senate "Line item recall" about too-strict gun control

HICKENLOOPER: Definitely what we called this was a "line item recall." I'm not sure it has a national message or even a statewide message.

Q: Is there unease with the broader Democratic social agenda?

HICKENLOOPER: No. I saw most of the campaign literature in both of those recall campaigns. To the vast majority, it was very specific about universal background checks, high capacity magazines.

Q: NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg heads up a mayor's group that is pushing for more gun control. He sunk a lot of money into trying to save these two Democratic state senators. Was it helpful?

HICKENLOOPER: In Colorado, like a lot of western states, we like to solve our own problems with our own people. So, there is a certain resentment when any outside money whether it's from Bloomberg or from National Rifle Association.

On Gun Control: Universal background checks but no assault weapon ban

HICKENLOOPER: After the shootings last summer in the movie theater, we really focused on mental health first then universal background checks. Colorado is a state where we have a long tradition of a relationship with guns and hunting and that traditional approach from father to child. So we tried to tighten up a little bit things like universal background checks which clearly make a significant difference, that's where we put our initial focus.

Q: Do you think that the Congress is wrong not to go after an assault weapons ban?

HICKENLOOPER: I think the feeling right now around assault weapons at least in Colorado is that they're so hard to define what an assault weapon is. There's a lot of questions whether the federal ban made a difference. It's a tough sell.