Colorado county moves to change local gun control laws

Over a yr after Colorado was rocked by a capturing that left 10 individuals lifeless in a King Soopers grocery store, one county is proposing gun management ordinances that embody elevating the minimal age to buy firearms and prohibiting the sale of assault weapons.

With gun management payments dealing with larger opposition in lots of statehouses and in Congress, the Democratic bastion of Boulder County, the place the capturing happened, could quickly be part of a number of different Colorado municipalities in taking gun management into their very own arms.

“We had watched the Aurora capturing, we had watched Columbine, after which it occurred in our neighborhood,” stated county Commissioner Matt Jones, referring to the 2012 Aurora theater capturing and the 1999 Columbine Excessive College bloodbath. “It’s all too prevalent.”

The restrictions go far past state and federal gun rules and are available because the nation mourns victims of a Fourth of July weekend capturing exterior Chicago that added to the over 300 killing sprees nationwide for the reason that starting of 2022, in line with the Gun Violence Archive.

“It’s deplorable that we are able to have this diploma of gun violence,” stated Commissioner Claire Levy after the panel tentatively endorsed the measures on Tuesday. “Ideally, there can be motion on the nationwide degree and motion on the state degree, however in absence of that motion, I feel we have to do what we are able to.”

Not till final yr was that attainable in Colorado. In 2021, the Legislature, motivated by the Boulder capturing, joined a minimum of eight different states in repealing a legislation that prevented native governments from passing gun ordinances extra restrictive than state legal guidelines.

The 5 measures embody limiting journal capability to 10 rounds as an alternative of Colorado’s 15-round restrict; extending the ready interval after buying firearms from three to 10 days; banning weapons from county property and “delicate locations” similar to bars; prohibiting firearms with out serial numbers; and elevating the minimal gun buying age from 18 to 21.

If the proposals go, Boulder County will be part of different Colorado cities together with Denver and Louisville in what some lawmakers hope to be a wave of native motion throughout the state.

“It’s precisely what we supposed once we handed the legislation,” stated Stephen Fenberg, the Colorado Senate president who sponsored the 2021 invoice. “It’s heartening.”

The Rocky Mountain Gun Homeowners, an affiliate of the Nationwide Affiliation for Gun Rights, worries that the measures will infringe on residents’ proper to guard themselves. Ray Hickman, a spokesperson for the group, pointed to Chicago, which has strict gun legal guidelines however nonetheless suffers from a excessive murder fee.

Hickman stated that the group is contemplating its choices to undermine the measures, which may embody authorized motion. A public listening to on the proposals is about for Aug. 2.

The brand new rules would construct on state and federal legislation and solely be enforceable inside the county’s jurisdiction.

They had been impressed partly by analysis from Giffords Legislation, a gun management advocacy group which helped some Colorado cities draft their very own gun restrictions. Giffords Legislation discovered that whereas individuals aged 18-20 make up simply 4% of the inhabitants, they commit 17% of identified homicides.

Levy stated that the measures are largely meant to deal with gun violence that always do not make nationwide headlines however symbolize the overwhelming majority of gun-related demise — homicides and suicides.

With roughly 45,000 gun deaths a yr within the U.S., mass shootings — outlined because the killings of 4 individuals or extra — make up lower than a fraction. Over half are suicides.

“It’s a really giant downside,” stated Levy, “and it’s not simply the headline-grabbing, fame-seeking, enraged younger males who wish to kill as many individuals as they will.”

Almost three years earlier than the grocery store capturing by a person with an AR-15 type weapon, Boulder voted to ban assault weapons. The measure was blocked in court docket beneath the previous Colorado legislation barring native officers from making their very own gun legal guidelines.

Investigators haven’t launched any details about why they imagine the person charged within the capturing, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, launched the assault. He lived within the neighboring suburb of Arvada, the place authorities say he handed a background examine to legally purchase a Ruger AR-556 pistol six days earlier than the capturing.

Alissa’s prosecution has been on maintain since December, when a decide dominated he was mentally incompetent to face trial.