Four Colorado Cities Considering Sweeping Gun Control Package

A new Colorado law that did away with the prohibition on municipalities making their own restrictive gun control regulations has led to four Boulder County cities passing sweeping reforms that will only affect law-abiding citizens, not the criminals they are supposedly targeting.

Last year, Gov. Jared Polis signed a measure—Senate Bill 256—that gutted the state’s preemption law, which had ensured that all law-abiding Coloradoans have the same rights regardless of where they reside. Since then, several liberal-run cities have passed their own restrictions or are looking to do so.

Now, Boulder, Louisville, Lafayette and Superior—all municipalities located in Boulder County—have passed sweeping reforms this week. Proposals going into Tuesday night’s city council meetings of the four municipalities included banning the sale and possession of so-called “assault weapons,” banning magazines containing more than 10 rounds, outlawing firearm purchase for adults 18 to 20 years of age, banning open carry, banning concealed carry in “sensitive places like hospitals, schools and places of worship,” instituting a 10-day waiting period to purchase a firearm and requiring firearm dealers to post signs outside their stores “explaining the danger of firearms.” 

Superior Board of Trustees member Tim Howard told thedenverchannel.com before the meetings that he believed the ordinances might serve as a wakeup call for state lawmakers.

"My hope is that with municipalities adopting these type measures, that the state legislature will take forward a number of these for potential statewide adoption, and more importantly, that Governor Polis will look and recognize this is what the people of Colorado want," Howard said.

While all four municipalities passed new restrictions, they varied by city. In Boulder, councilors passed all of the proposals mentioned above except the one banning purchases by 18- to 20-year-olds and the waiting period for gun purchases. In Louisville, councilors passed all of the above-mentioned proposals, along with a prohibition on unfinished frames and receivers.

In Lafayette, councilors advanced a resolution on four ordinances, which will take effect if they pass a second reading at a future meeting. They included banning unfinished frames and receivers, requiring the ridiculous signs outside gun stores, prohibiting open carry of firearms in public places and prohibiting carrying of firearms on city property.

Meanwhile in Superior, the town board passed a number of restrictions that it lumped into one ordinance reading, “The proposed ordinance address assault weapons, large-capacity magazines, trigger activators, and otherwise regulates the purchase and sale of firearms in Superior in ways calculated to reduce threats to residents in public places and the risk of impulsive suicide or crime posed by easy-to-obtain firearms.”

Of course, pro-gun advocates in the state are dead set against the new restrictions, which they believe will only impact lawful gun owners and have no effect on violent criminals—just like most gun control laws. In fact, most of the proposals are already being litigated in other states and cities where politicians overstepped their bounds and passed laws or regulations that run counter to the Second Amendment.

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About the Author:

Freelance writer and editor Mark Chesnut is the owner/editorial director at Red Setter Communications LLC. An avid hunter, shooter and political observer, he has been covering Second Amendment issues and politics on a near-daily basis for the past 20 years.