Colo. county plans gun control rules
Change by Legislature allows for local efforts
DENVER — Over a year after Colorado was rocked by a shooting that left 10 people dead in a King Soopers supermarket, one county is proposing gun control ordinances that include raising the minimum age to purchase firearms and prohibiting the sale of assault weapons.
With gun control bills facing greater opposition in many statehouses and in Congress, the Democratic bastion of Boulder County, where the shooting occurred, may soon join several other Colorado municipalities in taking gun control into their own hands.
“We had watched the Aurora shooting, we had watched Columbine, and then it happened in our neighborhood,” said County Commissioner Matt Jones, referring to the 2012 Aurora theater shooting and the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. “It’s all too prevalent.” The restrictions go far beyond state and federal gun regulations and come as the nation mourns victims of a Fourth of July weekend shooting outside Chicago that added to the over 300 killing sprees nationwide since the beginning of 2022, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
“It is deplorable that we can have this degree of gun violence,” said Commissioner Claire Levy after the panel tentatively endorsed the measures on Tuesday. “Ideally, there would be action at the national level and action at the state level, but in absence of that action, I think we need to do what we can.”
Not until last year was that possible in Colorado. In 2021, the Legislature, motivated by the Boulder shooting, joined at least eight other states in repealing a law that prevented local governments from passing gun ordinances more restrictive than state laws.
The five measures include limiting magazine capacity to 10 rounds instead of Colorado’s 15-round limit ; extending the waiting period after purchasing firearms from three to 10 days; banning guns from county property and “sensitive places” such as bars; prohibiting firearms without serial numbers; and raising the minimum gun purchasing age from 18 to 21.
If the proposals pass, Boulder County will join other Colorado cities including Denver and Louisville in what some lawmakers hope to be a wave of local action across the state.
“It’s exactly what we intended when we passed the law,” said Stephen Fenberg, the Colorado Senate president who sponsored the 2021 bill. “It’s heartening.”
The Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, an affiliate of the National Association for Gun Rights, worries that the measures will infringe on residents’ right to protect themselves. Spokesperson Ray Hickman pointed to Chicago, which has strict gun laws but still suffers from a high homicide rate.
Hickman said that the group is considering its options to undermine the measures, which could include legal action. A public hearing on the proposals is set for Aug. 2.