Colorado gun rights activists are likely to jam the city council meeting in Boulder this Thursday evening to weigh in on a controversial proposal to ban the sale and possession of so-called “assault weapons” and magazines that hold more than 10 cartridges, according to the Daily Camera.
One local gun retailer, Frederick Barton at Bison Tactical, one of two gun stores in the city, told Liberty Park Press that the proposal will likely get lots of opposition. It might also attract legal action. The council is actually going to formally set the meeting during its regular Tuesday evening session, with this explanation:
“Consideration of a motion to call a Special Meeting on April 5, 2018 at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers located at 1777 Broadway, Boulder, for a public hearing regarding introduction, first reading and consideration of a motion to order published by title only Ordinance 8245 adding additional firearm regulations to the Boulder Revised Code.”
Thursday’s special session, beginning at 6 p.m., has only the proposal on the agenda. It could be a lively session.
According to the newspaper, the proposed ordinance was prepared by City Attorney Tom Carr, a transplant from Seattle, Washington, where he served in a similar capacity for a few years. The proposed ban was written at the request of the city council. Carr reportedly chatted with the anti-gun Giffords Law Center, and he also studied laws in Denver and Vail.
While the Centennial State is considered “gun country” outside the major cities, the state has liberal enclaves in Denver and other municipalities.
Semi-auto modern sporting rifles have been in the crosshairs of anti-gunners because of their cosmetics and their use in a handful of high-profile mass shootings in recent years, including Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, the Las Vegas concert shooting last October and the tragedies in San Bernardino, California and Newtown, Connecticut.
However, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports covering the years from 2012 to 2016, rifles of any kind are used in a fraction of all homicides. Far more people are stabbed fatally.
A recent Rasmussen Reports survey revealed that 39 percent of American adults think stronger gun laws would reduce violent crime but an equal number think tougher gun laws will have no impact on violence. Another 15 percent thinks tougher gun laws actually contribute to violent crime.
The newspaper quoted Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle, who suspects a lot of local residents own the kinds of guns targeted by the proposed ban. He also said his deputies respond to lots of calls about people shooting in the local forest lands.
Boulder Police Chief Greg Testa reportedly supports the ban, which the newspaper noted is a “bit of a shift” from his remarks in 2015, when he reportedly stated, “If a person wants to harm somebody else, ordinances and laws are not something they’re concerned about.”
Banning so-called “assault rifles” has been high on the agenda of gun prohibition lobbying groups for several years. An initiative has been launched in Oregon to put the question to a public vote, and one has been hinted at in neighboring Washington.
