A Warning and a Threat - 06/21/21
Law to Allow Boulder To Reinstate Gun Rule
BY ZUSHA ELINSON, Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2021
BOULDER, Colo.—In response to a new state law allowing local governments to set their own gun regulations, city leaders here want to reinstate a ban on the sale and possession of weapons such as the AR-15-style pistol used in a mass shooting at a supermarket in March.
Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed legislation Saturday making Colorado the first state to repeal what is known as a pre-emption law. Previously, the state was one of 45 that banned cities from enacting firearms regulations, according to a tally by the National Rifle Association.
The push for the repeal of the pre-emption law in Colorado came after a gunman shot and killed 10 people at a Boulder grocery store March 22. Ten days before the attack, a Boulder County District Court judge blocked the city from enforcing its 2018 ban on the sale and possession of semiautomatic firearms that it defined as assault weapons, as well as high-capacity magazines. The judge cited the state’s pre-emption law in his decision.
Mayor Sam Weaver said the legal case over the ban would most likely be dismissed under the new state law, putting the ban back into effect. If the city needs to take any other steps to enforce the ban, it will do so, he said. The law would apply to the city’s two gun shops, one of which is near a high school, he said.
“In theory, if we didn’t have this law, you could go buy an assault weapon, and then walk across the street and shoot a bunch of students,” said Mr. Weaver, a Democrat. “So we would like to have it in place to prevent rash actions with assault weapons in Boulder.”
The accused gunman in the March supermarket shooting bought his AR-15-style pistol, a smaller version of an AR-style rifle, in Arvada, about 20 miles from Boulder. He would have been banned from carrying it in the city if the law had been in effect, but enforcement would have depended on a local officer catching him with it.
Dudley Brown, president of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, said that repealing the pre-emption law will “open up the floodgates for woke city councils to disarm their citizens.”
Mr. Brown supported passage of Colorado’s law in 2003. As in other states, it was propelled by arguments that different laws in different cities were onerous for gun owners.
Pre-emption laws were part of a broader movement by gun-rights groups that began in the 1980s in response to Democratic-controlled cities passing handgun bans in states with more-conservative legislatures and governors.
BY ZUSHA ELINSON, Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2021
BOULDER, Colo.—In response to a new state law allowing local governments to set their own gun regulations, city leaders here want to reinstate a ban on the sale and possession of weapons such as the AR-15-style pistol used in a mass shooting at a supermarket in March.
Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed legislation Saturday making Colorado the first state to repeal what is known as a pre-emption law. Previously, the state was one of 45 that banned cities from enacting firearms regulations, according to a tally by the National Rifle Association.
The push for the repeal of the pre-emption law in Colorado came after a gunman shot and killed 10 people at a Boulder grocery store March 22. Ten days before the attack, a Boulder County District Court judge blocked the city from enforcing its 2018 ban on the sale and possession of semiautomatic firearms that it defined as assault weapons, as well as high-capacity magazines. The judge cited the state’s pre-emption law in his decision.
Mayor Sam Weaver said the legal case over the ban would most likely be dismissed under the new state law, putting the ban back into effect. If the city needs to take any other steps to enforce the ban, it will do so, he said. The law would apply to the city’s two gun shops, one of which is near a high school, he said.
“In theory, if we didn’t have this law, you could go buy an assault weapon, and then walk across the street and shoot a bunch of students,” said Mr. Weaver, a Democrat. “So we would like to have it in place to prevent rash actions with assault weapons in Boulder.”
The accused gunman in the March supermarket shooting bought his AR-15-style pistol, a smaller version of an AR-style rifle, in Arvada, about 20 miles from Boulder. He would have been banned from carrying it in the city if the law had been in effect, but enforcement would have depended on a local officer catching him with it.
Dudley Brown, president of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, said that repealing the pre-emption law will “open up the floodgates for woke city councils to disarm their citizens.”
Mr. Brown supported passage of Colorado’s law in 2003. As in other states, it was propelled by arguments that different laws in different cities were onerous for gun owners.
Pre-emption laws were part of a broader movement by gun-rights groups that began in the 1980s in response to Democratic-controlled cities passing handgun bans in states with more-conservative legislatures and governors.