A Colorado judge earlier this month blocked Boulder’s two-year ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines – less than two weeks later, 10 people were killed in a mass shooting at one of the city’s grocery stores. According to the affidavit, investigators have determined that the suspect, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, purchased an assault rifle on March 16, 2021.
Judge Andrew Hartman of the Boulder County District Court ruled on March 12 that the 2018 ban prohibiting the possession, sale or transfer of large capacity assault weapons and magazines (LCMs) was invalid because it violates state law .
“The Court finds that the regulation’s prohibition on possession, sale and transfer of assault weapons has been operationally lifted because it materially impedes the interests of the state in firearms regulation, and it prohibits what state law permits,” Hartman said. He pointed to the state legislature’s statement that firearms regulation is a state interest, in order to avoid “a patchwork of inconsistent local laws regarding firearms” and to best protect Colorado.
“The court finds that the need for statewide uniformity is beneficial to the state’s interest in regulating assault weapons and LCMs,” Hartman wrote. “Statewide uniformity in regulations prohibiting the possession and transfer of assault weapons and LCMs is consistent with the legislature’s stated interest in protecting the fundamental right of the citizen to bear arms and ensuring consistent criminal justice.”
Boulder lawyers argued that the city ordinance was necessary because state law does not deal with assault weapons and large capacity magazines. Hartman ruled that the omission was willful – listing other weapons prohibited by state law – and so the state had in effect chosen not to include assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.
“The General Assembly has enacted a comprehensive plan to regulate firearms and ammunition … including banning magazines that can accept more than 15 rounds,” he wrote. “ That assault weapons have been clearly omitted from the list of ‘dangerous and illegal weapons’ and are therefore not prohibited under Colorado law suggests an intention to make possession of assault weapons legal in Colorado in light of the comprehensive nature of the firearms regulation and the prohibition of LCMs accepting more than 15 rounds. “
Boulder ordinance banned ammunition magazines that can hold more than 10 bullets.
Authorities on Tuesday identified the 10 people who died in Monday’s shooting at the King Soopers supermarket. The victims ranged in age from 20 to 65 years.
Alissa, a 21-year-old man from Arvada, Colorado, has been charged with 10 first-degree murders for the shooting, according to police chief Maris Herold. Using law enforcement databases, investigators have determined that Alissa purchased a Ruger AR-556 pistol on March 16, 2021, according to the affidavit for the warrant.
“This can’t be our new normal … we need to see a change because we’ve lost way too many lives,” Congressman Joe Neguse said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Former Boulder councilor Jill Adler Grano, who enacted Boulder’s assault weapons ban and now works as director of community affairs for Neguse, said at the time that the city’s ordinance was an attempt to prevent massive tragedies, such as those in neighboring towns. Columbine and Aurora
“I don’t see this as taking away the rights to the Second Amendment,” Grano said, according to Complete Colorado. “The Second Amendment doesn’t protect assault weapons. There have been hundreds and hundreds of mass shootings in America. This is a proposal that should have been a long time ago. I think it’s time to say enough, not in the city of Boulder.”
The National Rifle Association released a festive press release after the ban on assault weapons was lifted in Boulder. The organization’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) supported the case.
“The city government should have listened to the city attorney. His repeated attempts to warn them that they did not have the authority to pass these ordinances were cited throughout the opinion,” the statement read. “The opinion has also been written very thoroughly and thoughtfully, which will make it even more difficult to roll back if the city appeals against it.”
The NRA said the loss of Boulder should be used as a precedent against other cities “considering passing similar counterproductive regulations.”
Assault weapons were banned nationwide for 10 years under the Law on the Protection of Public Safety and Recreational Use of Firearms, commonly referred to as the Prohibition of Assault Weapons, until 2004, when Congress failed to re-approve the banMany states have since passed their own assault weapon laws, some more stringent than the federal ban.
President Biden chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee when Congress passed the ban. He wrote in a 2019 New York Times op-ed that if elected president, he would push to ban them again.
“Assault weapons – military-style firearms designed to fire quickly – are a threat to our national security and we should treat them as such,” wrote Mr Biden. “Anyone who claims there is nothing we can do is lying – and that position should disqualify anyone trying to run our country.”
Monday’s tragedy in Colorado marks the second mass shooting since Mr. Biden took office. Eight people died the previous week in shootings at three spas in Atlanta, Georgia.
The president on Tuesday pushed for support for a ban on assault weapons and called on the Senate to immediately pass house law to close loopholes in the background check. “We have to do something,” he said.
California Senator Dianne Feinstein, who was an architect of the original ban, has called for re-authorization and update. She noted on Tuesday at a Senate Committee hearing on gun violence that the Colorado shooter used an AR-15, which was also used in recent mass shootings in Las Vegas, Nevada, Dayton, Ohio, Parkland, Florida and Sandy Hook Elementary.
She also pointed out that violent firearms killings fell 37 percent during the 10-year ban, but there was “a 183 percent increase in massacres” in the 10 years after the ban ended.
“All our hearts go out to all the families who lost a loved one yesterday, and to the law enforcement officers who risk their lives for their sense of duty,” Feinstein said“But that doesn’t solve the problem.”
In response to Feinstein’s call for a renewed federal ban on assault weapons, Republican freshman congressman Lauren Boebert in Colorado tweeted on March 14, two days after the Boulder ordinance was repealed, that “ every politician calling for guns to be banned must insist on their safety. disarmed. “
Colorado Democratic Governor Jared Polis said on Tuesday that the public should not accept Monday’s massacre as “ normal. ”
“This has been a painful year. And we are here again, surrounded by seemingly incomprehensible, meaningless loss,” he said. “This is a pain that we have to sit with. We can never let ourselves become numb to the pain because we simply cannot let this be accepted as something that is almost normal.”