A judge in Colorado blocked Boulder’s two-year ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines earlier this month – less than two weeks later, 10 people were killed during a mass shootout in one of the city’s supermarkets. According to the statement, investigators determined that the suspect, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, purchased an assault rifle on March 16, 2021.
Boulder County District Court Judge Andrew Hartman ruled on March 12 that the 2018 ban, which made the possession, sale or transfer of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines (LCMs) illegal, was invalid because it contradicts state law.
“The Court considers that the Decree’s Possession, Sale and Transfer of Assault Weapons is operationally anticipated because it materially impedes the state’s interest in the regulation of firearms and prohibits what the state law authorizes,” says Hartman’s decision . He pointed to the state legislature’s declaration that firearms regulation is a state interest in order to avoid “a patchwork of inconsistent local laws involving firearms” and to better protect Colorado residents.
“The Court considers that the need for uniformity across the state favors the state’s interest in regulating assault weapons and LCMs,” wrote Hartman. “State uniformity in regulations that prohibit the possession and transfer of assault weapons and LCMs aligns with the legislature’s stated interest in protecting the fundamental right of citizens to carry a weapon and consistent treatment under criminal law.”
Boulder’s lawyers argued that the municipal decree was necessary because state law does not deal with assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. Hartman determined that the omission was intentional – listing other weapons prohibited by state law – and therefore, by choosing not to include assault weapons and large-capacity combs, the state did treat them.
“The General Assembly enacted a comprehensive scheme that regulates firearms and ammunition … which includes a ban on magazines capable of accepting more than 15 rounds,” he wrote. “The fact that assault weapons are clearly omitted from the list of ‘dangerous and illegal weapons’ and therefore are not prohibited by Colorado law, suggests the intention to make possession of assault weapons in Colorado legal in the light of nature comprehensive firearms scheme and a ban on LCMs accepting more than 15 rounds. “
The Boulder decree banned ammunition deposits that can contain more than 10 rounds.
Authorities on Tuesday identified the 10 people killed during Monday’s shooting at King Soopers supermarket. THE victims varied in age from 20 to 65 years.
Alissa, a 21-year-old man from Arvada, Colorado, was charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder by the shooting, according to police chief Maris Herold. Using law enforcement databases, investigators determined that Alissa purchased a Ruger AR-556 pistol on March 16, 2021, according to the arrest warrant testimony.
“This cannot be our new normal … we need to see a change, because we have lost so many lives,” Congressman Joe Neguse said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Former Boulder councilor Jill Adler Grano, who introduced the ban on assault weapons to Boulder and now works as director of community affairs for Neguse, said at the time that the city decree was in an effort to prevent mass tragedies, like those in neighboring cities Columbine and Aurora.
“I don’t see this as a loss of Second Amendment rights,” said Grano, according to Complete Colorado. “The Second Amendment does not protect weapons from assault. There have been hundreds and hundreds of mass shootings in America. This is a long overdue proposal. I think it is time to say enough, not in the city of Boulder.”
The National Rifle Association issued a commemorative press release after Boulder’s ban on assault weapons was lifted. The organization’s Legislative Action Institute (NRA-ILA) supported the case.
“The city council should have listened to the city attorney. Their repeated attempts to warn them that they did not have the authority to approve these ordinances were cited throughout the report, ”says the statement. “The opinion was also written in a very thorough and careful manner, which will make it even more difficult to overthrow if the city appeals.”
The NRA said Boulder’s loss should be used as a precedent against other cities “that are considering passing any similar counterproductive decrees.”
Assault weapons were banned across the country for 10 years under the Law on Protection of the Use of Firearms for Public Safety and Recreation, commonly called the ban on assault weapons, until 2004, when Congress failed to reauthorize the ban. Many states have since passed their own assault weapons laws, some more stringent than the federal ban.
President Biden was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee when Congress passed the ban. He wrote in a 2019 New York Times opinion piece that, if elected president, would push to ban them again.
“Assault weapons – military-style firearms designed to fire rapidly – are a threat to our national security and we must treat them as such,” wrote Biden. “Anyone who pretends that there is nothing we can do is lying – and having that opinion should be disqualifying to anyone who wants to lead our country.”
Monday’s tragedy in Colorado is the second mass shooting since Biden took office. Eight people were killed the week before, in shootings at three spas in Atlanta, Georgia.
The president called for support for the assault weapons ban on Tuesday and asked the Senate to immediately approve House legislation to close the background check gaps. “We have to act,” he said.
California Senator Dianne Feinstein, who was the architect of the original ban, asked for it to be reauthorized and updated. She noted at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on armed violence on Tuesday that the Colorado sniper used an AR-15, which was also used in recent shootings in Las Vegas, Nevada, Dayton, Ohio, Parkland, Florida and Sandy Hook Elementary.
She also pointed out that violent gun massacres fell 37 percent during the 10-year ban, but there was an “183 percent increase in massacres” in the 10 years after the ban expired.
“All of our hearts are with all the families who lost a loved one yesterday, and the police authorities who risk their lives in the line of duty,” Feinstein said. “But that doesn’t solve the problem.”
In response to Feinstein’s call for a renewal of the federal assault weapon ban, Colorado Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert tweeted on March 14, two days after Boulder’s decree was overturned, that “any politician who asks for the arms ban should insist that your security is also unarmed. “
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 sit here, again, surrounded by a seemingly incomprehensible and meaningless loss,” he said. “This is a pain that we need to face. We can never allow ourselves to be numb by the pain, because we simply cannot allow it to be accepted as something close to normal occurrence.”