Come and get em. Update to this story. It still needs a third reading to become final.
Via Daily Camera:
The Boulder City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to advance a ban on the sale and possession of assault weapons, bump stocks and high-capacity magazines in the city.
In recent weeks, the terms and scope of the council’s proposed ban have been hotly debated, including at a multi-hour public hearing before the council April 5, during a street protest on Broadway and through hundreds of emails to the council from citizens.
What the council voted for on Tuesday is not final. In order to be adopted as law, it will need to be voted on again at a third reading that will likely take place in the next few weeks.
It will become effective as soon as it’s adopted. At that point, according to rules the council has agreed on, citizens who own bump stocks will have to get rid of them within 30 days of adoption. They’d have to get rid of magazines with the capacity to hold 10 or more rounds by Dec. 31.
After lengthy deliberation, the council landed on a law that is in some ways stricter than what City Attorney Tom Carr originally drafted, with many fewer exemptions than might have been included.
Assault-style weapons, under a specific and technical definition Carr has written, could not be sold or possessed under this law.
Once the law is formally passed — and assuming the language within it doesn’t change by the third reading — there will be exemptions only for police, federal officers and military personnel.
Though there was some debate on this matter, a majority of the council seemed to believe that the spirit of the law should be to rid Boulder of AR-15-style weapons, and that broad exemptions — for concealed carry permit holders, for example — could undermine that aim.
“I think, by and large, we’re focused on a type of weapon to keep it out of civilian society,” Mayor Suzanne Jones said. “Seems to me if you’re in the military or you need (an assault weapon) for your duties, that makes sense. I’m not sure, if you don’t need it for your duties, why you should have it.”
The council talked at great length about whether gun owners who acquired their assault weapons prior to the new law’s effective date should be required to register those weapons with the city’s police department.
There is great concern among some about the prospect of gun owners having to be listed on any city registry. Many have already threatened to protest the law, including the registration aspect of it.
“I will not comply,” read signs waved by some in the audience at Tuesday’s meeting.
After much conversation, the council seemed to agree to a paper registration system gun owners would have to get certificates for their weapons from the Boulder Police Department and keep their assault weapons and certificates together at all times.
Police would keep no formal record through registry, however.
Owners who purchased their weapons prior to this law’s effective date would have until Dec. 31 to claim their certificates.
HT: Griswold