So spoke Boulder city attorney Tom Carr in 2018, when he drafted a municipal ordinance banning assault weapons from the Colorado city of over 100,000 residents.
“With some exceptions, the 2018 ordinance largely banned the possession of assault weapons within city limits, describing them as ‘semi-automatic firearms designed with military features to allow rapid spray firing for the quick and efficient killing of humans.’ The ordinance also banned ammunition magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds and prohibited the sale of firearms to anyone under the age of 21,” Huffington Post says (read story here).
“I hope and pray we never have a mass shooting in Boulder,” Carr said, “and what this ordinance is about is reducing, on the margins, the ease with which somebody could do that. If you look at most of the mass shootings, the guns were purchased legally. I see this as an ordinance that throws in one more barrier to someone who’s contemplating such a horrible act.”
The NRA and Colorado Shooting Association sued to overturn the ordinance, and on March 16, 2021, a judge ruled state law preempted the ordinance and struck it down. On that same day, suspect Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 21, purchased the AR15 believed to be the weapon used in the Boulder supermarket mass shooting 6 days later.
People shouldn’t blame the judge for following the law. That’s what judges are required to do. People should blame the law, and try to change it.