The Colorado cities of Superior, Louisville, Lafayette, and Boulder all have a list of gun control on their City Council agendas for Tuesday, June 7th.
This coordinated effort is being pushed by assistant to Boulder City Council Taylor Reimann in conjunction with out-of-state gun control groups Gifford’s and Everytown For Gun Safety.
READ HERE the draft ordinances crafted specifically for Colorado back in Sept 2021.
There are a total of 6 ordinances being voted on by each town. Those are:
- Banning the sale and possession of “assault weapons,” large-capacity magazines and rapid-fire trigger activators, raising the minimum age to purchase any firearm to 21.
- Prohibiting the concealed carrying of firearms in “sensitive” public places including: any area owned by or controlled by the town, public parks or open space, protests, anywhere that serves alcohol, hospitals and other medical or mental health facilities, church, synagogue, mosque, temple or other place of worship, stadium or arena, courthouse, banks, theaters, child care centers or preschools, and more.
- Prohibiting the open carrying of firearms in all public places.
- Requiring all firearm dealers to post “warning” signs at all locations where firearms transfers take place.
- Requiring a 10 day waiting period prior to the sale of firearms.
- Regulating the manufacture and possession of non-serialized firearms or so-called “ghost guns”.
Here’s how to get involved. If you cannot attend a meeting, please take a moment to email them using the easy links below:
Boulder – 6pm – VIRTUAL ONLY
Agenda and sign up to speak: https://bouldercolorado.gov/events/city-council-meeting-19
WATCH the meeting
CLICK HERE to email all Boulder council members at once
Louisville – 6pm – IN-PERSON at City Hall, 749 Main Street or VIRTUAL
Agenda and sign up to speak: https://www.louisvilleco.gov/local-government/government/city-council/city-council-meeting-agendas-packets-minutes
WATCH the meeting
CLICK HERE to email all Louisville council members at once
Superior – 8pm – VIRTUAL ONLY
Agenda and instructions to request to speak: https://www.superiorcolorado.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/5819/19
WATCH the meeting
CLICK HERE to email all Superior council members at once
Lafayette – 5:30pm – IN-PERSON at City Hall Council Chambers 1290 S. Public Road or VIRTUAL
Agenda and instructions to sign up to speak: https://www.lafayetteco.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/5281
WATCH the meeting
CLICK HERE to email all Lafayette council members at once
In addition to all this madness, a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request has revealed there are dozens more cities on the Colorado front range that may be part of this effort. The CORA exposed how council members were skirting Sunshine Laws in Colorado that require meetings with more than two officials from a governing body to be open to the public. We have more info about this coming out soon, but in the meantime read up on what we know at Complete Colorado.
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The vast majority of good people with guns have never committed a crime – and certainly not a crime that involved a gun (or they wouldn’t be allowed to own one). So what crimes are you going to stop by banning good people from having guns?
The vast majority of bad guys – criminals – are not legally allowed to have a gun, which means they have already been banned from having a gun. That has not stopped criminals with guns from committing crimes.
Does that tell you anything about how well gun bans work?
And consider this; the police know, we all know, that thousands of gangbangers, street thugs, gangsters, and assorted criminals have guns. We know that they have them. We know that in all likelihood they got them illegally. But do the police go into their homes and/or hangouts to search for and confiscate those weapons? No, because… WE DON’T WANT TO INFRINGE ON THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS!
But it seems that you’re willing to infringe on the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.
What has this country come to?
All of the four ordinances passed “first reading” with only two council members (I believe Wong and Samson – the two known moderate members) expressing concerns about the ordinances, and both voting against one of them. I do not know if the second reading and final vote will be at the next meeting (regularly scheduled as 5:30 pm on the 3rd Tuesday of this month), or if it will be delayed. People need to check the Lafayette City Council web page for the next meeting agenda when it is posted soon. More pro-gun people should be there to speak or just show up. Note that the city council meeting hall is quite small so get there well before 5:30 or you will have to stand in the lobby (no chairs) and listen via a delayed audio system (looking through the glass into the room). If pro-gun people get there at 5:00, you can keep all the out-of-town anti-gun people from the two big anti-gun organizations out in the lobby.
City Hall is at the northeast corner of S. Public Road (the north-south street that goes through old town) and South Boulder Road in Lafayette (two-story brown building). Easily reachable by taking South Boulder Road east from Highway 287 (about 3/4 mile). The City Hall Parking lot is small, but there is a large commercial lot on the west side of Public Road. Be aware that you will be screened by police with a wand for any weapons, so concealed-carry is not allowed and guns, pepper spray, batons, etc. should be left in your car. Remote comments via phone are also allowed if you sign up in advance through the website, but that is obviously a clumsy electronic system and sometimes doesn’t work well. Written comments in advance are also allowed, but the mayor just reads them aloud as quickly as possible, and so they are not very effective. Being there in-person is much better. If you speak, you need to do so clearly and loudly because the microphone is not well amplified through the room and lobby. Wearing decent clothes like you’d wear to church also helps a lot.
https://www.lafayetteco.gov/247/City-Council
https://www.lafayetteco.gov/DocumentCenter/View/425/Residents-Guide-to-City-Council-Meetings?bidId=
In order to speak you need to fill out a paper form in the lobby and give it to the city clerk at the front of the meeting hall (or ask the cop at the back who to give it to). There will also be copies of the agenda in the lobby. Speaking time is limited to five minutes. A couple of pro-gun (I think) people at the Tuesday meeting had some odd-ball stuff to say with weird historical references (one about the Romans) so please just keep your comments direct and to the point about problems (listed below) with the amendments – problems that will invite litigation and cost the small town a lot of money. Also for preparation read CU law professor David Kopel’s open leader to the Denver City Council on the similar ordinances they passed. Link:
https://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/2022/04/21/kopel-a-letter-to-the-denver-city-council-on-licensed-concealed-carry/
You can e-mail all city council members below with specific comments on the ordinances (check “all council members”). Use real name and contact info not anonymous info, or it won’t get to them. If you are a Lafayette or Boulder county resident who spends time in Lafayette, obvioiusly let them know. Inflammatory comments won’t help, and will hurt the pro-gun cause. The Lafayette city council members are much more reasonable than most of the other nearby Boulder County towns. Council members Wong and Samson are the moderates, most of the others are liberal, but most are reasonable people. In fact, they have come out with a resolution against the “patchwork” or local ordinances, and urging the state legislature to instead pass only state-wide firearms laws. The city attorney and city administrator (who also attend the meetings) are also reasonable people.
https://www.lafayetteco.gov/formcenter/Contact-Us-4/Contact-City-Council-or-Council-Members-171
The Lafayette City Council is MUCH more limited in what they have proposed than the other councils (with no semi-auto gun bans), though there are serious problems with the concealed-carry and open carry ordinances – see below. If the Council were prudent, the second reading should be delayed until the Supreme Court releases the decision this month in the New York CCW case, which will bear on the concealed and open carry restrictions.
Proposed Ordinances – read them, available in pdf on the Council web page appended to the meeting agenda (have to scroll down through all the other stuff to find them):
https://www.lafayetteco.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/5282
1. Ordinance 20, regulating possession of unfinished frames and receivers and unserialized Firearms. There was no debate on this.
2. Ordinance 21, regarding the posting of firearms warning/information signs at all firearms dealers. Council member Samson pointed out that there are practical problems with the sign ordinance that might require amendment.
3. Ordinance 22, prohibiting open carry in public. There was no debate on this, but there are significant problems with the ordinance as written, involving the “visibility” of uncased loaded/unloaded firearms that might be transported to/from a vehicle or other conveyance (camper, trailer, bike bag, etc), and requiring that firearms be in a case recognizable as a gun case or marked as such (obviously very stupid).
4. Ordinance 23, prohibiting concealed-carry on city-owned property, including parks, open space, trails etc. There was some limited debate on this as council members Wong and Samson had concerns about the ordinance – I believe they may have voted against it, but I’m not sure. There are lots of problems with this ordiance as written, since even regular “thoroughfares” (roads, sidewalks, etc.) were not listed as exemptions – an obvious error. And trails (gravel and paved) passing through parks and open space are not exempted (as they are even in the similar Illinois state-wide law) . The recent federal court case in the Northern District of Illinois that Prof. David Kopel cited in his open letter to the Denver City Council overruled restrictions in the Chicago/Cook County forest preserves – somewhat equivalent to the Colorado city open space land.
It looks like the beginning of my comment was cut off on the Lafayette City Council Meeting (maybe too long), so here is the first part. :
Lafayette ordinance update (June 11):
Very few gun rights people showed up at the Lafayette City Council meeting last Tuesday to speak in the public comment period about the problems with the four proposed firearms ordinances. In contrast there were many of the “Moms Demand Action” people in red T-shirts. Some of them spoke, and they also shamelessly had a very nervous small child try to haltingly speak from a script (very sad). Based on what some said, their position also seems to include opposition to increased school security and armed police, security guards, or armed teachers. Note that, according to news reports, Boulder Valley Schools kicked all the school resource police officers off campus effective in early 2022.
As I wrote, the next reading and vote on the four Lafayette firearms ordinances will be on Tuesday June 21, with business starting at 5:30. It is likely there will be final vote at the meeting. Get there early in order to be able to get a seat and get registered to speak on the SPECIFIC problems with the four ordinances I listed (5 minutes maximum). That will be much more effective than a rant or some of the oddball stuff that people had to say last time (that will just influence the vote against us with the Democrats on the council).
Please note that the current City Council webpage says that WRITTEN public input will NOT be read at this meeting, which is different than before. So it is much better that you show up. There is a way to make a statement by phone during the meeting, but that is much less effective than a live statement (I think the audience finds the phone statements hard to understand with the audio system and somewhat annoying).
It is important to note that Lafayette is NOT considering the semi-auto gun bans or purchase waiting periods that the other cities are; just the ban on open carry, ban on concealed carry on public property, warning signs at gun stores, and ban on non-serialized firearms (“ghost guns”). So we have a much better chance in Lafayette of amending the four ordinances with reasonable exceptions since there is not so much emotion involved as with the “assault weapon” ordinances in the other towns.
However, the ban on licensed conceled carry in all parks, open space (some remote from any police response) and on designated “trails” (which are all over the city and adjacent to some parks) is still a BIG problem. The ordinance doesn’t even specifically exempt streets and sidewalks (an obvious error that they must correct). And the open carry ordinance is so restrictive that carrying a gun from a gunsmith or gunstore to your parked car, or from your parked car on the street to your home would be illegal. The ordinance also requires that guns be in a “recognizable” gun case (really stupid). Please speak out against those ordiances for those specific reasons. That has the best chance of modifying them or delaying them for more amendments. Also, the Supreme Court Decision in the New York case on concelaed carry is out this week and could firm up the definition of “sensitive places” where carry can be banned. For that reason alone the ordinances should be delayed – you can also raise this as a problem. At least one federal district court (N. District of Illinois) has recently ruled that concealed carry cannot be banned in forest preserves (like our open space). See Dave Kopel’s letter that I referred to before for more legal backup.
Lafayette City Council Meeting:
Date:
June 21, 2022
Time:
5:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Meetings generally start promptly at 5:30pm
Location:
City Hall
Address:
1290 S. Public Rd.
Lafayette, CO 80026
So, is this **collusion?++