UPDATE — Since this story first published, Longmont has released more details on their upcoming meeting. Full details on the new ordinances being proposed can be found here. In a nutshell, it looks similar to new regulations being put in place by their Boulder County neighbors. That information can be found here.
LONGMONT — It appears the Longmont City Council may be joining their Boulder County neighbors in discussing new gun rights restrictions.
At least a dozen local governments and possibly one college along the Front Range were part of an earlier discussion led by Boulder City Council Administrator Taylor Reimann to adopt new municipal-level gun restrictions in the coming weeks and months.
Longmont was not among the initial list that included Fort Collins, Lafayette, Louisville, Lyons, Superior, Broomfield, Edgewater, Boulder, Boulder County, University of Colorado, Denver, Westminster, Lakewood, Arvada, Wheatridge, and Larimer County.
However, the Longmont City Council has scheduled a “pre session” (the term used by Longmont for work session) for Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. on “Discussion Related to Gun Safety Laws.”
There is no other detail given as to the extent of the discussion, but with nearly every community that borders Longmont prepared to pass extensive new gun rights restrictions, it’s likely Longmont is preparing to do the same.
According to a spokesperson for Longmont the study session will take place inside the Longmont Civic Center, 350 Kimbark St. He said there will be overflow viewing available in Council Chambers in case there is a large crowd.
The meeting will also be recorded and uploaded to the City’s YouTube channel within approximately 48 hours. Pre-sessions are not live streamed per normal practice.
The ongoing restrictions are part of a concerted effort on the part of Everytown for Gun Safety and the Giffords Center—both out of state gun control groups–along with the City of Boulder.
A Colorado Open Records Act request for emails belonging to Reimann produced an elaborate plan to enact similar restrictions on guns across Denver-metro communities on the south all the way to Larimer County on the north.
“The work follows the lifting of Colorado’s state pre-emption law last year, the first state in the country to overturn its prohibition on cities and counties from passing their own gun laws. Forty-two other states still have gun law pre-emptions statutes, although many are considering following Colorado’s lead this year,” reads a statement that the communities plan to release simultaneously on their social media channels announcing June implementations.
Six of the 15 local governments on that initial list are either already passing such ordinances or in the final stages of doing so.
Boulder, Louisville, Lafayette, and Superior all have versions of the laws that include such things as:
- Banning the sale and possession of “assault weapons,” large-capacity magazines and rapid-fire trigger activators, raising the minimum age to purchase firearms.
- Prohibiting the carrying of firearms in certain public places.
- Prohibiting the open carrying of firearms in public places.
- Requiring all firearm dealers to post signs at all locations where firearms transfers take place.
- Requiring a waiting period prior to the sale of firearms.
- Regulating the possession of unserialized firearms.
Councilmembers from some of the other local governments have reached out to Complete Colorado concerned about their communities being listed. It appears talks are not being conducted with the full knowledge of all the elected representatives.
Complete Colorado will continue to follow the developments.
