April 30, 2021 07:55 AM UTC

Dems Introduce New Post-Boulder Gun Safety Bills

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• by: Colorado Pols

FOX 31 reports on three new pieces of legislation introduced yesterday in response to the shooting in March at a Boulder King Soopers supermarket that claimed the lives on ten people:

“Between the gun violence prevention bills we’ve already passed this session, and the three bold measures we are outlining today, this legislative session may end up being the most transformative legislature Colorado has ever seen as it relates to gun violence,” said Aurora Representative Tom Sullivan. Sullivan lost his son, Alex, in the Aurora theater shooting…

“The first of these bills, of which I am one of the sponsors, repeals the state preemption which bars local governments from enacting any of their own gun laws. Just 10 days before the Boulder shooting, courts blocked Boulder’s citywide assault weapons ban,” said Boulder Senator Steve Fenberg.

In addition to restoring the ability of cities like Boulder to impose their own local gun control measures, another bill will establish a statewide office of gun violence prevention to study and coordinate remedies to the problem. But arguably the most consequential of the three bills introduced yesterday concerns pre-sale background checks: banning gun purchases for five years after a violent misdemeanor conviction, which might have prevented the Boulder shooter from buying the weapon he used, as well as closing the so-called “Charleston loophole” that allows a gun sale to proceed if a background check isn’t completed within a specified period.

None of these limited common-sense measures should meet partisan resistance. They all will. For the present, even the least we can do on this issue seems to require the mandate of fresh tragedy.