Boulder Residents Ordered to Bring Guns to Police for Certification

A man who didn't want to be identified at a protest against the looming gun ban in Boulder, Co., on April 21, 2018. (Rick T. Wilking/Getty Images)

Residents of Boulder, Colorado, have until Dec. 27 to certify their guns with the city authorities.

Those who don’t certify risk legal trouble, as the city is trying to bring residents into compliance with a ban on high-capacity magazines, bump stocks, and assault rifles, The Western Journal reported.

Instead of confiscating the citizens’ banned rifles, the city wants them to to be certified. The certificate will allow citizens to continue to have the weapons in their possession if they were purchased before the ban. It went into effect via city council vote in May.

So far only 87 certificates out of a city of 100,000 residents have been issued. But even that number consists of duplicates, in at least one case due to dual ownership of a weapon between husband and wife.

To certify, residents have to go to police headquarters. Officers will inspect the weapon while it is in a resident’s vehicle to make sure it is a type of weapon under the ban, the Daily Camera reported. If so, residents have to pay $20 for the first weapon and $5 for each additional certification, depending on if the gun owner also passes a background check.

Residents were previously ordered to sell or destroy bump stocks and high-capacity magazines, with a deadline of July 15. The city is also looking to establish a registration system for the city’s gun owners, according to the Daily Camera.

Authorities are expecting many people not to comply with the ban, and also suspect that people are finding ways to circumvent the laws. Police know that some people are likely storing their weapons outside of city limits.

Legal Resistance to the Ban

The NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) announced their support for a lawsuit countering the ban, back in June. The Colorado State Shooting Association (CSSA) initiated the lawsuit to protect the rights of citizens to own guns.

“We will not stand by and allow the misguided gun control extremists on the city council to strip us of our rights,“ said CSSA executive director Anthony Fabian, via an NRA-ILA news release. ”We are grateful for the NRA’s support of our lawsuit and look forward to restoring the rights of Boulder’s law-abiding citizens.”

Even at the time when legislatures passed the laws in Boulder, they faced threats of legal action. Before the city council vote, the Mountain States Legal Foundation spoke about challenging the ban and alleged it violated the second, fifth, and fourteenth amendments, as well as the Colorado state constitution, according to the Daily Camera.

A 61-year-old gun owner in Ferndale, Maryland was killed when police attempted to confiscate his gun, under new laws in Maryland. Gary Willis refused to hand over his gun and was killed in the resulting scuffle with the police who showed up at his door at around 5 a.m., the Baltimore Sun reported.

The “Red Flag” gun confiscation order that led to the death of Willis and the Colorado bans are both seen as reactions to the Parkland, Florida, school shooting.

From NTD News