[BoulderCouncilHotline] Another alternative proposal

[Young, Mary]

Colleagues,

Below is an alternative approach. Throughout the last month, as I read through our copious emails on this issue, I tracked substantive recommendations from community members (on both sides) to see where there were areas of agreement.

It turns out that someone had already figured out where the areas of agreement lie.

I am putting this out there as an alternative approach, one that accomplishes what the current proposal purports to plus violence associated with handguns.

These items could be adapted to a local ordinance should Council choose to do so.


1. Ban high-capacity magazines. What kills kids the fastest are the 30-, 50-, 100-round magazines that are only designed for mass slaughter, not for recreation or self-defense.

2. Implement universal background checks for every gun purchase, everywhere. We must do this, not just at stores but at gun shows and online and out of the back of a pickup truck so that no one can buy a gun in America without a background check. Period.

3. Ban bump stocks. There is no valid recreational or self-defense use for a bump stock. It turns a regular gun into a machine gun and this does not have a place on American streets.

4. Create gun violence restraining orders (GVROs). GVROs would keep guns out of the hands of those who are a threat to themselves or others. Without harming due process, they would allow a family member, close relative, teacher or law enforcement officer to identify someone who is mentally ill or making verified threats and ensure they do not have access to guns until that threat is resolved.

  *   Those Who Commit Domestic Violence
  *   Those Who Commit Hate Crimes
  *   Individuals at Risk of Harming Themselves or Others

These 4 simple steps would have been enough to stop the mass shootings in Parkland, Las Vegas, Aurora, Orlando, and Newtown.*

Mary Dolores Young
Boulder City Council
303-501-2439

*full disclosure: these steps and final statement were cut and pasted from a gubernatorial candidate’s website.

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.
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