Don’t pity the bigots in Boulder, Colorado who like to portray themselves as open to diversity. To the contrary, just like the bigots and racists who passed Army-Navy Laws after the Civil War to disarm recently freed African-American slaves, Boulder’s present-day bigots hate black guns and the people who own them.
However, their make-believe utopian gun ban of police patrol-type rifles suffered a humiliating defeat this week as a judge threw the ban out. Ditto for the ban of standard capacity magazines.
It seems that the rule of law still prevails in Colorado, where state preemption precludes lefty bastions of bigotry from enacting their own brands of local gun control.
The Washington Free Beacon has the tale of the tape:
A judge struck down Boulder, Colorado’s ban on the possession of AR-15s and magazines holding more than 10 rounds on Monday.
Colorado state judge Andrew Hartman ruled the city’s gun ban violated the state’s preemption law, which prevents localities from imposing gun regulations above and beyond state law. Judge Hartman’s ruling declares the ordinance invalid and immediately bars the city from enforcing the ban.
“The Court has determined that only Colorado state (or federal) law can prohibit the possession, sale, and transfer of assault weapons and large capacity magazines,” Hartman wrote in the ruling.
The ruling is the latest in a string of victories for gun advocates who have used state preemption laws to overturn strict local gun regulations. A Washington court struck down a local ordinance on gun storage in February 2021, and a Pennsylvania court struck down Pittsburgh’s attempt to regulate the use of AR-15s inside city limits in October 2019.
These municipalities pass these local ordinances — in clear violate of the preemption laws on the books — because they figure nobody will challenge them. And even if they do, it’ll take years for the courts to reject the unlawful local lawmaking. Not only that, but the cities use taxpayer money to defend the faulty laws.
I’ll tell you though, they make it difficult for plaintiffs in these cases. Someday, I’ll be able to write about some the nastiness I’ve experienced first-hand as a plaintiff in Guns Save Life’s lawsuit in Illinois challenging the state’s Firearm Owner ID Act.
The Free Beacon story continues, covering the experiences of a plaintiff in the Colorado suit.
Jon Caldara, a longtime Boulder resident who openly flouted the AR-15 ban, said he was “thrilled” by the ruling. The former Denver Post columnist and Independence Institute president publicly announced he would not comply with the order to turn over his AR-15 or ammunition magazines when the ban was instituted in 2019. He filed a separate federal suit against the ordinance and said his family has received backlash from supporters ever since.
“I was probably the most publicly known criminal in Boulder,” he told the Washington Free Beacon. “That made us social outcasts. And it was really bad. My daughter got bullied at school for our position.”
Caldara said the ruling will force the city to live up to its stated ideals.
“Boulder prides itself on tolerance and diversity and inclusion when, in fact, Boulder is by far the most bigoted city in in Colorado,” he said. “And they particularly hate people who have guns. So, what I love about this ruling is it forces Boulder to live up to its stated pride of inclusivity and tolerance.”
Indeed. But Jon Caldera certainly gets the “Gun Hero of the Day” award from TTAG for his work helping to deep six this bigoted gun and magazine ban. Nice job, Jon.