The Boulder County Commissioners at the beginning of this month unanimously approved five new gun control ordinances that will help keep residents safe in an era of mass shootings and lesser known incidents of gun violence, they said.

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Following a month-long comment period and a public hearing, Boulder County has joined a number of its neighboring agencies and municipalities in enacting a set of ordinances intended to address gun violence.

Commission Vice-Chair Claire Levy said in a statement to the press that “the rate of deaths in our country through gun violence is simply unacceptable. When you take a look at the homicides, suicides and the innocent bystanders who are injured or maimed, the laws we are putting in place is to prevent those deaths and injuries.”

Naturally not everyone has welcomed the change. Some who spoke at the public hearing told the commissioners the county will face a similar lawsuit filed recently in Superior which halted the implementation of a slate of new gun restrictions in that community.

Robert Jelgersma, a resident of Allenspark said preventing people from legally carrying a weapon in certain areas like schools and churches only encourages people who want to do harm. “It just opens up the possibility of these places being like a shooting gallery,” Jelgersma said. 

The ordinances which were adopted on August 2, 2022 are effective immediately, and they include Ordinance 2022-2, an ordinance prohibiting the purchase of firearms by anyone under the age of twenty-one. It also prohibits anyone under the age of 21 from purchasing and selling firearms to anyone under the age of 21. 

Ordinance 2022-3 requires a waiting period prior to the sale of firearms. It establishes a 10 day waiting period for delivering firearms from a licensed firearms dealer and for the dealer to have received approval from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for the firearms transfer. 

Ordinance 2022-4 prohibits the carrying of firearms in sensitive public places. It also prohibits the carrying of firearms, whether in an open or concealed manner, in sensitive public areas in unincorporated Boulder County, including (but not limited to) government buildings, playgrounds, parks, within 500 feet of a polling station or ballot box, healthcare facilities, places of worship, preschools, and day-cares. 

Ordinance 2022-5 prohibits the sale and purchase of assault weapons, large capacity magazines, and trigger activators. This also prohibits the manufacture, import, purchase, sale or transfer of any assault weapon, large-capacity magazine, or rapid-fire trigger activator in unincorporated Boulder County.

Ordinance 2022-6 regulates the possession of unfinished frames and receivers, and unserialized firearms. It prohibits the possession of firearms that have not been identified with a serial number by a federal licensee (so called ‘ghost guns’).