During the January 10 City Council meeting, council members voted unanimously to pass a statement about issues affecting public safety, including gun legislation, and inviting the public to share their thoughts on the matter. The statement follows in full.

City Council Statement on Legislation Affecting Public Safety 

It is with thoughtful and heavy hearts we release this statement on gun legislation in Longmont. The mass shootings we have witnessed, including schools in other states and the Boulder King Soopers, where our own staff responded to the horrific scene, have created an urgent level of concern over gun violence.   

As many of you know, the 2021 State Legislative session removed the ban from municipalities regarding local gun laws, and several cities in Boulder County have enacted gun laws around possession, sale, and distribution of guns. At the same time as our concern as a county increased to the level of action, the U.S. Supreme Court also clarified several aspects of the 2nd Amendment regarding gun legislation. In the blink of an eye, the highest court’s ruling changed the legal landscape around the 2nd Amendment and called into question the constitutionality of gun laws across the country. When passing gun legislation, governments can no longer rely on important, long-standing governmental interests, such as public safety, and instead must show that gun restrictions are consistent with historical traditions. As a result, lawsuits against Boulder County and three local municipalities have recently been filed in federal court. 

As the City Council discussed this changing landscape with our Public Safety Staff, it became clear that other state changes to laws over the past five years have created an environment where people are not held accountable for their actions of violence. While we started our focus on mass shootings, we realized that other crime has increased in our community, including car thefts, drug offenses and gun violence. In addition, changes in state legislation that make it easier to hold individual police officers personally liable and threaten their livelihood for actions on the street make for an uncertain landscape for our officers. 

In most of these cases, increasing the age of gun purchases, banning ghost guns, expanding areas where open carry of firearms is prohibited, or establishing a waiting period for gun purchases would not have made a difference in these crimes. Many of the firearms our officers see are coming from the metro area or are stolen. Many of the people we arrest for car theft are quickly returned to the streets, only to re-commit their offenses again and again. People who are arrested and need addiction or mental health treatment do not have a state-funded option for help. Finally, people who want to acquire a firearm can simply drive a few minutes outside of Longmont to purchase a gun without local restrictions.