After the horrific school shooting in Parkland, Flordia earlier this year, the city council in Boulder, Colorado voted unanimously on an ordinance banning assault weapons, bump stocks, and high capacity magazines within city limits.
Now, the city is being sued.
Jon Caldara is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against Boulder’s recently enacted assault weapons ban. He believes the ban isn’t just an attack on the the Second Amendment, but it purposefully discriminates against gun owners like himself in a way that would never–never!–be tolerated if the people targeted were, say, gay.
“Boulder has traditionally tried to welcome different people to the community,” Caldara tells local media outlet Westword. “It had a registry for same-sex couples before they could legally marry, so it helped people get out of the closet.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
He continues, “But what Boulder is doing now is putting gun owners back into a closet. And that goes against everything Boulder claims to stand for.”
Wait… what? We’re not quite sure we see the logic here.
Neither does Boulder City Council member Sam Weaver, who voted in favor of the measure. He says Caldara and friends are merely “throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.”
“They’re attempting to make this a federal case, but I think most of that is going to be tossed out on the face of it,” Weaver says.
But Caldara insists, “This is an attack on a political minority that the Boulder elite finds dirty, ignorant and dangerous!”
“The message is pretty clear: ‘We don’t want your type in our lily-white, elitist town, so we will bully you out. We will separate you. We will force you to self-identify. You have to pay to go to the police and get a permission slip and be on a watch list just because of who you are and what we believe.'”
“That’s hateful,” he says, “and it’s bigotry!”
In an email to Westword, councilwoman Jill Grano, who initially brought the ordinance forward, explains:
It’s important to remember that a ban on assault weapons was federal law for ten years, from 1994-2004. We have taken steps backward since then because of the NRA’s stronghold on American politicians. Four federal appeals courts in the last decade have upheld assault weapons bans. In fact, no federal appeals court has ever NOT upheld an assault weapons ban. I am proud of our city council for being proactive in protecting our citizens, and I look forward to our ordinance.
What does Caldara have to say about this?
“I’ve never felt as a gun owner that I was a politically bullied minority until now,” he says. “[Boulder] used to be a tolerant place, but now it’s intolerant and it’s hateful.”
Related: 5 examples that prove the NRA hates LGBTQ people as much as gun control
edwardnvirginia
Hello?! the Second Amendment – unless removed from the Constitution (unlikely, in the utmost!) and unless re-interpreted by SCOUTS (unlikely any time soon!) … protects rights to come ‘out of the closet’ with legally acquired and legally carried weapons!
Gina
That’s problem with far too many “conservatives” these days. They’ve listened to crazies who misquote and lie about what the Constitution says and how important laws and court decisions interpret those provisions of the Constitution.
So, just to help you along and give you some honest facts about the limitations on your 2nd Amendment rights, here’s what Justice Antonin Scalia said about private gun ownership rights in the majority opinion of the case of District of Columbia v. Heller. (It’s the case that finally established a clear right for private citizens to own guns.)
“Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment or state analogues. The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms. Miller’s holding that the sorts of weapons protected are those “in common use at the time” finds support in the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons. Pp. 54–56.
radiooutmike
Bigotry? Really, does he know what the word means?
He could move out of Boulder. As far as cities and states, they’ve always had the power put some restrictions in their municipalities. Whether it is open carry or concealed carry or types of weapons.
Juanjo
I do not recall a time when gun owners were ever in the closet. That is just pathetic. These guys do not know the law and think the 2nd Amendment gives them the right to trot around with firearms of any type, anywhere they wish, at any time they wish. It doesn’t and never did. The Heller decision which is the one they love to cite to support their rights specifically says that and it was written by that well-known liberal – Scalia.
There have been restrictions on firearms going back to before the revolution, some of them drafted by the very Founders these fools claim allow them to do whatever. Most colonial towns did NOT permit loaded firearms inside the town limits. In addition, if you were visiting the firearms had to be kept in some safe place. If you did not have one, the town had a designated person and location to store them. That was even true in the so-called Wild West.
Kangol
Only a privileged, entitled idiot who has never faced any real discrimination, bias or oppression could utter something so asinine. Let an idiot like this actually face racism, sexism, homophobia or transphobia, true religious hatred, or any combo of the above, and then get back to me. Meanwhile, as far as I can tell in the US in 2018 despite 21+ school shootings and mass slaughters of innocent children and adults by domestic terrorists wielding guns, he can finger and fire his giant fake metal pen!s as he sees fit and buy as many more as he needs to compensate until the cows come home.
chris33133
On point exactly.
dgsea06
Even if it’s too late to comment on this, I for one, wish this macho-butcho and all of his wannabe bully (non-existent) friends would just put and keep their goddam guns in the closet! There, they can finger their surragote manhood where they can harm no-one but themselves. It used to be called Masturbation, but today they can wave their surrogate penis in public!
Total unreality that it is legal to wave a weapon of murder (Assault Rifle) in public, but illegal to wave a male penis (That which gives life) in public. WOW!
While I do not personally advocate men waving their penisses in public, I do object to “men” waving weapons of killing in public. I say again-detachment from reality.
So, yes, take your gunz into the “closet” and keep them there. Until, of course you are called up by the magistrate of your state to get it out of the arms room and defend the USA against all enemies, foreign and domestic. No- the real ones, not your imaginery ones under your table or bed. Hint: They’re called Republicans and other sucker-uppers to the, you guessed it, TDrumph
The DespicableDonaldDotard wants your money, your loyalty and fealty to the upcoming Funftige Reich. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!
Any Takers?
Aires the Ram
Let’s see, how many were killed in Chicago just this past Memorial Day weekend? And do you for one hot minute think that any of those shooters obtained their guns legally, passing criminal background checks? If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Hmmm, one of the most gun-restricted parts of the country………….
When crazy people commit heinous crimes such as shooting up a school or restaurant or anything else, the answer is NOT to disarm law abiding citizens who have the right, under the 2nd Amendment, to own them. One of the tools to usher in Fascism is to disarm the citizenry first. Works the same everywhere.
Cylest Brooks
Up to 60% of the illegal guns used in Chicago crimes are imported from Indiana and Kentucky, two states with few restrictions on gun purchases.
Nobody here is talking about disarming folks. Nobody. Literally nobody. You’re arguing against a claim that nobody here is making.