Colorado governor signs bill allowing cities to set their own gun restrictions into law

Colorado governor Jared Polis on Saturday signed three gun reform bills into law. The new regulations come on the heels of a mass shooting in Boulder earlier this year.

Bill SB21-256 allows cities in Colorado to establish their own gun regulation, overwriting a previous state law that "prohibits a local government from enacting an ordinance, regulation, or other law that prohibits the sale, purchase, or possession of a firearm." While the new law gives local jurisdictions more latitude to set their own gun control regulations, it does prohibit them from enacting regulations that are "less restrictive" than state law. Ten days before the March mass shooting that left 10 dead, a Boulder County District Court judge blocked the city's ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. The judge ruled that the 2018 law violated a previous law from 2003 that made gun regulations a state interest to prevent "a patchwork of inconsistent local laws involving firearms."