The Denver Accord combines best practices from across the country with evidence-based research to create a comprehensive and effective set of policies and programs intended to stop the scourge of gun violence.
THE DENVER ACCORD, SECTIONS 1-5:
SAFETY IMPROVES WITH:
♦ Ensuring higher standards of gun ownership by licensing (permit-to-purchase)
♦ Registration of firearms to help police disarm those who should not have guns
♦ Requiring Safe Storage to reduce suicide, theft, and unintentional shootings
♦ Reducing the lethality of firearms and ammunition to reduce death and injury
1.1 Firearm owners must receive a “may issue” permit-to-purchase (license) from law enforcement. “May issue” Permit-to-purchase (PTP) gives discretion to law enforcement for final decision to grant a permit. That decision may be appealed.
1.2. All permit-to-purchase applicants shall:
1.2.1. pass a background check through the National Instant Check System (NICS) or by the applicant’s state police (if the State has a Point of Contact system),
1.2.2. be at least 21 years of age,
1.2.3. undergo fingerprinting,
1.2.4. undergo live-fire training, and
1.2.5. undergo substantive, standardized classroom training.
1.3. Applicants will be disqualified if they have a history of:
1.3.1. Any violent misdemeanor convictions, or
1.3.2. two or more drug- or alcohol-related convictions within a three year period, or
1.3.3. any convictions for a misdemeanor or felony hate crime, or
1.3.4. any convictions for misdemeanor stalking,
1.3.5. any convictions for misdemeanor domestic or dating violence, or
1.3.6. are subject to ex parte or final domestic or dating violence protective orders.
1.4. A permit holder will undergo a waiting period of seven calendar days from the date of purchase to the date of possession.
2.1. Firearms must be registered to the owner and include the make, model, and serial number of the firearms.
2.2. An electronic and searchable firearm registration database will be housed and maintained by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
3.1. Order is submitted to a federal database to prevent future purchases of firearms while the order is in effect.
3.2. Allow individuals to place themselves under an ERPO.
3.3. Allow family, peace officers, and medical professionals to apply for an order.
An Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO), sometimes known as a Red Flag Law, is a tool that families and close friends can use when they believe an individual may be planning to use a weapon to cause harm. They can be an effective violence prevention tool, which is why section 3 of the Denver Accord explores this policy.
4.1. Personal Safe Storage
4.1.1. Enact a Federal Child Access Prevention (CAP) law with a felony penalty. 4.1.2. Provide for accountability in all cases of theft or loss in which the firearm
owner cannot show proof of safe storage.
4.1.3. Mandate reporting of lost and stolen firearms to reduce gun trafficking.
4.2. Federal Firearms License (FFL) Dealers Safe Storage
4.2.1. Mandate standardized security measures including security cameras.
4.2.2. Digitize inventory records (Acquisition and Disposition Book).
4.2.3. Mandate reporting of lost or stolen firearms to reduce gun trafficking.
4.2.4. Revoke FFL license in cases of substantial failure.
4.2.5. Increase ATF audits of FFLs.
5.1. Assault Weapons
5.1.1. Prohibit future sale and transfer of assault style, semi-automatic firearms.
5.1.2. Grandfather existing assault style, semi-automatic weapons under the National Firearms Act.
5.1.3. Prohibit open and concealed carrying of semi-automatic and automatic assault weapons.
5.1.4. Create a federal gun buyback program.
5.2. Short-Barreled Rifles
5.2.1. Revise existing NFA regulations on short-barreled rifles to include bullpup style firearms.
5.2.2. Develop policy to limit high caliber handguns because of their increased lethality.
5.3. Additional Firearm Safety Devices
5.4. Incentivize market development of modern security features, like smart guns, through mandated public spending.
5.5. Ghost Guns
5.5.1. Ban gun components from which a firearm without a serial number can be readily manufactured of otherwise assembled.
5.5.2. Ban 3D printing of guns by unlicensed manufacturers or dealers.
5.5.3. Ban distribution of gun blueprints for 3D printers.
5.5.4. Mandate that all firearms must be visible to security screening devices.
5.6. Reduce Ammunition Lethality
5.6.1. Prohibit specific types of ammunition designed to substantially increase lethality, including armor piercing rounds, hydro-shock rounds, fragmenting rounds, and hollow points.
5.6.2. Prohibit the manufacture, sale, transfer, or possession of high-capacity magazines (more than ten rounds in a magazine).
5.6.3. Develop a national ballistic fingerprinting database.
THE DENVER ACCORD, SECTION 6:
WE CAN LET EXISTING LAWS WORK BY:
♦ Strengthening the National Instant Check System (NICS)
♦ Making sure that people who are prohibited from having guns no longer have them
♦ Holding gun dealers accountable
♦ Regulating the private sale of guns
6.1. Strengthen The National Instant Check System (NICS)
6.1.1. Require NICS checks for all sales and transfers, including private sales.
6.1.2. Close Default Proceed Loophole (known as the “Charleston Loophole”) which forces approval of any outstanding query of NICS after three days.
6.1.3. Include adjudicated mental health records in NICS.
6.1.4. Repeal Tiahrt Amendment which hamstrings the ATF and requires the FBI to destroy potential evidence in gun crimes.
6.1.5. Require United States military records to be added to NICS.
6.1.6. Incentivize or mandate timely state reporting to NICS.
6.2. Enforce Current Law
6.2.1. Ensure all firearms are seized and possession rights are forfeited when a person becomes a prohibited purchaser or possessor.
6.2.2. Revoke firearm permits, licenses, and concealed handgun licenses when a person becomes a prohibited purchaser or possessor.
6.2.3. Require judges to inform prohibited purchasers or possessors they are no longer allowed to own firearms after conviction.
6.2.4. Improve coordination between local, state, and federal law enforcement and prosecutors to ensure prohibited abusers and people subject to orders prohibiting possession of firearms do not retain illegally possessed firearms.
6.2.5. Incentivize states to deter and prosecute individuals who lie on background check forms.
6.3. Demand Accountability
6.3.1. Repeal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).
6.3.2. Create a federal offense of firearm trafficking.
6.3.3. Limit state concealed carry reciprocity to permit-to-purchase states only.
6.3.4. Allow the ATF to maintain a registry on guns, gun owners, and gun sales.
6.3.5. Digitize ATF records.
6.4. International
6.4.1. The weapons and ammunition currently controlled under U.S. Munition List Categories I-III should remain under the control of the US State Department.
6.4.2. Address legal export of firearms to countries with known human rights violations through compliance of the Leahy Law.
6.4.3. Demand US ratification of and adherence to the 2013 Arms Trade Treaty. 6.5. Repeal the Dickey Amendment and fully fund research into gun violence and gun violence prevention laws.
THE DENVER ACCORD, SECTIONS 7-9:
COMMUNITIES ARE CONNECTED WHEN WE:
♦ Reduce the presence of firearms in public spaces
♦ Establish and fund community-based solutions to gun violence
♦ Champion police reform through community-based policing, education, and safety
7.1. Allow municipalities discretion to ban concealed or open carry in public spaces, public buildings, and at events, in addition to gun-free zones.
7.2. Repeal Stand Your Ground Laws.
7.3. Prohibit firearms on public university or school grounds, with exceptions for military, police, ROTC, and shooting teams.
8.1. Public health, community-located models
8.1.1. Proliferation and funding of focused deterrence models.
8.1.2. Proliferation and funding of violence interruption models.
8.1.3. Study of, and funding for, incentivized mentorship programs.
8.1.4. Fund harm-reduction public education campaigns.
8.2. Hospital Based Intervention Programs
8.2.1. Proliferation and funding of Hospital Based Intervention Programs.
8.2.2. Expand trauma-informed care and access to trauma therapy.
8.2.3. Train mental health care providers to emphasize removing lethal means.
9.1. Community based policing
9.1.1. Provide incentives for community-based policing and programs. 9.1.2. Shift away from “Broken Window Theory” policing.
9.2. Safety
9.2.1. Develop additional non-lethal tools police can deploy instead of a firearm. 9.2.2. Require the reporting of lost or stolen service weapons to ensure
accountability.
9.3. Education
9.3.1. De-escalation training for law enforcement and Student Resource Officers in schools.
9.3.2. Train police officers in active shooter drills that are not held in the presence of students where child trauma can occur.
9.3.3. Allow for diversion of Student Resource Officer funding to student mental health resources where deemed appropriate by local leaders.
9.3.4. Mandate and increase already existing levels of implicit bias training.
9.4. Accountability
9.4.1. Fund and use body cameras.
9.4.2. Develop standards to ensure accurate data collection on police-involved shootings.
9.4.3. Mandate and fund law enforcement collection and analysis of firearm-related ballistic and trace evidence.
9.4.4. Raise legal standards for justifiable use of lethal force.
The path to gun violence prevention is not paved with good intentions, thoughts, or prayers. It will not progress with hand-wringing or rhetoric. The evidenced-based Denver Accord provides both the complete pathway toward meaningful progress and a pragmatic, step-by-step way to get there.
Far from being recent entries into the gun violence prevention movement, the Denver Accord’s authors and allies are time-and-commitment-tested veterans who saw the need more than a decade ago to counter the skyrocketing number of US gun-related deaths. Their cumulative contributions have influenced and supported other gun violence prevention organizations and helped craft meaningful policies, regulations, and legislation in states across the country. Because of this unwavering involvement, the Denver Accord is more a practical application of efforts proven to work than a theoretical document.
