BOISE, Idaho — Boise City Council passed a resolution in hopes of improving gun safety during its meeting Tuesday evening.
The vote comes just weeks after a mass shooting at a Georgia high school left two students and two teachers dead. At least nine others were injured.
"I wanted to make sure that we didn't just let the moment pass without having a response to it," Councilmember Jimmy Hallyburton said.
Hallyburton wrote the resolution. He also helped with the gun safety resolution Council passed in 2022 after the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Hallyburton said gun violence is also a serious issue in Idaho, and it is time for common sense gun laws in the Gem State.
"We're very limited on what we can do to address gun safety, safe gun laws," he said. "What we can do is we can address things that actually perpetuate violence in the community. So, we can think of things like substance abuse. We can think of mental health. We can think of domestic abuse."
The latest resolution calls on state lawmakers to pass gun control legislation. Hallyburton said Idaho has some of the least restrictive laws in the country.
"I'm not casting blame on anyone and saying that you're the fault or you're the reason that these things are happening … I think what we're saying is that we need your help," he said.
The resolution gives several policy recommendations. That includes requiring "thorough background checks for gun sales, reasonable restrictions on owning military-style guns and limiting the size of ammunition magazines."
Sen. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa, called the ideas "leftist garbage" in an email to KTVB. He said, "Every time someone talks about common sense gun laws, what they really mean is curb stomping the rights of the responsible, law-abiding gun owners."
He also said, "As long as Idaho stays a conservative state, we won't go along with these communist gun control schemes like the one Boise is pushing."
The Idaho 2nd Amendment Alliance, a local gun rights organization, also responded to the resolution in an email. President Greg Pruett wrote, "The 'solutions' proposed by the city are the same platitudes that we have heard time and time again from liberal city councils and mayors across the country. There is no evidence these measures will solve anything."
The only councilmember who voted no was Luci Willits. She said it is not the city's place to give the state recommendations.
"We're not in control of that," she said. "We're in control of what we can do. If we want to do more, we should be doing more, and it shouldn't be just passing resolutions."
Hallyburton said everyone should be involved in conversations about public safety. He encourages people who live in Boise to reach out if they have any ideas about what the city can implement or change.