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Second Reading Amendments <br />Ordinance No. 1835, Series 2022 is revised to read as follows (amendments are shown in bold underline <br />and bold strikeout): <br />ORDINANCE NO. 1835 <br />SERIES 2022 <br />AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 9, ARTICLE VIII OF THE LOUISVILLE <br />MUNICIPAL CODE TO REQUIRE A WAITING PERIOD PRIOR TO THE SALE OF <br />FIREARMS <br />WHEREAS, laws imposing a waiting period prior to the sale of a firearm give law <br />enforcement officials adequate time to perform a thorough background check on the prospective <br />purchaser and provide a "cooling off' period to help guard against impulsive acts of violence <br />and prevent firearm suicides; and <br />WHEREAS, in Boulder County, an average of 26 people per year use a firearm to end <br />their own lives. These suicides are not inevitable. Suicide attempts can be impulsive, singular <br />episodes that involve little planning. One study found that among people who made near -lethal <br />suicide attempts, 24 percent took less than 5 minutes between the decision to kill themselves and <br />the actual attempt, and 71 percent took less than 1 hour'; and <br />WHEREAS, a firearm waiting period law helps prevent suicide by creating a buffer <br />between the time of gun purchase and gun acquisition, giving someone in crisis the chance to let <br />the feeling pass or seek help instead of picking up a firearm; and <br />WHEREAS, while some suicidal people who are unable to access a gun may try to kill <br />themselves by other means, the most common alternative methods of suicide are far less lethal, <br />so more survivable, than suicide by firearm. Approximately 90 percent of gun suicide attempts <br />end in death, while four percent of suicide attempts across all other methods end in death .2 The <br />vast majority of people (90 percent) who survive a suicide attempt recover from their mental <br />health crisis and do not go on to die by suicide.3 But because firearms are so lethal, many of <br />those who pick up a gun do not get the chance to survive and recover; and <br />1 Eberhard A. Deisenhammer, et al., "The Duration of the Suicidal Process: How Much Time is Left for Intervention Between <br />Consideration and Accomplishment of a Suicide Attempt?," The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 70, no. 1 (2008); T. R. Simon, et al., <br />"Characteristics of Impulsive Suicide Attempts and Attempters," Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior 32 no. 1 (Suppl.) (2001): <br />49-59; <br />Z Andrew Conner, Deborah Azrael, and Matthew Miller, "Suicide Case -Fatality Rates in the United States, 2007 to 2014: A <br />Nationwide Population -Based Study," Annals of Internal Medicine 171, no. 2 (2019): 885-95, https:Hdoi.org/10.7326/M19- <br />1324. <br />3 David Owens, Judith Horrocks, and Allan House, "Fatal and Non -Fatal Repetition of Self -Harm: <br />Systematic Review," British Journal of Psychiatry 181, no. 3 (2002): 193-199; see also "Attempters' <br />Longterm Survival," Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Means Matter, http://www.hsph. <br />harvard.edu/means-matter/means-matter/survival. <br />Ordinance No. 1835, Series 2022 <br />Page 1 of 6 <br />