This story was first published at Colorado Newsline.
DENVER | The Trump administration sued Colorado over its law restricting large-capacity magazines for rifles a day after it sued Denver over its assault weapons ban.
The lawsuit, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice Wednesday, says the state’s restrictions on magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds violate the Second Amendment rights of Coloradans.
“Colorado’s ban on certain magazines is political virtue signaling at the expense of Americans’ constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. “Under my direction, the Division’s Second Amendment Section will continue to defend law-abiding Americans’ rights against unconstitutional restrictions on their right to possess arms which are owned by tens of millions of their fellow citizens.”
Last week, Dhillon wrote to Denver and Colorado officials saying the department would file lawsuits if they did not voluntarily comply with demands to cease enforcement of bans on semiautomatic rifles and large-capacity magazines by 5 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday. Denver City Attorney Miko Brown responded, calling the request “baseless, irresponsible, and a clear overreach of the federal government’s power.” The department filed a lawsuit against the city ahead of the 5 p.m. deadline.
Both lawsuits say enforcement of the state and city policies deprive citizens of their Second Amendment rights. The lawsuits make identical requests of the court to prohibit Denver and Colorado from enforcing their bans and order that they adopt new policies and procedures.
Colorado has restricted the sale and possession of magazines carrying more than 15 rounds since 2013, when the Colorado Legislature passed a law following the deadly 2012 mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora. Last year, the state Legislature passed a law to require anyone who purchases a semiautomatic firearm to pass certain training requirements. Efforts to prohibit the making, buying and selling of assault weapons, but not the possession of them, failed in 2023 and 2024.
The Colorado Supreme Court unanimously upheld the 2013 state law in 2020, when Rocky Mountain Gun Owners brought a lawsuit against it in state court.
Denver law has restricted the sale and possession of assault weapons since 1989.
Attorney general defiant
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat who is running for governor, said the lawsuit against the state is a “dangerous overreach” by the Department of Justice and “turns the mission of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division on its head.”
“Large-capacity magazine laws are responsible policies that satisfy Second Amendment protections, decrease the deadly impacts of mass shootings, and save lives,” Weiser said in a statement. “The state has a duty to protect Colorado residents from gun violence, and I will vigorously defend our state large-capacity magazine limit law from this attack by the Trump Justice Department.”
Ian Escalante, executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, said Colorado “has shown nothing but disdain for our God-given rights for the last decade.”
“They have been brazenly torching the Constitution and until now, have faced little to no repercussions,” Escalante said in a statement. “I pray this is the beginning of a recurring trend from the DOJ: systematically undoing all the damage inflicted on Coloradans by the tyrants in Denver, and the beginning of the end of the gun control apparatus here in Colorado.”
Janet Carter, managing director of Second Amendment litigation at Everytown Law, said the lawsuit is a “dangerous threat to public safety” and an attack on Colorado’s “life-saving magazine capacity limit.”
“Mass shooters using those magazines can fire dozens of rounds in seconds, and Colorado’s common sense measure has protected its residents for over a decade,” Carter said in a statement. “Coming just a day after their suit against Denver, it is clear that the DOJ is working to strip communities of the tools they need to keep people safe. We stand with Colorado and will fight to defend these constitutional, vital, and life-saving laws.”