This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
The Trump Administration filed suit against Colorado on Wednesday, seeking to overturn the state’s 2013 ban on “large-capacity magazines” as a violation of the Second Amendment.
The lawsuit comes a day after the Department of Justice filed a similar federal complaint against the city of Denver over its 1989 ban on “assault rifles.”
Both cases hinge on what the DOJ claims are politically-charged and inaccurate terms for firearms and firearm accessories.
“The Magazine Ban’s characterization of these magazines as ‘large capacity’ is a misnomer, because magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds are, in fact, standard capacity magazines for many popular firearms, including the AR-15 rifle, the most popular rifle in America,” reads the complaint against Colorado filed in U.S. District Court in Denver.
Since these types of magazines are commonly used by law-abiding firearm owners, then the state’s ban on them violates the Constitution, according to the complaint.
Both the Colorado and Denver complaints are signed by Barry K. Arrington, former legal counsel for Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, who took a job at the Department of Justice last month. Arrington was an attorney on a failed lawsuit to overturn the magazine ban in state court.
Colorado lawmakers passed the ban following the Aurora Theater shooting in 2012, that left 12 people dead and dozens more injured. The gunman used a rifle outfitted with a 100-round magazine.
In 2020, the state Supreme Court found that the ban did not infringe on the state right to bear arms: “The overwhelming evidence demonstrated that limiting magazine capacity to fifteen rounds does not significantly interfere with the core of Coloradans’ Article II, Section 13 right to bear arms in self-defense.”
The state courts did not consider whether the ban was a violation of the Second Amendment.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement that the lawsuit is a “dangerous overreach by the Justice Department.”
“Large-capacity magazine laws are responsible policies that satisfy Second Amendment protections, decrease the deadly impacts of mass shootings, and save lives. 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.”
