Trump administration sues Colorado over firearm ammunition magazine limit
by Steve Gorman
May 6 (Reuters) – The Trump administration sued Colorado on Wednesday, seeking to overturn the state’s 13-year ban on large-capacity firearm ammunition magazines.
The lawsuit alleges that Colorado’s gun magazine restriction, enacted after the 2013 mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater that killed 12 people and injured 58, violates the rights to own and bear arms under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
In 2016, a federal appeals court ruled to dismiss a similar lawsuit filed by a group of county sheriffs, gun stores, outfitters and shooting ranges challenging a ban on large-capacity magazines and a measure requiring universal background checks for gun buyers.
In that case, a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to sue because they could not prove they would be personally harmed by the statute.
Wednesday’s Justice Department complaint cites a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision from a landmark case known as District of Columbia v. Heller; This decision holds that the Second Amendment protects the rights of law-abiding citizens to keep guns in common use for lawful purposes.
The 11-page DOJ lawsuit, initiated by the civil rights division, argues that magazines holding more than 15 rounds come standard with many of the most popular firearms in the United States, including AR-15-style rifles and some semiautomatic pistols.
“The number of legally owned semiautomatic firearms in the United States that use a magazine such as those prohibited by the state is in the tens of millions,” the lawsuit states. Therefore, outlawing large-capacity magazines actually restricts the rights of individuals to own guns in “common use.”
It is also stated that such weapons are “used for multiple lawful purposes” such as recreational target shooting, collection and self-defense. The lawsuit seeks a court order blocking enforcement of the Colorado law.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser issued a statement vowing to defend the state’s gun safety measures and said the case “reverses the mission of the DOJ’s civil rights division.”
“Large-capacity magazine laws are responsible policies that meet Second Amendment protections, reduce the effects of mass shootings, and save lives,” Weiser said. “The state has a duty to protect Colorado residents from gun violence.”
The DOJ’s complaint against Colorado’s large-capacity magazine ban comes a day after the department filed a separate lawsuit challenging a longstanding Denver city ordinance banning semiautomatic rifles, which it defines as assault weapons.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Stephen Coates)
