Trump administration sues Denver over its 1989 assault weapons ban

The Trump administration filed a lawsuit against Denver and its police department on Tuesday seeking to overturn an assault weapons ban that has been in place in Colorado’s largest city since 1989.

Note: Video from a previous report.

The lawsuit came a day after city officials publicly rejected calls from the Justice Department to repeal a long-standing local law that criminalizes the possession of assault weapons.

The Republican Trump administration claims the ban violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms. The administration is also threatening to sue Colorado over a statewide ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines, which was adopted after a 2012 mass shooting at a movie theater.

“The Constitution is not a proposition and the Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement Tuesday. “Denver’s ban on publicly owned semi-automatic rifles directly violates the right to bear arms.”

Last week, Justice Department lawyers asked the city to stop enforcing the ban and enter into negotiations with federal officials to resolve the problem. But Denver’s mayor and police chief, during a press conference on Monday, strongly rejected the Trump administration’s request.

“Our answer is no,” Mayor Mike Johnston said. “No, we will not roll back the common-sense policy that has kept weapons of war off city streets for 37 years. No, we will not put first responders at greater risk every time they respond to a serious incident. No, we will not go back to a time when people were worried about getting into movie theaters, grocery stores, or public elementary schools.”

The assault weapons ban was enacted during a time of heightened concern about gun violence in the city.

There have been numerous mass shootings elsewhere in the state in the years since — the 1999 Columbine High School massacre that killed 14 people, the attack on a movie theater in Aurora that killed 12 people and injured 70, the 2021 shooting at a supermarket in Boulder that killed 10 people, and the 2022 attack on an LQBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs that killed five people.

Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said he joined the department the year the city’s assault weapons ban was adopted, and that its enforcement has helped address gun violence. Of the 2,100 guns found in the city last year, less than 2% were assault weapons, Thomas said.

Denver’s ban includes AR-15-style rifles owned by at least 16 million people in the country, federal officials said in their lawsuit. Government lawyers described them as “regular semi-automatic rifles” used for lawful purposes, “including, but not limited to, self-defense.”

Justice Department lawyers have made similar claims about a Colorado law banning large-capacity magazines, which the state Supreme Court upheld in 2020. In an April 28 letter to state officials, the department threatened to file a lawsuit unless the state stopped enforcing the law and agreed it was unconstitutional.

“Law-abiding Americans own hundreds of millions of magazines identical to those banned in Colorado,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wrote.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in response that firearms with large-capacity magazines pose a significant threat to public safety. Weiser said in a statement that the ban was reasonable.

“Large-capacity magazine laws are responsible policies that reduce the deadly effects of mass shootings and save lives,” he said.