Just a day after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against Denver, Colorado, challenging the city ordinance banning many common semi-automatic rifles, the Justice Department set its crosshairs on the state law banning standard-capacity firearm magazines, which most of the Denver-banned firearms use.
On May 6, the DOJ filed the lawsuit U.S. v. Colorado in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. The DOJ complaint alleges that the state unconstitutionally bans certain constitutionally protected standard capacity firearm magazines, thereby infringing on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms in common use for lawful purposes.
“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 K. Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said in a news release announcing the court action. “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.”
As the complaint explains, a Colorado statute makes it a crime to possess so-called “large-capacity magazines.” But the state has previously admitted that it bans magazines that come standard with many of the most popular firearms in the nation, including AR-15-style rifles, which are the most popular rifles in America. Law-abiding Americans own hundreds of millions of magazines like those the state has banned.
In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its landmark decision District of Columbia v. Heller, held that the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding citizens to possess weapons that are in common use for lawful purposes.
“The magazine ban uses politically charged rhetoric to describe the arms it bans,” the complaint states. “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.”
The complaint also points out how common the use of such magazines is, with hundreds of millions of them in American citizens’ collections.
“A detachable magazine is an integral part of most semi-automatic firearms, including the AR-15 rifle,” the complaint states. “As such, they are covered by the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms. The state’s magazine ban is a ban on an arm in common use for lawful [purposes] by law-abiding citizens. Therefore, the magazine ban violates the Second Amendment, and the United States brings this action to vindicate the rights of Colorado citizens whose rights have been—and are continuing to be—violated by defendants.”
Ultimately, the DOJ is asking the court to issue a permanent injunction against the statute, preventing any law enforcement in the state from enforcing the unconstitutional ban.
As mentioned previously, the move comes just a day after the DOJ sued Denver for its ban on so-called “assault weapons.” In announcing that lawsuit, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanches said: “The Constitution is not a suggestion and the Second Amendment is not a second-class right. Denver’s ban on commonly owned semi-automatic rifles directly violates the right to bear arms. This Department of Justice will vigorously defend the liberties of law-abiding citizens nationwide.”
