Trump administration sues Denver over its 1989 assault weapons ban

The Trump administration sued Denver and its police department on Tuesday seeking to strike down an assault weapons ban that’s been in place for Colorado’s largest city since 1989.

The lawsuit came a day after city officials publicly rejected calls by the Department of Justice to repeal the longstanding local ordinance that makes it a crime to possess assault weapons.

Trump’s Republican administration alleges the ban violates the Constitution’s Second Amendment right to bear arms. The administration also is threatening to sue Colorado over a statewide ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines adopted following a 2012 mass shooting at a movie theater.

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

Department of Justice attorneys had asked the city last week to stop enforcing the ban and enter negotiations with federal officials to resolve the matter. But Denver’s mayor and police chief during a Monday news conference forcefully rejected the Trump administration’s request.

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

The assault weapons ban was enacted during a period of heightened concern over 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 Aurora movie theater attack that killed 12 people and injured 70, a 2021 shooting at a supermarket in Boulder that killed 10 people and a 2022 attack at 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 having it in place has helped address gun violence. Of 2,100 guns recovered in the city last year, fewer than 2% were assault-style weapons, Thomas said.

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

Justice Department attorneys have made similar claims about the Colorado law banning large-capacity magazines, which the state’s Supreme court upheld in 2020. In an April 28 letter to state officials, the administration threatened to file a lawsuit unless the state stops enforcing the law and agrees it’s unconstitutional.

“Law-abiding Americans own literally 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 are a major threat to public safety. Weiser said in a statement that the ban was reasonable.

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