Federal officials have launched a legal challenge against Colorado’s restrictions on high-capacity ammunition magazines, filing suit to eliminate a state law that has been in place for over a decade.
The Justice Department filed the lawsuit Wednesday targeting Colorado’s prohibition on magazines that can hold more than 15 rounds of ammunition. State lawmakers passed this restriction in 2013 following a devastating mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater that left 12 dead and 58 wounded.
Federal attorneys argue that Colorado’s magazine capacity limits violate Second Amendment constitutional protections for gun ownership. The 11-page legal filing from the Justice Department’s civil rights division references the Supreme Court’s 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller decision, which established that Americans have the right to possess commonly-used firearms for legal activities.
According to the federal complaint, magazines exceeding 15 rounds are standard equipment for many widely-owned firearms across the country, including AR-15 style rifles and certain semi-automatic handguns.
“The number of lawfully owned semi-automatic firearms in the United States that utilize a magazine like the ones banned by the state is in the tens of millions,” the lawsuit states. Federal officials contend that prohibiting these magazines effectively restricts ownership of weapons that are “in common use.”
The legal filing emphasizes that such firearms serve “multiple lawful purposes,” including target shooting for recreation, collecting, and personal protection. Justice Department lawyers are seeking a court injunction to stop Colorado from enforcing its magazine capacity restrictions.
Colorado’s top legal official has pledged to fight the federal challenge. Attorney General Phil Weiser released a statement defending his state’s gun safety regulations and criticizing the federal lawsuit.
“Large-capacity magazine laws are responsible policies that satisfy Second Amendment protections, decrease impacts of mass shootings and save lives,” Weiser stated. “The state has a duty to protect Colorado residents from gun violence.”
Weiser also accused federal officials of misusing the Justice Department’s civil rights division, saying the lawsuit “turns the mission of the DOJ’s civil rights division on its head.”
This marks the second gun-related legal action the Trump administration has taken against Colorado this week. On Tuesday, federal attorneys filed a separate challenge to Denver’s municipal ban on certain semi-automatic rifles classified as assault weapons.
Previous attempts to overturn Colorado’s magazine restrictions have failed in federal court. In 2016, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a similar lawsuit brought by county sheriffs, gun retailers, and shooting organizations. The appeals court ruled those plaintiffs could not prove they would suffer personal harm from the laws, meaning they lacked proper legal standing to file suit.
