May 06, 2026 03:40 PM UTC

Trump Admin Sues Denver And Colorado Over Longstanding Gun Safety Laws

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Colorado Newsline’s Lindsey Toomer reports, Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is suing to make the City and County of Denver less safe from gun violence, seeking the invalidation of the city’s ban on assault weapons passed almost 40 years ago:

The U.S. Department of Justice sued Denver and threatened to sue the state of Colorado over their laws banning so-called assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, claiming they violate the Second Amendment.

Last week, the Trump administration wrote to Denver and Colorado saying it would file lawsuits if they did not voluntarily comply with demands to cease enforcement of bans on semiautomatic rifles by 5 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division, wrote the letter.

Denver City Attorney Miko Brown wrote in response that the city “will vigorously defend” its ordinance banning certain assault weapons if challenged in court. She called the request “baseless, irresponsible, and a clear overreach of the federal government’s power.”

And then this morning, as the New York Times reports, the Justice Department filed suit to invalidate the state’s 2013 15-round gun magazine limit:

The Justice Department on Wednesday sued Colorado over a state law banning high-capacity ammunition magazines that was passed after a 2012 mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.

It was the second lawsuit in two days that the Trump administration has filed against gun-control policies in the Democratic-controlled state, part of a barrage of attacks on Colorado during President Trump’s second term. On Tuesday, the Justice Department sued Denver over a 1989 city law banning assault weapons.

Colorado Public Radio reports that Barry Arrington, the longtime legal counsel for Colorado’s controversial Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO) hired by the Justice Department in March, is the prime mover behind both of these lawsuits seeking to undo in court what Colorado Republicans could not at the ballot box:

“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,” reads the complaint against Colorado filed in U.S. District Court in Denver.

Since these types of magazines are commonly used by law-abiding firearm owners, then the state’s ban on them violates the Constitution, according to the complaint.

Both the Colorado and Denver complaints are signed by Barry K. Arrington, former legal counsel for Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, who took a job at the Department of Justice last month. Arrington was an attorney on a failed lawsuit to overturn the magazine ban in state court.

Although the courts have historically upheld reasonable state regulation on firearms, that precedent is under threat just like so many others that have been discarded in recent years by Donald Trump’s Supreme Court. What we can say is that politically, these lawsuits are catering to a very small audience of hardcore gun rights supporters, against overwhelming support by voters for Colorado’s robust gun safety laws–including Colorado’s magazine limit. But RMGO has never been concerned with the political ramifications of their “no compromise” opposition to any form of gun control, including opposing any background checks for gun purchases. That’s how the organization has earned a reputation for attacking fellow Republicans more than the Democrats who actually support gun control.

In short, Colorado is being sued by gun-rights extremists so out of touch that fellow Republicans in our state want nothing to do with them. They just happen to be in control of the federal government.

Along with Dave Williams, Justin Everett, and Hope Scheppelman, Trump has empowered the worst Republicans we know.