The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Denver, Colorado, alleging that the city’s ordinance banning certain semiautomatic rifles infringes on residents’ Second Amendment rights. The DOJ also sued the state of Colorado for its so-called “large-capacity” magazine ban. The state law bans both the possession and sale of firearms with magazines that hold 15 or more rounds.

In both suits, the DOJ charges that residents’ Second Amendment rights are being unlawfully infringed. “Colorado’s ban on certain magazines is political virtue signaling at the expense of Americans’ constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” argues Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon. “Under my direction, the [Civil Rights] 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.”

The lawsuit against Denver challenges the city’s decades-old ban on “all semiautomatic action, centerfire rifles with a detachable magazine with a capacity of twenty-one (21) or more rounds.” AR-15s have standard-capacity 30-round magazines. This law relegated the Second Amendment to a “second-class right,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Denver’s ban on commonly owned semiautomatic rifles directly violates the right to bear arms. This Department of Justice will vigorously defend the liberties of law-abiding citizens nationwide.”

Passed in 1989, the ordinance makes it “a crime to carry, store, keep, manufacture, sell, or otherwise possess a so-called ‘assault weapon,’" which the lawsuit calls "politically charged rhetoric.”

The lawsuit accurately argues, “The term ‘assault weapon’ is not a technical term used in the firearms industry. Rather, as [Supreme Court] Justice [Clarence] Thomas has aptly noted, ‘assault weapon’ is a rhetorically charged political term developed by anti-gun publicists. In reality, the firearms the City calls ‘assault weapons’ include ordinary semiautomatic rifles possessed by millions of law-abiding Americans. Indeed, Americans own literally tens of millions of AR-15 style rifles, the paradigmatic ‘assault weapon’ covered by the Ordinance. As the Supreme Court has recently recognized, the AR-15 is the most popular rifle in America.”

“When the City banned AR-15 style rifles with standard capacity magazines, it banned an arm in common use for lawful purposes by law-abiding citizens,” it adds. “Therefore, the Ordinance violates the Second Amendment, and the United States brings this action to vindicate the rights of Denver citizens whose rights have been — and are continuing to be — violated by Defendants.”

Democrat Denver Mayor Mike Johnston pushed back against the DOJ’s charge, claiming the ordinance protects Denver residents’ safety, and pledging that he “will fight with everything we have to protect our communities and defend Denver’s right to pass commonsense gun safety laws.” No concern for constitutional fidelity or protecting Denver residents’ constitutional rights.

Meanwhile, Colorado Democrat Attorney General Phil Weiser, who recently won the party’s gubernatorial primary, also promised to fight the DOJ. “The state has a duty to protect Colorado residents from gun violence,” Weiser said. “I will vigorously defend our state large-capacity magazine limit law from this attack by the Trump Justice Department.”

This fight was not only anticipated by the Trump administration but welcomed. As Dhillon recently explained, “We intend to make sure they do that.” The goal is to ensure that the AR-15-style firearm will be fully legal in every jurisdiction in the nation, likely through action by the U.S. Supreme Court. Dhillon added, “I want to thank the president for setting the tone at the beginning of his administration and having an executive order that made clear that the Second Amendment is a first class right in the United States, and Pam Bondi and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche have fully backed that up.”

Dhillion continued, “I think the AR-15 ban is one that really is a kind of low-hanging fruit because the Supreme Court held in a 9-0 opinion in the Smith and Wesson case that the AR-15 is the most commonly owned and operated rifle in the United States. And so when you add that statistic to the ruling in the Bruen and Heller decisions, which talk about firearms that are in common use and for law-abiding citizens, that leads to the inexorable conclusion that the AR-15 is presumptively legal all over America.”

Clearly, the DOJ is strategically and intentionally targeting Colorado in an effort to move the ball forward in defense of Americans’ Second Amendment rights, which have been infringed upon for far too long.