DOJ takes aim at Colorado ban on high-capacity magazines

DENVER (CN) — Twenty-four hours after challenging Denver’s assault-rifle ban, the U.S. Department of Justice sued in federal court on Wednesday to kill Colorado’s state ban on large-capacity magazines.

“Colorado’s ban on certain magazines is political virtue-signaling at the expense of Americans’ constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” said assistant attorney general Harmeet K. Dhillon in a statement.

As head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Dhillon oversees the federal government’s newly created Second Amendment Section, which hired Denver attorney Barry Arrington in March.

In 2022, Arrington brought a similar challenge to the magazine ban on behalf of The National Foundation for Gun Rights in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in *New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.*The landmark case directs courts to compare modern gun restrictions with historical firearm regulations. Arrington filed to withdraw the challenge in August 2024.

In the new lawsuit, the federal government seeks to persuade the court Colorado’s ban on large-capacity magazines violates citizens’ Second Amendment rights.

“Law-abiding Americans own and use for lawful purposes literally hundreds of millions of magazines such as those banned by the state,” U.S. attorneys argue in the 12-page complaint. “A detachable magazine is an integral part of most semiautomatic firearms, including the AR-15 rifle. As such, they are covered by the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms.”

Centennial State lawmakers passed the measure limiting magazine capacity to 15 rounds after a gunman murdered 12 people and injured dozens at the midnight premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises” on July 20, 2012, in an Aurora movie theater. Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper had pushed for the ban.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser vowed to protect the law in court.

“Using federal civil rights law to put Coloradans at greater risk of gun violence is a dangerous overreach by the Justice Department and this lawsuit turns the mission of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division on its head,” the Democrat said in a statement.

Weiser argued, “large-capacity magazine laws are responsible policies that satisfy Second Amendment protections, decrease the deadly impacts of mass shootings, and save lives.”

Earlier this week, Arrington led the U.S. Department of Justice’s challenge to Denver’s 37-year-old assault rifle ban.

Neither case had been assigned to a judge at the time of publication.

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