The Trump Justice Department sued Denver on Tuesday, asking a judge to strike down the city’s ban on “assault weapons,” which covers even popular AR-15-style rifles.
The lawsuit is an early foray for DOJ’s Second Amendment Section, created last year to press for Americans’ gun rights against states and localities with restrictive laws.
Federal lawyers said that in banning the sale, carry or possession of the AR-15, the most popular rifle in the U.S., Denver has trampled on Americans’ gun rights.
“The Constitution is not a suggestion and the Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Denver’s ban on commonly owned semi-automatic rifles directly violates the right to bear arms.”
His department also took the Colorado city to task for its use of the term “assault weapon” in its ordinance, saying that is a “politically charged” scare tactic term that doesn’t have a firm meaning in the firearms industry.
Denver’s ordinance bans semiautomatic pistols and rifles that have a magazine with a capacity of 15 rounds or more, and shotguns that have a folding stock or a magazine capacity of more than six rounds.
The AR-15 is “usually” sold with a detachable box magazine capable of holding up to 30 rounds, and the standard magazines used by most owners are 20 or 30 rounds, the Justice Department said in the lawsuit.
The Washington Times has reached out to Denver’s city attorney for comment.
Denver is one of a number of Democrat-led jurisdictions that has a wide-ranging ban on popular semiautomatic rifles, based largely on appearance or the amount of ammunition commonly carried with it.
The legality of those bans is heatedly debated.
The Supreme Court last year declined to hear a case involving Maryland’s broad ban. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in that case had ruled that the AR-15 was beyond the protection of the “arms” mentioned in the Second Amendment because they were dangerous and unusual.
Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, wrote a note saying he was waiting for the issue to develop further in lower courts. He said the high court should deal with the matter “in the next term or two.”
Justice Clarence Thomas, a George H.W. Bush appointee, said the court should have taken the Maryland case and overturned AR-15 bans, calling the 4th Circuit’s ruling a “surprising conclusion.”
“I cannot see how AR–15s fall outside the Second Amendment’s protection,” he wrote.
