The Justice Department has sued the City and County of Denver over its long-standing ban on certain semi-automatic rifles, arguing the ordinance violates the Second Amendment and targets firearms in common use; Denver’s mayor defends the law as a safety measure passed in 1989 and says the city won’t be intimidated; the suit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief and names the Denver Police Department as a defendant; top DOJ officials, including Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, have issued forceful statements defending the case and framing it as a national defense of gun rights.
The federal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado challenges an ordinance that makes it “a crime to carry, store, keep, manufacture, sell, or otherwise possess a so-called ‘assault weapon,'” and it singles out the statutory language as politically charged while laying out a constitutional attack. The suit says the ordinance sweeps in ordinary semiautomatic rifles owned by millions of Americans and expressly challenges the city’s authority to bar those arms. The Justice Department argues the ordinance goes beyond local lawmaking and into the territory of prohibiting arms that are “in common use for lawful purposes.”
The complaint quotes directly: “The term ‘assault weapon’ is not a technical term used in the firearms industry. Rather, as Justice Thomas has aptly noted, ’assault weapon’ is a rhetorically charged political term developed by anti-gun publicists,” and continues by noting that, in reality, the firearms labeled by the city “include ordinary semiautomatic rifles possessed by millions of law-abiding Americans.” It points to the AR-15 as the archetypal example and stresses that the rifle is widely owned. “As the Supreme Court has recently recognized, the AR-15 is the most popular rifle in America.”
The government frames the ban as a direct constitutional violation: “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,” the complaint 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.” Those lines set the legal stakes: the suit seeks to restore what DOJ says are basic, nationwide Second Amendment protections.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche underlined the department’s position with a plain declaration: “The Constitution is not a suggestion and the Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” and promised vigorous defense of citizens’ liberties. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon echoed that urgency and described a new, focused effort within DOJ: “I have directed the Civil Rights Division, through our new Second Amendment Section, to defend law-abiding Americans from restrictions such as those we are challenging in these cases.” Their statements make clear the department sees this as more than one lawsuit—it’s a test case.
Dhillon added a broader defense of ordinary ownership: “Law-abiding Americans, regardless of what city or state they reside in, should not have to live under threat of criminal sanction just for exercising their Second Amendment right to possess arms which are owned by tens of millions of their fellow citizens.” That line reasserts the Heller precedent the department cites, invoking the Supreme Court’s 2008 ruling. “In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its landmark decision District of Columbia v. Heller, held that the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding citizens to possess weapons that are in common use for lawful purposes,” the Justice Department said.
The complaint names as defendants the City and County of Denver and the Denver Police Department and seeks both declaratory and injunctive relief to block enforcement of the ordinance. The Denver Police Department said it would defer to the mayor’s office for comment, and the mayor’s office responded sharply in public remarks defending the city’s policy. Mayor Mike Johnston, speaking for his administration, emphasized local priorities and rejected federal pressure.
Mayor Johnston’s office released a statement saying he was joined “by public safety and civic leaders in rejecting a demand from the U.S. Department of Justice to repeal the city’s longstanding ban on assault weapons.” He added, “Our first job is to keep Denverites safe, and we will not be intimidated out of doing it,” and insisted, “Denver’s law has stood for 37 years because it works, it saves lives, and it reflects the values of our community. No demand or lawsuit from Washington is going to change that.”
The mayor’s statement also noted specifics about the ordinance: “Denver’s law was passed in 1989 and restricts the possession and sale of guns with magazines carrying more than 15 rounds,” and that “Denver retains clear legal authority to regulate firearms within its borders to protect public safety, and the ordinance is consistent with both Colorado law and the U.S. Constitution.” Those local claims set up a legal clash between municipal authority and the federal constitutional claims the Justice Department is advancing.
