Gun rights group fires off challenge to Colorado’s impending assault rifle restrictions

DENVER (CN) — A gun rights group on Tuesday fired off a challenge to Colorado’s latest set of gun restrictions, aimed at limiting ownership of assault rifles by requiring buyers to take a safety course before purchasing rapid-fire devices.

Six individuals joined the Colorado State Shooting Association in suing Governor Jared Polis and Attorney General Philip Weiser, both Democrats, seeking to block implementation of Senate Bill 25-3, titled “Concerning the Prohibition of Certain Semiautomatic Firearms and Rapid-Fire Devices.”

“Because the Act attempts to govern and regulate arms-bearing conduct, the text of the Second Amendment is implicated, and there is no relevantly similar historical analogue from the time of the founding that can be used to justify the act’s provisions,” the gun owners argue in the 28-page lawsuit.

Having struggled in past years to define what constitutes an “assault rifle,” Colorado lawmakers settled earlier this year on targeting “semiautomatic rifle or semiautomatic shotgun with a detachable magazine or a gas-operated semiautomatic handgun with a detachable magazine.” Sponsored by Democrats in both chambers, the law passed largely on party lines.

Under the new law, which takes effect Aug 1, 2026, Coloradans seeking to own a semiautomatic firearm must first pass a background check, obtain a firearms safety course eligibility card from their local sheriff’s office and then complete a hunter education course.

Violations of the law would be penalized with a class 2 misdemeanor, and subsequent violations charged as a class 6 felony.

Proponents of the measure cited the state’s infamous history of mass shootings spanning from the 1999 attack on Columbine High School in Littleton to the 2021 attack at the Table Mesa King Soopers in Boulder. In recent years, state lawmakers have met firearm tragedy with moves to regulate access to the weapons used in such attacks, resulting in measures limiting high-capacity magazines, raising the age to own a gun to 21 and imposing a three-day waiting period on gun purchases.

The gun owners argue the law not only violates their constitutional right to bear arms but also goes against recent Supreme Court opinions, including the 2022 Bruen decision which instructs courts to draw parallels between modern firearm restrictions and historical precedent.

“The court’s decisions in Heller, McDonald, and Bruen clearly establish the principle that if a member of ‘the people’ wishes to ‘keep’ or ‘bear’ an ‘arm,’ then the ability to do so ‘shall not be infringed,’ and a regulation which restricts that conduct in any way is unconstitutional absent historical analogues that demonstrate that the Founders never considered such conduct to be protected in the first place,” the gun owners argue in the complaint.

Among the plaintiffs named in the complaint are Kathleen Clayton, a survivor of domestic violence who carries a small semi-automatic handgun, and firearm instructor Nathanael Skiver, who worries about being required to take a class taught “likely by people less proficient than he is.”

The lawsuit also includes Luke Sorenson, a 19-year-old plaintiff, who is prevented from purchasing a semi-automatic firearm before the law goes into effect, because adults must be 21 to purchase a gun under state law.

The restricted rapid-fire devices include a disability accommodating force-reset trigger in the hands of Israel Del Toro, a disabled Air Force veteran and plaintiff on the lawsuit.

Both Polis and Weiser declined to comment on the pending litigation. When Polis signed the bill in April, he said he hoped that passing the law would improve safety.

“This law is not a ban, and I have been clear that I oppose banning types of firearms,” Polis said at the time. “Proper gun safety education and training, however, are key components of public safety and responsible gun ownership.”

Mountain States Legal Foundation attorney Michael McCoy is representing the gun owners.

Barack Obama-appointed Senior U.S. Judge William Martinez is presiding over the case.

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