The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice is bringing more pressure on jurisdictions that are attempting to or already ban AR-15 rifles by name, including the city of Denver, where, after receiving a dismissive response from the mayor, the Civil Rights Division today sued the city over its AR-15 ban.
Civil Rights Division leader, AAG Harmeet Dhillon (who also established the Second Amendment Section), sent an April 28 letter threatening a pre-enforcement lawsuit to Mayor Miko Johnston, stating, “I have authorized the filing of a complaint in federal district court against the City and the Denver Police Department. The complaint will allege that the City’s ban on AR-15-style firearms violates its citizens’ Second Amendment rights by banning constitutionally protected arms.”
The DOJ gave the city until 5 p.m. on May 5 to respond and enter pre-suit negotiations.
Denver’s city attorney, Miko Brown, responded in a May 4 letter to the DOJ, arguing that “Notably, all six federal appellate courts that have considered assault weapons or large-capacity magazine (“LCM”) prohibitions following NYSRPA v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022) have upheld them – specifically, the First, Second, Fourth (en banc), Seventh, Ninth, and D.C. Circuit.”
According to local reporting, Mayor Johnston issued a dismissive response during a public press conference, stating, “We’re here today to let them know that our answer is ‘hell no,'” Johnston said. “No, we will not roll back a common-sense policy that has kept weapons of war off of these city streets for 37 years.”
Based upon the mayor’s aggressive response, the DOJ appears convinced he has no intention to negotiate, and today filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado (Denver). The lawsuit has just been filed, and the civil docket shows Case No. 1:26-cv-01929.
“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,” said Ms. Dhillon in a press statement. “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.”
The challenged statute banning “assault weapons” was passed in 1989, and makes it “unlawful to carry, store, keep, manufacture, sell or otherwise possess within the City and County of Denver.” It’s unclear why the DOJ has targeted Denver in particular in this action.
The DOJ sent a similar pre-enforcement notice to Virginia Governor Spanberger on April 10 over the state’s pending AR-15 ban via SB749.
The focus of the Second Amendment Section on AR-15 rifles in particular has some wondering if this isn’t a not-so-subtle signal from the Justice Department to the Supreme Court that the time has never been more appropriate to address an “assault weapons” case.
