By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
It took the Department of Justice less than 24 hours to slap Denver, Colorado with a federal lawsuit which seeks to overturn the city’s long-standing ban on so-called “assault weapons” after defiant Mayor Mike Johnston told a press conference his answer to a DOJ demand to repeal the ban, “Hell, no!”
In a statement announcing the lawsuit, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche observed, “The Constitution is not a suggestion and the Second Amendment is not a second-class right. Denver’s ban on commonly owned semi-automatic rifles directly violates the right to bear arms. This Department of Justice will vigorously defend the liberties of law-abiding citizens nationwide.”
The 12-page complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. Named as defendants are the city and county of Denver, and the Denver Police Department. The lawsuit was signed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon and several other DOJ officials.
Mayor Johnston’s office issued a statement Monday in which he and other officials said they would fight the DOJ, and the release also included a statement from Janet Carter, managing director of Second Amendment litigation at Everytown Law. She raised alarms that Denver residents would be less safe, and engaged in typical anti-gun rhetoric.
“Assault weapons are weapons of war, and they have absolutely no place in our communities,” Carter declared. “It is heartbreaking that this would even be a question after the horrific events in Columbine, Aurora, and Boulder.”
Dhillon, however, noted in the DOJ announcement, “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.”
In a letter to Johnston dated April 28, Dhillon also stated, “This letter also serves as a document-retention notice. Please ensure that City and Denver Police officials, employees, and contractors preserve in their current form any and all records, including documents, photos, videos, files, tapes, emails and computer files, that may be relevant to this matter.”
The federal complaint notes, “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.”
According to the Denver Gazette, “Of the 2,100 guns that were recovered by Denver police last year, (Denver Police Chief Ron) Thomas said that less than 40 — or 2%— were assault-style weapons.”
The ban was adopted in 1989.
