This week, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled to uphold the state’s ban on large capacity magazines, HB13-1224, which was signed by then-Governor John Hickenlooper in 2013.
In the court opinion, Justice Marquez wrote that the ban “is reasonably related to that legitimate — and increasingly critical — state interest” and “has neither the purpose nor effect of nullifying the right to bear arms in self-defense” outlined in the Colorado Constitution.
The law had been challenged by Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, Colorado’s largest pro-gun organization, in collaboration with the National Association for Gun Rights.
You can read the full 46-page court opinion here.
Senator Rhonda Fields, representing Aurora and a sponsor of the legislation, released the following statement in a press release distributed by Colorado Senate Democrats:
“The Supreme Court’s decision upholds common-sense gun safety reform and keeps dangerous weapons-of-war off the streets. The only purpose of large-capacity magazines is to inflict mass casualties, and that is exactly what they have been used for across the country and in our own backyard. We need robust measures in place to end the cycle of terrorizing violence against our communities, and this law helps do just that. I am proud to have sponsored this significant piece of legislation and am committed to continuing to fight for regulations that keep us all safe.”
HB13-1224 was passed a year after the tragic Aurora theater shooting where 12 people lost their lives during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises. The assailant used a semi-automatic rifle equipped with a 100-round magazine, along with other weapons, to maximize the devastation.
“Though we didn’t succeed in striking down the Magazine Ban, we did win on two very important points,” said Dudley Brown, Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.
“First, the Colorado Supreme Court overturned an older ruling that would have nullified the Colorado Constitution’s right to keep and bear arms. Second, they protected virtually all removable base plate magazines, which could have criminalized hundreds of thousands of gun owners.”
“While we regrettably didn’t win our main point, we could not be more thankful for the support we have received on this case. This fight has taken courage from hundreds of thousands of RMGO members — from swarming the State Capitol back when this fight started in 2013, to donating to our legal fund to keep this case alive, we could not have done it without our members’ support,” said Brown.
Soon after the magazine ban was signed in 2013, certain gun dealers noticed that the bill made no mention of magazine components. Dealers throughout the state began selling ‘parts kits’ that contain everything a gun owner needs to assemble their own large-capacity magazine at home.
The ‘parts’ market became so widespread that a local Colorado news agency, 9NEWS, decided to conduct undercover visits to local gun stores in six counties, and reported that in 7 of the 10 stores the outlet visited, “employees at one store after another offered to sell a large-capacity magazine disassembled in parts” to their investigative journalists.
“As soon as we remove the functionality of it and take this spring out, it’s no longer a magazine,” one salesman told the 9NEWS team.
“[A] monkey could put it back together again,” a different salesman explained.