WASHINGTON, DC–Colorado groups have filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that could overturn bans on commonly-owned sporting rifles, such as the hugely popular AR-15 platform, in other states.
The high court is set to hear arguments in December in the case Viramontes v. Cook County, which challenges the Illinois’ county’s ban on so-called “assault rifles.” The case has been consolidated with Grant v. Higgins, a challenge to a similar ban in Connecticut.
Three Colorado-based groups – Independence Institute, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO), and the Colorado State Shooting Association (CSSA) – are part of separate amicus briefs filed with the court last Friday, all arguing the gun bans should be overturned.
In the Independence Institute’s brief, which was filed along with the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the American Suppressor Association, the groups detail how technological advancements with firearms “have always been part of the American experience.”
“The challenged bans aim to halt this tradition and trap firearms in nineteenth-century amber,” the groups argue. “But this Court has repeatedly emphasized that modern arms are protected. And the Court has twice highlighted the [Second] Amendment’s protection of modern arms to illustrate how its historically fixed meaning applies to new circumstances.”
Independence Institute Research Director David Kopel, who’s listed in the brief, told Complete Colorado that the Denver-based think tank has a long history of challenging similar firearm bans dating back to 1989.
“Such bans deprive good citizens of firearms that are especially well-suited for lawful defense,” he said.
The Colorado connection
In Colorado, the Democratic-controlled legislature passed Senate Bill 25-003, which established a broad permit-to-purchase licensing scheme for “specified semiautomatic firearms” that take detachable magazines. Colorado’s law led to a surge in gun sales ahead of it taking effect on August 1, Complete Colorado previously reported.
CSSA’s brief, which was filed along with the Minnesota Gun Owners Law Center, warns that states are already legislating beyond AR-specific bans, citing SB 25-003.
“Colorado’s classification proves the doctrinal point,” the brief argues. “If semiautomatic operation and detachable magazines become markers of military character, the regulated class does not stop with rifles called AR-15. It can encompass nearly every centerfire semiautomatic rifle with a detachable magazine, semiautomatic shotguns with detachable magazines, and selected gas-operated pistols…
“Legislatures may carve out favored models today and remove those exclusions tomorrow. A constitutional rule keyed to resemblance supplies no constraint,” the groups add.
As Complete Colorado previously reported, CSSA has asked a U.S. District Court for a preliminary injunction to halt the law.
“If the [Cook] County may prohibit the Nation’s most commonly chosen semiautomatic rifles by calling them assault weapons, Colorado may suppress the same arms through purchase licensing, and other states may combine credentials, waiting periods, model exclusions, and location bans until lawful ownership has little practical content,” RMGO wrote in its brief, which was also filed with the court on Friday. “Reversal should foreclose that sequence.”
According to Kopel, SB 25-003’s licensing system is “dysfunctional.”
“That already makes it unconstitutional for any firearm, according to the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen decision,” he said.
Numerous other groups, as well as the U.S. Justice Department, and a coalition of 27 states also filed briefs supporting the plaintiffs in the case.
According to the recently-released National Firearms Survey, Americans own approximately 40 million AR-15 style rifles.
