BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation has joined in an amicus brief to the Colorado State Supreme Court in support of a case that challenges Centennial State gun control laws including the ban on so-called “high capacity” magazines.
SAF joins the Firearm Policy Coalition, Firearm Policy Foundation and Millennial Policy Center. The case is known as Sternberg v. Colorado.
The Colorado General Assembly adopted a ban on so-called “large capacity ammunition magazines” as part of a sweeping gun control push that year. That statute is being challenged by the lawsuit.
“This is an important case because it is testing state gun laws against Colorado’s strong right-to-keep-and-bear-arms state constitutional provision,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Our brief provides a historical examination of why the right was specifically protected by the state constitution, and applies that to today’s context.”
The 28-page brief was prepared by noted Second Amendment civil rights attorney Joseph Greenlee, and it discusses the history of firearms development that adds an important context to arguments that the state constitution’s framers had no concept of rapid fire repeating rifles. The amicus brief shows that to be historical nonsense, Gottlieb observed.
“Anti-gunners are constantly arguing that there is no historical support for protecting modern repeating firearms,” he explained, “and our brief provides proof that repeating rifles capable of holding 15 or more cartridges were in existence long before Colorado became a state in 1876. The framers of Colorado’s constitution knew exactly what they were doing.
“Frankly,” Gottlieb stated, “joining in this brief has been a delight, not only because we enjoy working with our colleagues, but also because it offers SAF an opportunity to add a historical perspective to this discussion.”