2 independent outlets are covering this story. Verification: Corroborated — reported by at least two independent outlets. Patriot Watch links to original reporting; we don't republish it.
A new lawsuit has been filed challenging Denver's firearm restrictions. The legal challenge comes as the Supreme Court prepares to take up cases concerning AR-15 rifle bans.
Patriot Watch first flagged this story 4 d ago, when The Reload reported it. Coverage has since grown to 2 independent outlets. The most recent report came 2 hr ago from AmmoLand. Verification tier: Corroborated — reported by at least two independent outlets.
⚖ The Constitutional Angle
Under McDonald, the individual right recognized in Heller binds cities like Denver through the Fourteenth Amendment, so Denver must justify its restrictions under Bruen's historical-tradition test. Whether AR-15-type rifle bans pass that test is unsettled: the Court has granted review but not yet ruled.
District of Columbia v. Heller 554 U.S. 570 (2008)
Vote: 5-4 · Opinion: Scalia
The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia and to use it for traditionally lawful purposes such as self-defense within the home. The right is not unlimited: the Court noted that longstanding prohibitions (e.g., possession by felons and the mentally ill, carrying in sensitive places, conditions on commercial sale) remain presumptively lawful. D.C.'s ban on handgun possession in the home and its requirement that lawful firearms in the home be kept nonfunctional violate the Second Amendment.
McDonald v. City of Chicago, Illinois 561 U.S. 742 (2010)
Vote: 5-4 · Opinion: Alito
The Second Amendment right recognized in Heller is fully applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. A four-Justice plurality incorporated the right via the Due Process Clause as fundamental to the Nation's scheme of ordered liberty and deeply rooted in its history and tradition; Justice Thomas supplied the fifth vote via the Privileges or Immunities Clause. The Seventh Circuit's judgment upholding Chicago's and Oak Park's handgun bans was reversed and remanded.
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Kevin P. Bruen, Superintendent of New York State Police 597 U.S. 1 (2022)
Vote: 6-3 · Opinion: Thomas
New York's requirement that applicants demonstrate 'proper cause' — a special need for self-protection distinguishable from the general community — to obtain an unrestricted public-carry license violates the Fourteenth Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public. The Court held the Second Amendment protects a right to carry handguns publicly for self-defense, and rejected the two-step means-end framework lower courts had applied after Heller.
Precedent facts from the PW Law Library — primary-source verified & independently audited
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