The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on June 30, 2026, seeking to invalidate Denver's ordinance prohibiting the carry, storage, manufacture, sale, and possession of what the city classifies as assault weapons [1]. The complaint argues the ordinance violates the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens and characterizes the law as "presumptively unconstitutional" [1]. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is identified as a key figure in the enforcement action [1].
The lawsuit invokes the Supreme Court's test established in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022), which requires firearm regulations to be consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearms regulation. Under that framework, the government bears the burden of demonstrating a historical analogue for any restriction on commonly kept arms. DOJ's complaint, as reflected in available reporting, contends Denver cannot meet that burden [1]. The suit represents an extension of DOJ's Second Amendment Section, a unit organized under the current administration to challenge state and local gun laws, which has previously targeted state-level restrictions and has now turned its focus to municipal ordinances [1].
Denver's ordinance broadly covers the carrying, storing, keeping, manufacturing, selling, and possessing of designated assault weapons within city limits [1]. The city has not yet filed a public response to the complaint. Denver will likely argue that its ordinance falls within a recognized category of permissible regulation and that the weapons targeted fall outside Second Amendment protection under existing circuit precedent, though the Tenth Circuit's interpretation of Bruen remains an active area of litigation.
The case lands in a federal district that will have to apply Bruen's historical-tradition analysis to a municipal ban of this scope. If DOJ prevails at the district court level, the ruling could affect similar ordinances in other Colorado municipalities and generate a circuit split with jurisdictions that have sustained comparable bans. A denial of Denver's anticipated motion to dismiss would itself signal significant pressure on local assault-weapons restrictions nationwide. Briefing schedules have not yet been publicly reported.