The Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Gun Owners association is suing the town of Superior over new gun control laws that ban semi-automatic rifles, arguing last month's U.S. Supreme Court decision gave gun rights groups munition to dismantle "unconstitutional" gun restrictions.
Rocky Mountain Gun Owners filed the lawsuit in federal court on Thursday, arguing that Superior’s laws violate the Second Amendment. The Superior Town Board unanimously passed the laws in June, banning semi-automatic assault weapons and large-capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, among other changes.
“Superior’s anti-gun ordinance flies directly in the face of our right to keep and bear arms,” said Taylor Rhodes, executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners. "We’re not going to stand idly by and let this town – or any other rogue government – trample on our right to self-defense.”
Superior is one of several Boulder County towns that toughened gun control after the community was rocked by a mass shooting in March 2021, when a gunman killed 10 people at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder. In response to the shooting, the state legislature passed a law allowing local governments to create gun regulations that are tougher than state laws.
In addition to Superior, Boulder, Lafayette and Louisville have all passed similar gun laws in recent months.
Superior’s law was also inspired by national mass shootings, including the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, during which 19 children and two adults were killed by a gunman. That shooting occurred around two weeks before the Superior Town Board unanimously voted to establish its new gun ordinances.
The lawsuit comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month to strike down a New York gun law that required people to prove a need for carrying a handgun in public in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen.
“Frankly, last month’s Bruen decision gave gun rights organizations a 4-ton wrecking ball to dismantle gun laws that we have known to be unconstitutional since their conception,” Rhodes said. “If you think this stops in the small town of Superior, you are mistaken; this has the potential to hold much broader implications."
Dudley Brown, president of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and the National Association for Gun Rights, suggested that gun rights advocates could challenge Colorado’s large-capacity magazine ban, which was established in 2013, thanks to the recent Supreme Court ruling.
The National Association for Gun Rights is a partner in the Superior lawsuit.
Superior Mayor Clint Folsom has not responded to requests for comment regarding the lawsuit.
