SUPERIOR, Colo. — A judge has granted a temporary restraining order blocking the Town of Superior from enforcing parts of its new gun control ordinance.
Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO), a far-right gun rights group based in Colorado, sued the Town of Superior and Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle, saying the town's firearms and magazine regulations are unconstitutional and violate the rights of RMGO members who live there.
A Colorado law approved in 2021, after the deadly shooting at a King Soopers in Boulder, gave local governments in Colorado the power to pass gun regulations that are tougher than state laws.
In June, Superior voted to ban assault weapons, “large capacity” ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, and trigger activators. According to RMGO, the policy conflicts with residents' Second Amendment rights to bear arms in public. RMGO cites the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down a New York gun law passed in 1913 that required people to prove a need for carrying a handgun in public.
RMGO won their first challenge to block those rules when the judge granted a temporary restraining order, in part, on Friday afternoon.
According to the order, the town is not allowed to enforce two sections of their updated code:
- The section that prohibits the possession and sale of assault weapons, large-capacity magazines, trigger activators and other weapons.
- The section that requires certification of assault weapons that people already own and includes other regulations for where people can have those and what they can do with them.
The town can enforce one other section of the new code that does not allow open carry of a firearm without a valid permit.
A hearing on whether these rules will be permanently overturned is set to begin on Aug. 4.
Superior approved their new rules at the same time neighboring municipalities -- Boulder, Lafayette and Louisville -- passed similar gun regulations of their own.
The goal was to create similar laws across Boulder County.
Erin Powell and Kelly Reinke contributed to this report.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Full Episodes of Next with Kyle Clark