The other day Tom reported on a Federal judge issuing a temporary restraining order (TRO) against a so-called “gun control” law that was passed in Superior, Colorado. The challenge was against an “assault weapons” ban, among other things, which was passed by a vehemently anti-gun city council. Such laws are popping up in Colorado in the wake of the dissolution of firearm preemption laws. The judge, an Obama appointee, issued a 19 page order basically saying he’s bound by the NYSRPA v. Buren precedent in issuing the TRO. The case Rocky Mountain Gun Owners v. Town of Superior was filed on behalf of Charles Bradley Walker, a citizen of Superior, by Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.
I had a chance to chat with Dudley Brown, the founder and President of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, and Founder/CEO of National Association For Gun Rights. We discussed this monumental TRO as well as what he sees as a path forward. To the best of Brown’s knowledge, this case is the first where a judge is putting a gun control law on hold, and citing NYSRPA v. Bruen for the reasoning.
“[S]o if you read the actual response from this judge, who clearly isn’t happy to write this, Judge Moore said, ‘I got no choice’. Even said, ‘The court is unaware of historical precedent that would permit a governmental entity to entirely ban a type of weapon that is commonly used by law abiding citizens for lawful purposes.’ And even then later said, ‘Given the claims of the plaintiffs that these are commonly used, that under Bruen, they almost have an almost certain chance of success in this case, over the whole case.’ In other words, this judge just tipped his hat that ‘I don’t have a choice, these guys are going to win the case, at least on those two major points.’ Now, there’s some minor points to it, or well, maybe not minor, but carrying guns in public and the judge may actually be correct in that in that respect, but on the major issues, on ‘assault weapons’ and the magazine ban, this is the first case we know of in a Federal court in which Bruen was actually used by a judge.” – Dudley Brown
It’s Brown’s hope that a full injunction will be put in place next week on the ordinance, and further noted “Well, I think we think we have these guys over a barrel…”
The challenges that residents of The Centennial State face have been adding up over the years. Brown talked about the gross influx of people that moved there from states like California, trying to avoid high taxes and bad policy, only to in turn institute the same in Colorado. In talking about the challenges, Brown said, “We dealt with a very, very blue legislature, which has changed over the last decade, mostly due to demographics. And then some left wing Republicans are neutering the conservative base in the state.”
Brown continued to explain the effects of the political change in Colorado, “And what it’s really done is allow the legislature to repeal preemption. Therefore, all these cities decided they could run around and make a patchwork of laws. And of course, Everytown for Gun Control came into the state and held a symposium, and encouraged all these cities to do so.”
I asked Brown if there were plans for either of the organizations he’s affiliated with to challenge other similar ordinances in the state. Brown told me that was the plan, “Yeah, we haven’t publicly announced it yet. But, we’re doing a plaintiff search right now to go after the other towns. Those will probably be consolidated all into the same case. So we might as well fight them all at once.”
Brown did confide in me further about litigation plans against state level infringements, “So now we are going to file our argument in federal court, we are using the Bruen decision against the statewide mag ban, and that’s in just a few days.”
In the past, Brown had pursued a challenge to Colorado’s 2013 magazine capacity ban, but without success. He did bring something up though that in conjunction with the NYSRPA v. Bruen decision, is likely to shatter the magazine ban into a million pieces and scatter it to the wind.
“That [2013] magazine ban, we cornered the Attorney General’s office, and [got] their attorneys to stipulate to a number of issues, not the least of which and most important is that they stipulated to the fact and agreed, ‘No, there’s really no historical precedent.’ Now at that time, that wasn’t that groundbreaking, because admitting that there was no historical precedent doesn’t really mean that the case is won.” – Dudley Brown
The National Association For Gun Rights and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners are not groups known for filing a ton of litigation. I had indicated to Brown that I had been watching what the groups have been up to as of late, and maybe they’re more on my radar because of their ramping up of more litigation.
Brown believes that the fight to win isn’t necessarily in the courtroom, but rather in elections. The idea is it’s best to stave off all of this prior to having to challenge bad or unconstitutional policy. He did mention that with some of these successes in filings, that there’ll be more on the way. The process, as many in the gun rights arena know, is expensive and Brown chided that, “The Bible talks about only a fool builds a tower but doesn’t count the cost. So, going out and picking fights in court, without planning on how you’re going to fund it is a kind of idiocy.”
The National Association For Gun Rights earlier this year launched a suit against the city of San Jose concerning draconian measures they implemented. I asked Brown about the progress there and said that he’s not getting daily updates on the topic, but there does seem to be some effect concerning the enforcement, “I’ll confess I don’t have a daily update on San Jose. They have backed down and said they will not enforce what is their First Amendment violation, essentially, by forcing you to join an anti-gun group when you buy a gun, and maintain the membership in this anti-gun group.“
The battle in California is raging, with Brown bringing up the recent doxing of California gun owners’ personal information, “They said it was a mistake…Yeah. If you believe that I got a bridge in Manhattan to sell you.”
It’s an exciting time to be a Second Amendment advocate in the United States. Things are changing on a near hourly basis on all different levels in the country. Groups like The National Association For Gun Rights and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners are working towards tearing down infringements throughout the land.
Seeing more and more litigation efforts coming from these groups has put them more and more on the map, and it’s certainly shaking things up. This is all interesting and seeing the positive effects of their efforts is promising. What’ll come next, and given what Brown had to say, it looks like a lot, is also promising. We’ll be closely watching the progress of these cases as well as others like them, and be reporting back on the latest news.
If you’d like to listen in on my full conversation with Dudley Brown, you can do so HERE or in the embed below: