District of Columbia v. Heller (2008, majority opinion by Justice Scalia):

“[t]his is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The Second Amendment declares that it shall not be infringed.

NYSRPA v. Bruen (2022, majority opinion by Justice Thomas):

The Second Amendment guaranteed to ‘all Americans’ the right to bear commonly used arms in public subject to certain reasonable, well-defined restrictions.

For rational Americans, Heller and Bruen make clear that the Second Amendment is a natural, unalienable right that encompasses keeping and bearing—wherever one might be—“commonly used arms” for defense of self and others. How then to explain this from Colorado?

Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday signed into law one of the most restrictive gun regulations ever adopted in Colorado. 

Actually, it’s one of the most restrictive and blatantly unconstitutional laws ever adopted anywhere.

“I really think this will make Colorado safer,” Polis said before signing the bill in his office at the Colorado Capitol.

The law will take effect in August of 2026. It bans the manufacture, sale, and purchase of semiautomatic firearms that can accept detachable magazines. This includes most semiautomatic rifles in common use, like AR-15s, also Glocks and virtually any other semiautomatic handgun in any caliber. Magazine-fed shotguns would likewise be banned. 

There is a bizarre exception to the outright ban, which Colorado obviously hopes might allow leftist judges to justify the rest. One can own a banned gun if it has a magazine of no more than 15-round capacity epoxied, welded, or soldered to the gun so it can’t be removed. 

Virtually no such guns are made for obvious reasons. Permanently affixing magazines to guns in that fashion would reduce their resale value to zero and greatly limit their utility.  It’s highly unlikely, should the law be upheld, that manufacturers would make such weapons for a single state, which is surely what Colorado’s Democrat-dominated legislators are hoping.

One can only buy the mutilated guns—if they exist—if they get a “firearms safety course eligibility card.” That requires vetting by county sheriffs who have what are essentially “may issue” powers, denying cards for contrived reasons.

Violations would be either misdemeanors or felonies, punishable by from 120 days to 18 months in prison.

Currently owned weapons are grandfathered.

Graphic: H&K MP5SD6, Author

This rifle is not an H&K MP5SD, 9mm submachinegun. It is an H&K MP5SD6, a semiautomatic, .22LR look-alike with a non-functional suppressor. It's made under license by Walther. In caliber, ammunition, and function it is no different from any other .22LR semiautomatic rifle on the market, but because its 25-round magazines are detachable it will be banned in Colorado next August.

Proponents of the bill claim it will somehow make Coloradans safer by limiting magazine capacity and making changing magazines impossible. Criminals care nothing for the law and won’t so limit themselves. Lunatics bent on mass murder won’t be thwarted. Lever and pump-action rifles and shotguns with tubular magazines can be reloaded with great speed, as can revolvers with the help of common, inexpensive speedloading devices, but if this law can be upheld, they’re next on the list.

Colorado’s anti-liberty/gun cracktivists are clearly hoping to make guns as unavailable as possible:  

“For our long-gun inventory, 60% to 75% of the guns we sell would be affected by this ban,” said Bryan Clark, who owns the Bristlecone Shooting, Training and Retail Center in Lakewood.

By “affected,” Clark means gone. He wouldn’t be able to sell them, leaving only revolvers, some semiautomatic and pump-action shotguns, lever-action and pump-action rifles, and bolt-action rifles. The most commonly used guns—handguns, rifles, and shotguns—would be banned. Most of his profits, and the profit of every Colorado gun dealer, would instantly vanish as would most Colorado gun stores.

Clearly, the Colorado law is an infringement. Clearly, it bans the most commonly used guns in America. The law’s restrictions are not remotely reasonable. The Supreme Court in Heller and Bruen is referring to restricting weapons like belt-fed machineguns, rocket launchers, and similar uncommon weapons. One might argue such restrictions are unreasonable, but that’s the current state of the law.

Since Democrats began to rule Colorado, they’ve consistently tried to outdo California, New York, Illinois, and other Democrat-ruled states in their race to totalitarianism. Colorado’s Democrats surely know this law is a blatant violation of the Second Amendment and will be struck down. They also know they have the power to waste as much taxpayer money as necessary to defend it in a losing battle that will take months or years. During that time, they get to punish their political enemies—Normal, sane Coloradans--and revel in their self-imagined elite invincibility.

Were they wise, they’d remember: sic transit gloria mundi--the glory of man is fleeting. So is political power.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.