The city of Denver, action central for the agenda established by the state of Colorado to ignore the First Amendment, now is treating the Second Amendment the same way.
As something to be followed if there’s nothing else the city, or state, wants to do.
But in this case there is, and Denver’s mayor, Mike Johnston, has responded to a Department of Justice call for town officials to stay within the law with a resounding, “Hell no.”
Just sued Denver. How’s your day going? https://t.co/dkPOk1d8hx
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@HarmeetKDhillon) May 5, 2026
The situation is that the DOJ is suing the city over its enforcement of a so-called ban on “assault weapons.”
Johnston’s reaction, “We’re here today to let them know that our answer is ‘Hell no.'”
The derogatory term “assault weapons” is vague to the point other laws citing that term have been struck down.
Exactly what differentiates a weapon from an assault weapon is far from clear. The question arises over the difference between a fist and an “assault fist,” or a baseball bat, and an “assault baseball bat.”
The city’s ordinance, around since 1989, makes it a crime to carry, store, keep, manufacture, or sell these weapons.
It claims a semiautomatic pistol or rifle with a capacity for more than 15 rounds is an assault weapon.
“If I go buy an AR-15 and then put a magazine in it that can hold more than 15 rounds, then it definitely would be banned,” said Huey Laugesen, of the Colorado State Shooting Association.
But his organization’s argument is that Denver’s infringement of the Second Amendment remains unconstitutional.
He said his group met with acting attorney general Todd Blanche just days ago, and a letter promising a legal fight is the result.
Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division,said on X Tuesday: “Just sued Denver. How’s your day going?”
She confirmed, “I have directed the Civil Rights Division, through our new Second Amendment Section, to defend law-abiding Americans from restrictions such as those we are challenging in these cases.
“Law-abiding Americans, regardless of what city or state they reside in, should not have to live under threat of criminal sanction just for exercising their Second Amendment right to possess arms which are owned by tens of millions of their fellow citizens.”
The state’s war against the First Amendment focuses on that chapter’s protection for religious rights. The state repeatedly has attacked the Christian faith by demanding adherents change their beliefs and spout the state’s pro-LGBT talking points, adopted under a homosexual Gov. Jared Polis.
Repeatedly the state has lost at the Supreme Court, costing taxpayers millions in wasted legal time and fees and putting the state in the bull’s-eye of the satire site Babylon Bee, which sarcastically “quoted” Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as scolding the state for trying to do what it is not allowed to do.
He “pleads” with Colorado to give its agenda a rest and warns the Supreme Court may have to set up a special court just to tell Colorado what it cannot do in its violations of the First Amendment.
