The Firearms Policy Coalition has filed a new federal lawsuit challenging Colorado and Denver laws that combine to deny peaceable residents of 15 states and the District of Columbia any lawful means to carry a handgun for self-defense while in Denver.
The lawsuit, Hoffman v. City and County of Denver, was filed on behalf of FPC and FPC member Gene Hoffman, a California resident. Hoffman regularly travels to Denver, is legally eligible to possess firearms, holds a carry permit, and would carry a handgun for lawful self-defense there but for the challenged laws.
According to an FPC news release announcing the court action, Colorado generally limits its concealed handgun permits to state residents and recognizes out-of-state permits only when the holder is a resident of a state that recognizes Colorado permits. And while Colorado generally allows open carry, Denver prohibits it. Together, those laws leave otherwise qualified residents of states without Colorado reciprocity unable to carry, either openly or concealed, while in Denver.
The complaint asks the court to declare the combined Colorado and Denver restrictions unconstitutional and require defendants to provide FPC members and the individual plaintiffs a lawful means to carry. The requested relief identifies options including allowing open carry, issuing nonresident permits, recognizing out-of-state permits, or providing an equally effective means.
FPC’s complaint argues that the Supreme Court’s decisions make clear that the Constitution protects the right to carry a handgun outside the home for self-defense and that the right does not depend on a person being a resident of the state where they wish to carry. As the Supreme Court recently explained in Wolford v. Lopez, a Bill of Rights guarantee “has the same meaning in all parts of the United States.”
Additionally, far from supporting residency-based carry bans, the historical record discussed in FPC’s complaint shows a longstanding tradition of protecting travelers’ ability to bear arms.
“In Bruen, after examining the text of the Second Amendment and the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation, the Supreme Court held that ‘the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home,’” the complaint stated. “The Supreme Court did not qualify that holding by recognizing only a right to carry in one’s state of residence, and there is no historical tradition of states or localities imposing such restrictions. Indeed, far from supporting such a restraint on bearing arms, and although it is not Plaintiffs’ burden to carry, the Nation’s historical tradition squarely rejects it.”
FPC President Brandon Combs said that Colorado and Denver cannot simply deny millions of Americans their constitutionally protected right to carry and get away with it.
“As we’ve successfully shown in other cases, fundamental rights do not stop at state lines,” Combs said. “The Second Amendment protects the People, period—not just where they live. We have already litigated to eliminate residency-based carry barriers in California, New York and Louisiana, and we are going to keep pressing this issue throughout the United States.”
Ultimately, Combs said his organization’s objective in filing the lawsuit is straightforward.
“People should be able to exercise their rights throughout the United States,” he concluded. “We have made substantial progress, and this case is another important step toward making that principle a reality nationwide.”
