Gun ownership group files lawsuits against Boulder, Boulder County, Louisville
Aug. 18—Emboldened by a judge's ruling in its case against the town of Superior, a Front Range gun ownership group has now filed similar lawsuits against Louisville, the city of Boulder and Boulder County over their recently passed gun control laws.
The three lawsuits by Loveland-based Rocky Mountain Gun Owners were all filed Thursday in U.S. District Court on Thursday, according to records.
The lawsuits against Louisville names only the city as a defendant, and lists Bryan Lafonte, Craig Wright and Gordon Madonna as plaintiffs alongside Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.
The suit against Boulder names Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and James Michael Jones as plaintiffs and the city of Boulder as the defendant.
The third suit names the Boulder County Commissioners as defendants, with Martin Carter Kehoe named as a plaintiff alongside Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.
Boulder County officials released a statement Thursday regarding the lawsuit.
"Gun violence poses a grave public safety threat in Boulder County," the statement read. "On Aug. 2, the Boulder County Board of County Commissioners adopted five ordinances designed to prevent gun violence. One of those ordinances prohibited the sale and purchase of assault weapons, large capacity magazines, and trigger activators. The county learned today that a group filed a lawsuit challenging that ordinance. Boulder County will defend against the lawsuit and demonstrate that the assault weapons ordinance is constitutionally sound."
Boulder officials confirmed they were aware of the lawsuit, but declined to comment. Officials with Louisville did not immediately return requests for comment.
All three of the lawsuits cite a recent ruling by a U.S. District Court judge in the group's case against Superior, which was filed in July. The judge in that case granted the group a temporary restraining order prohibiting Superior from enforcing the new gun laws.
"In the Superior order, this court held there was a strong likely (sic) that the plaintiffs in that case would prevail on the merits of their constitutional challenge to the Superior ordinance provisions banning so-called assault weapons and large capacity magazines," the suits read. "Those restrained ordinance provisions are substantially identical to the ordinance provisions challenged in this action."
In a news release, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners said it will be pursuing legal action against any municipality that passes gun control laws following the ruling in the Superior case.
"Last month, we promised our members we would sue over these unconstitutional gun control laws, and today we are making good on our promises," Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners Taylor Rhodes said in a statement. "Again, it doesn't matter how big or how small the localities are — if you pass unconstitutional gun control, we will sue you.
"RMGO is proud to have filed the first two post-Bruen cases in America, and based on our early success against the town of Superior, the floodgates are open, and we are taking back the rights that evil tyrants stole from us."
The U.S. Supreme Court's Bruen ruling in June overturned a New York state law requiring that gun owners show "proper cause" to get a license to carry a concealed firearm in public.
Boulder, Boulder County, Louisville, Lafayette and Superior all passed varying degrees of gun control measures in recent months after a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed. Longmont has also considered gun control laws of its own.
No lawsuit has been filed at this time against Lafayette.
