Colo. gun law raising age limit to 21 can take effect, appeals court rules

By Katie Langford
The Denver Post

DENVER — A Colorado law banning gun sales to people younger than 21 can now take effect, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an injunction in the lawsuit and ordered the case be sent back to the district court for further consideration.

Gun-rights organization Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and two men younger than 21 filed the lawsuit against Gov. Jared Polis in 2023, claiming that the law recently passed by state lawmakers infringed on their Second Amendment right to bear arms.

U.S. District Court Judge Philip Brimmer granted an injunction in the case on Aug. 7, 2023, the same day the law was set to take effect.

The law, SB23-169, raises the age limit to buy a gun in Colorado from 18 to 21 years old and makes it a misdemeanor to buy or sell a gun to someone younger than 21, with exceptions for active-duty military and police officers.

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But in a 90-page ruling, the appeals court found the case did not meet the requirements for an injunction to stop the law from taking effect and that the district court “abused its discretion” in granting it.

While someone younger than 21 years old wanting to buy a gun is covered by the Second Amendment, it doesn’t hold up because “the regulation is presumptively lawful” and the presented arguments did not rebut that presumption, Judge Carolyn McHugh wrote in a concurring opinion.

Rocky Mountain Gun Owners released a statement about the ruling on X, criticizing the court for “(recharacterizing) this law into a mere commercial regulation instead of a constitutional right infringement.”

The group will continue to fight the ruling, officials said Tuesday.

“This law very clearly violates both the Second Amendment and the Supreme Court’s precedents, and we look forward to ultimately striking it off the books,” Rocky Mountain Gun Owners officials said in a statement.

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