BY FREDA MIKLIN
GOVERNMENTAL REPORTER
The law signed by Gov. Polis on April 28, 2023 increasing the minimum age to purchase all firearms in Colorado from 18 to 21, with limited exceptions, was scheduled to go into effect on August 7, 2023.
Rocky Mountain Gun Owners sued to prevent the law from taking effect on constitutional grounds, citing a U.S. Supreme Court (USSC) ruling from June, 2022 that invalidated a New York state law that had been on the books and operating for over a century. That law required persons requesting a permit to carry a concealed weapon in public to justify their need to do so. The six-member USSC conservative majority ruled that the requirement unconstitutionally limited citizens’ Second Amendment rights. All three more liberal Justices disagreed.
Writing the dissenting opinion, now retired USSC Justice Stephen Breyer pointed to the large number of Americans killed by guns and the number of mass shootings, which topped 400 this year as of July 24, 2023.
In making the ruling to place a temporary injunction preventing the Colorado law from becoming operative, District Court Judge Philip Brimmer noted that RMGO could succeed on their lawsuit based on the merits.
Gov. Polis appealed Brimmer’s decision to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, asking that the law be implemented pending the outcome of RMGO’s challenge. On August 29, the Appeals Court denied Polis’ request.
The governor’s spokesperson responded, “People will remain very confused because of this injunction because since 1968, federal law has required Coloradans to be 21 years old to purchase a pistol, but a loophole allows kids under age 21 to legally buy a rifle instead. This new law approved by the legislature closes that loophole and Governor Polis hopes that the courts agree with him that the law is fully consistent with the Second Amendment and reduces confusion.”
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