DENVER — A federal judge on Thursday rejected a request from gun rights advocates to block a recent Colorado law prohibiting the possession and transport of certain firearm components not imprinted with a serial number — known as "ghost guns."
To address the proliferation of guns privately assembled from kits or 3-D printers, the Colorado General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 279 last year, making it a misdemeanor to possess ghost guns unless the owner obtains a serial number from a licensed firearm dealer and the dealer performs a background check. Multiple violations of the law are felony offenses.
On Jan. 1, the National Association for Gun Rights and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners sued to strike down the law under the Second Amendment. Under the recent guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority, they argued the ghost gun ban could not survive constitutional scrutiny.
In a May 2 order, U.S. District Court Judge Gordon P. Gallagher declined to issue a preliminary injunction, finding the plaintiffs did not have standing to challenge certain aspects of the law. Otherwise, he did not believe SB 279 even implicated the plaintiffs' Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
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