DENVER (Legal Newsline) - Colorado Gov. Jared Polis says part of the state NRA's lawsuit against new firearm restrictions shouldn't be in court yet.
Polis on Oct. 17 filed his partial motion to dismiss in the challenge brought by the Colorado State Shooting Association, which sued in August over new laws prohibiting firearm sales to those under 21 and requiring a three-day waiting period for others.
Polis' motion focuses on the waiting period.
"(W)hen Plaintiffs brought this lawsuit, the waiting period law had not yet gone into effect. They therefore did not have standing to challenge it unless they were subject to a credible threat of prosecution under the law," the motion says.
"None of them were. The waiting period law regulates only firearm sellers and imposes no penalties on purchasers like Plaintiffs. They therefore lack standing to bring a pre-enforcement challenge to the waiting period law and the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over those claims."
The plaintiffs claim the law is a "blanket prohibition" that bans adults of a certain age from purchasing a firearm and violates the Second and Fourteenth amendments.
The plaintiffs allege SB 23-169 as well as SB23-169, also signed by Governor Polis, prevent law-abiding adults from keeping and bearing arms "in a timely manner" and that the law will hamper their "essential work" with their 18-20-year-old members.
They claim some of those members include domestic abuse survivors and those living in an area affected by dangerous and violent crime who have a right to defend themselves. The plaintiffs claim HB23-1219 also removes domestic violence survivors' ability to purchase a gun immediately due to the required three-day waiting period even if they have passed a clean background check.