Denver gun laws stand, but issue left unresolved

Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 6, 2006 at midnight

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Denver's controversial gun laws will remain in effect thanks to a divided Colorado Supreme Court that upheld the ordinances on a 3-3 vote.

The tie vote means a lower court ruling upholding Denver's laws will stand.

But the tie vote failed to give the state, cities and gun groups what they wanted most - a clear ruling from the state high court on whether uniform state law overrides local gun ordinances passed by home-rule cities such as Denver.

"It makes a good law in Denver but leaves unresolved how these issues are dealt with elsewhere," said Assistant City Attorney David Broadwell.

"We were hopeful we would get a definitive ruling one way or the other," he said, noting that a number of Denver ordinances regulating a variety of firearms were at issue. "Although it's a relatively favorable ruling for the city, we now have to analyze the situation and figure out where we go from here."

Among the issues, Broadwell said, is when to resume enforcement of Denver's laws that have been in hiatus during the court case.

The legal battle began when state lawmakers passed legislation in 2003 that barred cities such as Denver from enacting ordinances more restrictive than state law. The idea was to bring uniformity to the variety of local gun laws across the state.

Denver, which has some of the strictest firearm laws in the metro area, challenged the state legislation as a violation of its authority as a home-rule city.

Two Denver district judges ruled that while the state legislation overrode some ordinances, Denver still had the right to regulate assault weapons, so-called "Saturday night specials" and the open carrying of firearms in public.

Denver District Judge Joseph E. Meyer ruled in 2004 that Denver's dense population and violent crime rate outweighed the state's need for uniformity in gun laws.

Although the Supreme Court's tie vote upheld the lower court ruling, Colorado still has no clear direction from the court on when or whether home-rule cities can enact gun ordinances that override state statues.

The unusual tie vote resulted when newly appointed Justice Allison Eid, a former Colorado solicitor general, abstained because she argued the case on behalf of the state when she worked for the attorney general's office.

Spokeswoman Kristin Hubbell said the attorney general's office will not appeal the ruling further.

"We were obviously hopeful the court would agree on the arguments we made," she said.

"Overall, we're glad that statewide concealed carry is still in place," she said, referring to uniform statewide criteria established for issuing concealed carry permits under a law passed in 2003. "I think that today's ruling may leave issues that have yet to be resolved."

Broadwell agreed.

"We filed the case to have the courts provide clarity and certainty," he said. "We had hoped we would get a more definitive ruling on these issues so we would know where we stand in the state. We hoped the court would rule in a way that would become the law of the land one way or the other. We didn't achieve that."

He said he expects further challenges to the laws in Denver or other municipalities.

A challenge on a more narrow issue could result in a different vote, Broadwell said.

In Monday's rulings, Justices Mary Mullarkey, Alex Martinez and Gregory Hobbs voted to uphold the rulings of the Denver judges. Justices Michael Bender, Nancy Rice and Ben Coats said the decisions should be overturned.

It is unclear whether Eid will have to continue to abstain from any new cases involving the issue.

Attorney Anne Gill, who represented Aurora Gun Club member John Sternberg in his challenge to Denver's gun laws, said they are evaluating what to do next.

"Our reaction is deep disappointment that we didn't get a ruling out of it," Gill said. "Mr. Sternberg basically wants to have clarification on the state law, and we are hoping that the ultimate ruling is that uniform state law will prevail. We are trying to figure out how to get to that point."

Tony Fabian, president of the Colorado State Shooting Association, said his group and National Rifle Association experts are evaluating the situation to decide what to do next.

"We're just disappointed," he said. "The court was unable to give us a final opinion on the law in this area and leaves this issue up in the air. We're left waiting and wondering what is the law when it comes to this matter."

Denver gun laws that remain in effect

• Assault weapons: A ban on assault weapons and cheap Saturday-night specials.

• In public: A ban on openly carrying firearms in public.

• Storage: Safe storage of all firearms required.

lindsays@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5181

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