[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the District of Colorado [official website] on Thursday upheld [opinion, PDF] two Colorado statutes that expanded mandatory background checks and banned high capacity magazines. CRS § 18-12-302 and CRS § 18-12-112 [texts, PDF] were challenged by a group of individuals and entities who claimed that the laws violated the Second Amendment [text] to the US constitution. Chief Judge Marcia Krieger found that the two laws did not violate the Second Amendment and that the individual plaintiffs lacked standing to sue. Krieger wrote: “Whether adoption of a fifteen-round magazine limit is a sound public policy or a perfect fit with the (Colorado) General Assembly’s objective to improve public safety is not the question before this Court. … The provisions of § 18-12-302 are permissible under the Second Amendment.” Krieger also used similar reasoning to determine that § 18-12-112 is permissible under the Second Amendment. An appeal is expected.

The lawsuit was filed in May of last year after the two statues were signed into law [JURIST reports] that March. Mass shootings in Colorado, Connecticut and elsewhere have spurred some state legislatures to create and adopt gun control laws. In January a federal judge upheld [JURIST report] a Connecticut gun control law that expanded the state’s ban on assault weapons and also banned high capacity magazines. Maryland also enacted [JURIST report] new gun control laws as a response to mass shootings that have been occurring in the US. Most of these laws were enacted in the aftermath of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.