Lawsuit filed against state’s new ghost-gun law

A pair of gun-rights groups have filed a lawsuit against Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to block enforcement of a new state law banning so-called “ghost guns,” in the latest legal challenge of a slew of new firearms reform measures.

The suit was filed in federal court Monday, when some provisions of the law took effect, by three Colorado gun owners and by the National Association for Gun Rights and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners. It alleges that the law violates the Second Amendment and doesn’t comport with America’s history of firearms and gun regulations.

Passed by the state legislature and signed into law in June, the law makes it a misdemeanor to possess, sell or create unserialized guns and gun parts. The gun owners and groups seek an immediate hold on the law and a wider declaration that the ban is unconstitutional.

As Colorado voters embrace gun reform and Democrats exercise full control over the Capitol, conservative opponents increasingly have turned to the courts to block new firearms laws. The basis of this latest challenge — that the ghost gun ban doesn’t match with the country’s historical regulation of firearms — draws on a litmus test for firearm reform that the U.S. Supreme Court established last year.

Rocky Mountain Gun Owners has used the same argument as it seeks to block two other recent gun reform laws from going into effect.

The group was successful in stopping one measure that requires that gun purchasers be at least 21 years old. The other, requiring a minimum three-day waiting period between buying and taking possession of a gun, was upheld by a federal judge in November.