(Dobbs) “Our answer is ‘Hell no’.”

We have a right not to be threatened by madmen with weapons of mass destruction.

Here in Colorado, we have had more than our share of mass murders.

• November 19, 2022: a hateful shooter killed five people and injured 25 at a gay nightclub in the city of Colorado Springs. His weapons were an AR-15-stye rifle and a Glock 17-style handgun.

• March 22, 2021: a madman murdered ten people and injured two others at a supermarket in the city of Boulder. He was armed with a Ruger AR-556 pistol and a Girsan MC28SA 9mm semi-automatic handgun.

• July 20th, 2012: a maniac murdered twelve people and injured 70 others at a movie theater in the city of Aurora. He had a .223 Smith & Wesson M&P 15 Sport semi-automatic rifle, a Remington 870 Express Tactical 12-gauge shotgun, a .40 S&W Glock 22 handgun, and for good measure, two tear gas grenades.

• April 20th, 1999: two seniors massacred twelve fellow classmates and one teacher, and injured 23 more students, at Columbine High School in the city of Littleton. The death toll stood at thirteen until only a year ago, when Anne Marie Hochhalter, who they paralyzed from the waist down, died from complications of her gunshot wounds. Now the toll is fourteen. The gunmen were armed with a 9mm Hi-Point 995 carbine, a 12-gauge Savage 67H pump-action sawed-off shotgun, a 9mm Intratec TEC-9 Mini pistol, a gauge Stevens 311D double-barreled shotgun, and for backup, an arsenal of pipe bombs, propane bombs, CO2 cartridge bombs, and two knives.

But the federal government, in its infinite wisdom, doesn’t think we need sensible gun laws here. Yesterday the Department of Justice sued the city of Denver and the state of Colorado to force them to repeal what they have on the books. What the assistant attorney general of the civil rights division wrote to Denver officials was, “The City’s ban on AR-15-style firearms violates its citizens Second Amendment rights by banning constitutionally protected arms.”

Imagine, the Trump administration singles out AR-15s for special mention. The same AR-15s that killed 26 people, mostly children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. The same AR-15s that killed 49 at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. The same AR-15s that killed 58 at a music festival in Las Vegas.

But in its letter, the Justice Department argues, “Law-abiding Americans own and use for lawful purposes literally tens of millions of AR-15 style rifles. Indeed, it is the most popular rifle in America.”

It sure is. It’s also the most popular rifle for mass murders. According to statistics, it was used in at least ten of the seventeen deadliest mass executions in the past almost fifteen years.

The federal government’s letter claims to be protecting the Second Amendment. What’s missing— what’s always missing when gun rights fanatics make that argument— is anything about actually protecting people’s lives.

Happily, the city and the state told the DOJ to stuff it. Denver’s mayor Michael Johnston declared at a news conference, “We’re here today to let them know that our answer is ‘Hell no’.” Colorado’s attorney general said in a statement, “I believe the law has reasonable limitations that satisfy Second Amendment protections. Large-capacity magazine laws are responsible policies that decrease the deadly impacts of mass shootings and save lives.”

The laws he’s talking about specifically prohibit the sale, transfer, or possession of large-capacity magazines, meaning those capable of holding more than 15 bullets, and they prohibit possession of assault-style weapons, including AR-15s. Do law abiding citizens really need to fire more than 15 rounds before they reload?

We know that each side in the gun debate can and for decades has manipulated statistics to reinforce their arguments. We also know that each side in the debate does and has cited its take on the language of the Second Amendment. What it says is, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The gun rights side thinks the language is absolute. But when the founders wrote about a “well-regulated Militia,” did they really envision every man, woman, and child as a part of it?

In the 37 years that these ordinances have been in effect— some enacted after the Aurora movie theater slaughter— federal appellate courts consistently have upheld them. They don’t deprive law-abiding citizens of owning weapons. They just put sensible limits on how much damage certain guns can do in a single incident. Gun rights advocates might want them, but if they’re law-abiding citizens, they sure don’t need them. If they’re not, it shouldn’t be so easy to get them.

Acting U.S. attorney general Todd Blanche added his voice to the litigation against Denver and Colorado, saying yesterday in a statement, “This Department of Justice will vigorously defend the liberties of law-abiding citizens nationwide.”

The better way to put it is, the Department of Justice will vigorously defend the liberties of madmen to have weapons of mass destruction.

This is not just about Denver, it is not just about Colorado. It can be about any city or any state in the union. It’s about Washington insisting that it knows what it takes to keep citizens safe. Cities and states don’t.

So kudos to Colorado and Denver. I wrote on another subject just the other day, “If we don’t stand up for our own rights, who will?” The gun rights side will argue that gun ownership, weapons of any kind, are a right. My side argues, we have a right too. A right not to be threatened by madmen with weapons of mass destruction. And we have a right to decide our own affairs, no matter how much the federal government tries to extort us.

Over more than five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks including ABC News, a political columnist for The Denver Post and syndicated columnist for Scripps newspapers, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of two books, including one about the life of a foreign correspondent called “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He also co-authored a book about the seminal year for baby boomers, called “1969: Are You Still Listening?” He has covered presidencies, politics, and the U.S. space program at home, and wars, natural disasters, and other crises around the globe, from Afghanistan to South Africa, from Iran to Egypt, from the Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia, from Nicaragua to Namibia, from Vietnam to Venezuela, from Libya to Liberia, from Panama to Poland. Dobbs has won three Emmys, the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and as a 39-year resident of Colorado, a place in the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame. He also has been a consultant for the Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab.

You can learn more at GregDobbs.net