Colorado and Denver Blame Each Other in FPC Carry Lawsuit
Colorado and Denver are both fighting the same lawsuit with two different excuses, and lined up side by side, those excuses leave out-of-state gun owners with no clear legal way to carry in Denver at all.
Snapshot
AmmoLand's Duncan Johnson breaks down November 11 court filings in Hoffman v. City and County of Denver, a Firearms Policy Coalition lawsuit over nonresident carry rights. Colorado says open carry covers visitors; Denver says its concealed-carry exception covers them. Problem is, each government's defense depends on a path the other side blocks.
Key points
- The plaintiff: Gene Hoffman, a California resident with concealed-carry permits from California, Utah, Arizona and Florida, says he has no lawful way to carry in Denver.
- Colorado's defense: the state points to its permitless open-carry law as the available option, while Denver bans open carry inside city limits.
- Denver's defense: the city argues its municipal code already exempts concealed-permit holders like Hoffman, but that exemption requires compliance with Colorado's reciprocity statute, which doesn't recognize his California permit.
- FPC's argument: FPC President Brandon Combs says Colorado and Denver are each pointing to the other's loophole, calling it a "constitutional shell game," and leans on Bruen and Wolford v. Lopez against Colorado's reliance on the 2013 Peterson v. Martinez ruling.
- What's pending: no injunction ruling yet; FPC's reply is due November 25, and a related NRA-backed case, Howeth v. City and County of Denver, is still pending too.
Quick take
This is worth watching because it's not the usual one-sided gun-control fight — it's two governments blaming each other's law for the same gap, which is exactly the kind of contradiction a federal judge tends to notice. If FPC's standing argument holds, it could force a real answer on whether permit reciprocity and open-carry bans can combine to strip visitors of any lawful option.
Read the full story: ammoland.com