Trinen v. City and County of Denver

53 P.3d 754, 2002 Colo. App. LEXIS 164, 2002 WL 221022
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 14, 2002
Docket00CA2126
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 53 P.3d 754 (Trinen v. City and County of Denver) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Trinen v. City and County of Denver, 53 P.3d 754, 2002 Colo. App. LEXIS 164, 2002 WL 221022 (Colo. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinions

Opinion by

Judge PLANK.

In this declaratory judgment action challenging the validity of certain Denver weapons ordinances, plaintiff, Donald Trinen, appeals the summary judgment in favor of defendant, the City and County of Denver. We affirm.

The challenged ordinances are Denver Revised Municipal Code §§ 38-117 and 38-118. Trinen operates a place of business in Denver. It is undisputed that Trinen wishes to carry an unconcealed firearm on his person in Denver and to carry a concealed firearm in a motor vehicle in Denver, and that these activities, subject to certain exceptions, are prohibited by the ordinances. The City does not dispute that Trinen has standing to bring this action. See DiLeo v. Board of Regents of University of Colorado, 196 Colo. 216, 590 P.2d 486 (1978).

Section 88-117 provides in pertinent part:

(a) It shall be unlawful for any person, except a law enforcement officer in the performance of duty, to wear under their clothes, or concealed about their person any dangerous or deadly weapon....
(b) It shall be unlawful for any person, except a law enforcement officer in the performance of duty, to carry, use or wear any dangerous or deadly weapon....

Section 38-118 provides the following affirmative defenses to the offenses described in § 38-117:

(a) It shall be an affirmative defense to charges brought under section 38-117(a) or 38-117(b) that the weapon is or was carried by a person:
(1) In a private automobile or other private means of conveyance for lawful protection of their or another's person or property, when there is a direct and immediate threat thereto, while traveling away from the area of their resi-denee or business;
(2) In their own dwelling, or place of business, or on property owned or under their control at the time of the act of carrying such weapon; or
(3) After they were issued a written permit to carry a weapon by the chief of police of any city, mayor of a town or sheriff of a county; and the carrying of such weapon is within the terms of such permit.
(b) It shall be an affirmative defense to charges brought under section 88-117(b) that the weapon is or was carried by such person:
(1) In defense of home, person or property, when in such home when there is a direct and immediate threat thereto;
(2) In aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned;
(3) For use in the course of a bona fide hunting trip for wild game, or for transportation in the legitimate sporting use of such weapons, including shooting matches or other target shooting, or trap or skeet shooting; all such weapons being so used shall be unloaded when carried or transported to or from such hunting trip or place of sporting use; (4) When such person is a collector or licensed dealer displaying or transporting such weapon for display or sale, or a citizen transporting such weapon for purpose of sale or repair to or from a place of sale or repair; all firearms so displayed or transported shall be unloaded at all times;
(5) When such person is a member of the armed forces of a state or of the federal government when engaged in the lawful performance of duty; or
(6) While moving personal property, including such weapon, from an old residence to a new residence.

Ruling on cross-motions for summary judgment in which the parties agreed there was no dispute of material fact, the trial [757]*757court upheld the validity of the ordinances. This appeal followed.

I.

Trinen first contends that § 88-117(b) is so broad as to abrogate the state constitutional right to bear arms. We disagree.

We review de novo the constitutionality of a municipal enactment. See General Motors Corp. v. City & County of Denver, 990 P.2d 59 (Colo.1999).

Article II, § 18 of the Colorado Constitution provides:

The right of no person to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person and property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall be called in question; but nothing herein contained shall be construed to justify the practice of carrying concealed weapons.

An ordinance is presumed to be constitutional, and the party attacking it must establish its unconstitutionality beyond a reasonable doubt. People ex rel. City of Arvada v. Nissen, 650 P.2d 547 (Colo.1982). If an enactment can reasonably be construed so as to harmonize it with the constitution, that construction should be preferred. People v. Ford, 198 Colo. 459, 568 P.2d 26 (1977).

When a legislative enactment infringes on a fundamental right, the enactment, in order to be constitutional, must be necessary to promote some compelling governmental interest. However, when no fundamental right is implicated, the legislation is evaluated under the rational basis test, which requires that the enactment bear some reasonable relationship to a legitimate governmental interest. People v. Young, 859 P.2d 814 (Colo.1993).

A governmental purpose to control or prevent certain activities that may be constitutionally subject to regulation under the police power may not be achieved by means that sweep unnecessarily broadly and thereby invade the area of protected freedoms. Even though legitimate and substantial, the governmental purpose cannot be pursued by means that broadly stifle fundamental personal liberties when the end can be more narrowly achieved. Lakewood v. Pillow, 180 Colo. 20, 501 P.2d 744 (1972).

A city or state may not, in the name of police power, enact legislation that renders constitutional provisions nugatory. People v. Blue, 190 Colo. 95, 544 P.2d 385 (1975). However, the right to bear arms is not absolute, and a city or state may regulate the exercise of the right under its police power so long as the exercise of that power is reasonable. Robertson v. City & County of Denver, 874 P.2d 825 (Colo.1994).

In Robertson, supra, the supreme court did not expressly state whether the right to bear arms is a fundamental right. However, by requiring that restrictions on the right be only reasonable, rather than necessary, the court essentially applied the rational basis test in evaluating the constitutionality of a city ordinance that implicated the right to bear arms. Therefore, we conclude that the court implicitly found that the right to bear arms is not a fundamental right. See People v. Young, supra.

Trinen does not contest the right of Denver, a home rule city, to regulate firearms in the interest of public safety. He asserts, however, that the reasoning in Lakewood v. Pillow, supra, compels the conclusion that § 38-117(b) is unconstitutionally overbroad.

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53 P.3d 754, 2002 Colo. App. LEXIS 164, 2002 WL 221022, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trinen-v-city-and-county-of-denver-coloctapp-2002.