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Robertson v. City and County of Denver5/2/1994
ited States. Given the narrow class of weapons regulated by the ordinance, we have no hesitancy in holding that the ordinance does not impose such an onerous restriction on the right to bear arms as to constitute an unreasonable or illegitimate exercise of the state's police power: there are literally hundreds of alternative ways in which citizens may exercise the right to bear arms in self-defense. While carving out a small category of arms which cannot be used for purposes of self-defense undoubtedly limits the ways in which the right to bear arms may be exercised, the barriers thereby created do not significantly interfere with this right. To the contrary, as the evidence plainly shows, there are ample weapons available for citizens to fully exercise their right to bear arms in self-defense.
Plaintiffs argue that the ordinance is not reasonably related to the state's interest because assault weapons account for only one-half of one percent of the estimated 200 million privately owned weapons in the United States and are used in roughly one percent of all "gun crime." While these statistics support the inference that a ban on assault weapons is unlikely to have a dramatic effect on crime, this fact is irrelevant for constitutional purposes. " statute is not invalid under the Constitution because it might have gone farther than it did reform may take one step at a time, addressing itself to the phase of the problem which seems most acute to the legislative mind." Katzenbach v. Morgan, 384 U.S. 641, 657, 16 L. Ed. 2d 828, 86 S. Ct. 1717 (1966) (quotations and citations omitted). See also People v. Elliott, 186 Colo. 65, 525 P.2d 457 (1974).
In our judgment, the evidence presented to the trial court undeniably demonstrates that the ordinance is reasonably related to a legitimate governmental interest and constitutes a valid exercise of the state's police power on the right to bear arms in self-defense.
IV
Defendants argue that the trial court erred in concluding that certain provisions of the ordinance are unconstitutionally vague. The basic inquiry in a void-for-vagueness challenge is whether the law forbids or requires the doing of an act in terms so vague that persons of ordinary intelligence must necessarily guess as to its meaning and differ as to its application. People v. Gross, 830 P.2d 933, 937 (Colo. 1992); People v. Becker, 759 P.2d 26, 31 (Colo. 1988). In evaluating a vagueness challenge, we are mindful that "statutory language must strike a balance between two potentially conflicting concerns: it must be specific enough to give fair warning of the prohibited conduct, yet must be sufficiently general to address the problem under varied circumstances and during changing times." Parrish v. Lamm, 758 P.2d 1356, 1367 (Colo. 1988). Moreover, the strictness of the vagueness test depends on whether the challenged law threatens to inhibit the exercise of constitutionally protected rights. Id. at 1366-67; People v. Garcia, 189 Colo. 347, 349, 541 P.2d 687, 688-89 (1975). When such constitutionally protected behavior may be inhibited, a greater degree of specificity is required than when a law does not implicate constitutionally protected liberties. Parrish, 758 P.2d at 1367.
The trial court found two phrases used in section 38-130(b)(1) to be impermissibly vague. First, it stated that the reference to weapons which may have "a shorter length than recreational firearms" was vague because "citizens must guess what length a 'recreational firearm' possesses." Second, the court found that "th
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