The Department of Justice on Wednesday sued Colorado over its ban on high-capacity magazines.

Colorado currently bars the sale and possession of magazines that can hold more than 15 rounds.

The lawsuit, filed in the District of Colorado, alleges that the state law uses "politically charged rhetoric" to describe the arms it bans and asserts that the state's definition of a "large-capacity magazine" is a "misnomer" since magazines that hold more than 15 rounds are "standard capacity" for many common firearms.

“Colorado’s ban on certain magazines is political virtue signaling at the expense of Americans’ constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement. “Under my direction, the Division’s Second Amendment Section will continue to defend law-abiding Americans’ rights against unconstitutional restrictions on their right to possess arms which are owned by tens of millions of their fellow citizens.”

The DOJ asserts that the state ban is a "ban on an arm in common use for lawful [purposes] by law-abiding citizens" and that it therefore violates the Second Amendment.

The U.S. Supreme Court has, in recent years, issued several rulings on gun rights, most notably the Bruen decision, which established a standard of evaluating gun laws based on historical gun regulations in the U.S.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.