A Colorado judge overturned a ban on assault weapons 10 days before the Boulder massacre. It had never been enforced, even before the ruling.

• A Colorado judge on March 12 overturned a ban on assault weapons in Boulder.
• A gunman killed 10 people in the city soon after, reportedly with an assault rifle.
• The Denver Post reported that police were not issuing citations for violations of the law.

A judge in Colorado overturned a ban on assault weapons and large capacity magazines (LCMs) in Boulder only 10 days before a gunman killed 10 people in a supermarket in the city.

On March 12 Boulder County District Court Judge Andrew Hartman ruled that the 2018 ban by Boulder authorities violated Colorado state law and must be struck down.

It was introduced in the wake of the Florida Parkland killings. However, police in Boulder appear not to have been enforcing the ban even while it was active.

Striking down the ban, Hartman wrote that the city could not impose the ban because "it forbids what state law authorizes" - namely the possession of such weapons.

The suspect in Monday's shooting, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa bought an AR-556 semi-automatic on March 16, days after the ban was lifted, according to an arrest affidavit.

Police said in the affidavit that a rifle and a semi-automatic pistol were found near a tactical vest allegedly abandoned by the suspect in the supermarket where the shootings took place.

The AR-556 would have been covered by the ban, according to the Denver Post. The outlet said this is because the ban covered pistol weapons which can accept external magazines, like the AR-556.

It is not clear where he bought the weapon.

In principle, this means that he would have been prohibited from buying such a weapon if the ban had still existed.

However, the Denver Post reported that the ban had never been enforced. Citing public records, the outlet said police had issued no citations for violation of the law during the two years it was in place.

The lawsuit which successfully overturned the ban was brought by a Boulder resident and backed by the NRA, the Associated Press reported.

Lawyers for the city of Boulder had argued that the ban was necessary because state law did not specifically address the use of automatic weapons.

But Hartman said in his ruling that assault weapons were covered by more general state laws governing firearms use, which do not prohibit their use.

Monday's killings have renewed the debate about federal gun control legislation, with President Joe Biden on Tuesday arguing for tighter restrictions on automatic weapons.

Republicans remain opposed to federal gun law reforms, citing the Second Amendment.