DENVER | People in Colorado will soon have to pass a background check and complete a state-sanctioned safety course to buy most semiautomatic guns with detachable magazines under a bill signed into law by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday.
Colorado, which has seen some of the country’s worst mass shootings — including the 2022 killings at the LGBTQ+ nightspot Club Q in Colorado Springs and the 1999 Columbine High School massacre — joins nearly a dozen other states in requiring some level of safety training or an exam to purchase a firearm.
One of the most restrictive gun control measures to be passed in the state as part of a long-running Democratic campaign to curtail gun violence, the law takes full effect in August 2026.
“We can’t afford not to do all we can to change the continuing impact of gun violence,” said bill sponsor and state Sen. Tom Sullivan, whose son, Alex, was killed in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting. Speaking at the bill signing, he added that the measure is “just the next step we have undertaken on that effort.”
Republicans and other opponents contend that the measure violates the Second Amendment, and at last one organization, Rocky Mountain Gun owners, was considering a legal challenge.
The several layers of hurdles that the law requires to purchase these guns, and the accompanying costs and potential backlogs, make “it a more or less administrative ban,” said Ian Escalante, executive director of the gun rights group.
Previous attempts at securing an all-out ban on certain semiautomatic guns, as has been done in deeply Democratic states including New York and California, floundered in more purple Colorado where many including the governor have something of a libertarian streak.
“I really think this bill will make Colorado communities safer and prevent both accidents as well as reduce gun violence, and ultimately that means saving lives while protecting our Second Amendment rights,” Polis said.
The proposal was watered down from a flat ban on sale of most semiautomatics with detachable magazines, including rifles and some pistols. Proponents argued that allowing only permanently attached magazines would force a would-be shooter to reload bullet by bullet.
The final bill as signed is a concession to Polis and other Democrats wary of going too far.
Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Remember in November that these vermin want to disarm you as they allow the state to be invaded by illegals.
The lawsuits will keep this tied up in the courts for years.
I’m 70 and probably ran more rounds through guns than 95% of people. I hunted from the time I was 12. My Dad made me “hunt” with a pop gun for a year before I got a shotgun. He told me there would be “consequences” if he ever looked down the barrel while I was handling the pop gun. I found out because he never said a word; he just cuffed me upside the head. I learned quickly, but that didn’t stop my dad from enrolling me in a voluntary hunter safety training course. In short, I knew the parameters and never forgot Dad’s rules! Now everybody’s packing and the GOP morons constantly throw the 2nd amendment in our face. Well, read the 2nd amendment! It assures the right to bear arms FOR A WELL REGULATED MILITIA! Today, I don’t own any guns because my hunting days are over. I don’t need one, nor have I ever needed a gun for protection. The CDC produced a report on gun ownership in the 80s. Gun ownership increases the likelihood of being killed by a gun. I believe in solid research! I worked in research. I applaud the state for this action. It’s a first step! We have way too many guns and gun shops. If the gun shops don’t like the rule, move to Wyoming! I want schools to be safer here. We need fewer guns because access to guns is the problem. Next law, work on locked devices to store all guns and ammunition. The consequences should be confiscation of all unlocked weapons.
Ironically, every attempt to restrict gun ownership results in another million guns being sold as citizens rush to fulfill their constitutionally guaranteed rights to own guns before restrictions take place.
When many states are going to constitutional carry and no limits on gun purchases and possession as they become safer and better to live in, Colorado has decided to go with he extreme Democrats that was full gun control, but zero immigration control. This will not work out well, welcome to the new London soon…
It’s laughable to think this is going to have any impact to reduces gun violence in Colorado. There are already so many firearms in the hands of criminals and non-criminals alike that this won’t change anything. This only makes it harder for law abiding citizens to have the ability to protect themselves from criminals who will continue to illegally obtain weapons. I’m 100% sure the mandatory training will have no stipulation for mental health acuity in determining of a citizen should be allowed to buy a firearm or not. Many mass shooters obtain their firearms legally, and can continue to obtain their firearms legally under this new law. Thus, this solves nothing.
Our state has turned into a cesspool of liberal politicians and voters hell bent on stripping us of our 2A rights, while letting criminals avoid jailtime and the justice system. What we can hope for now is for the Supreme Court to strike down all nationwide firearms bans and anti-2A laws once and for all and end this nonsense.
You can’t be blamed for your error. The NRA has brainwashed so many about the Second Amendment.
But the amendment is about militia service, not guns. For one thing, while the militia, and the army, were much on the Framers’ minds, no one was expressing worry about gun ownership. They WERE concerned about a permanent army, and local control, but you can hunt the rest of your life and find little to support the idea that the citizens worried about anyone taking their guns. Not that many had proper guns beyond rifles left over from the Revolution.
And, of course, the South well knew that militias could be used as slave patrols. They wouldn’t need to be worried, had they abandoned the ownership of people as slaves.
Meanwhile in Aurora one PAROLEE can attempt murder two more times and is still granted bail? No revocation of THE PAROLE?!?!?
And in today’s news, we have a new defendant given only a $50K bond for FIVE counts of ATTEMPTED MURDER with a GUN.
Colorado Democrats are KILLING their constituents through their total inaction on restoring meaningful bail. Instead they think mandatory firearms safety training will combat crime?!?! Who is buying this garbage?
Is it any wonder no one wants to be a cop? Most of our elected leaders at the Capitol no longer care about protecting the law-abiding citizens or officers.