Analysis: Colorado Gun Sales Surge After Polis Signs Sweeping New Restrictions [Member Exclusive]

Gun gross sales are slumping throughout the nation, however one state is bucking that development: Colorado.

Gun-related Nationwide Instantaneous Prison Background Test System (NICS) checks had been down by 3.4 p.c year-over-year throughout the nation in April, in keeping with the Nationwide Taking pictures Sports activities Basis (NSSF). Over the identical interval, nevertheless, detailed FBI information present they had been up by 15.3 p.c within the Centennial State. Regardless of rating twenty first by inhabitants dimension, Colorado additionally managed to crack NSSF’s high 5 in gun gross sales through the month.

In fact, the explanation why isn’t prone to carry spirits within the gun business. The surge in gross sales corresponds with Governor Jared Polis (D.) signing a sweeping new permit-to-purchase legislation.

The “Semiautomatic Firearms & Fast-Fireplace Gadgets” invoice criminalizes the manufacture, distribution, switch, and buy of any semi-automatic rifle, shotgun, or “gas-operated” handgun that accepts a removable journal. However it additionally contains an exception for many who bear an intensive coaching and allowing course of. It can add important time and price to the method of shopping for most of the hottest firearms for the common state resident.

“This laws builds on our dedication to enhance public security, scale back gun violence, uphold our freedom,” Polis mentioned of the legislation in an announcement.

Gun-rights activists disagreed. They argue the brand new restrictions violate the Second Modification and have vowed to sue.

“We’re resolute in our response,” Ray Elliott, Colorado State Taking pictures Affiliation president, mentioned. “The Colorado State Taking pictures Affiliation is actively exploring each authorized choice to problem this unconstitutional legislation. Our authorized group is getting ready to contest Senate Invoice 3, and we’re dedicated to pursuing justice via each out there avenue.”

Along with the authorized uncertainty surrounding the legislation, there are nonetheless many sensible questions Colorado officers must reply within the coming months. The allowing course of and even the precise weapons the state will apply the allowing requirement to haven’t been decided but. The legislation’s full provisions gained’t go into impact till August of subsequent yr.

Colorado gun house owners appear to be taking that point to fill up. Whereas nationwide NICS numbers have fallen all yr, Colorado’s have been ramping up. January noticed a modest 5 p.c year-over-year enhance, however the hole between Colorado gun-related checks and the remainder of the nation has solely widened since then. February noticed 12.7 p.c development. March skilled a 42.3 p.c leap as the main points of the proposal, which began as a complete gross sales ban, got here into focus.

Combining the handgun, lengthy gun, and “different” classes within the NICS report for April 2025 signifies the FBI performed 43,389 checks throughout that month. Outdoors of March 2025, meaning April noticed probably the most sales-related NICS checks going all the way in which again to 2023.

In the meantime, the variety of sales-related NICS checks in March 2025 was all the way in which up at 55,374. That makes it the most effective month Colorado has seen in a half-decade. It’s the most since March 2020, through the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. That month noticed probably the most NICS checks of any month in historical past.

The affect of Colorado’s permit-to-purchase legislation on stoking gun demand is clear.

Whether or not it’ll encourage Coloradians to end up on the polls towards Polis and his get together the way in which they’ve at their native gun shops isn’t obvious. Democrats confronted an enormous grassroots backlash after they handed {a magazine} ban in 2013. Opponents managed to efficiently recall a state senator for the primary time in historical past consequently.

However Colorado’s politics have continued to shift left nonetheless, together with its gun politics. Democrats have greater than recovered from the recall and have a tighter grip on the levers of state energy. They’ve even framed the permit-to-purchase legislation as a sort of extension of that preliminary journal ban, suggesting they don’t count on the same backlash this time round. Republicans and gun-rights activists will likely be relying on that backlash to indicate up once more.