Colorado Governor Signs Semi-Auto Permit-to-Purchase Scheme into Law

It can quickly be a lot more durable for Colorado gun homeowners to proceed buying fashionable semi-automatic firearms.

In a carefully guarded ceremony Thursday, Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D.) signed SB25-003 into legislation. The “Semiautomatic Firearms & Fast-Fireplace Units” invoice criminalizes the manufacture, distribution, switch, and buy of any semi-automatic rifle, shotgun, or gas-operated handgun that accepts a removable journal. The legislation additionally carves out an exception from the ban for individuals who bear an in depth allowing and coaching course of—the primary of its form for buying firearms in Colorado.

“This laws builds on our dedication to enhance public security, scale back gun violence, uphold our freedom,” Polis mentioned in a press release.

The invoice enacts a number of the most sweeping gun rules ever thought of within the Centennial State, even in comparison with the few dozen restrictions Colorado lawmakers have been stacking up over the past decade. It fulfills gun-control advocates’ longstanding objective of cracking down on the provision of sure semi-automatic firearms and is sort of certain to attract authorized challenges from gun-rights teams.

The Colorado State Taking pictures Affiliation (CSSA), the state’s NRA affiliate, threatened as a lot in a press release blasting the Governor’s resolution to signal the invoice.

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

The group mentioned it submitted 40,000 petition signatures to the Governor urging a veto earlier this week.

The invoice’s controversial nature may clarify its unceremonious entry into legislation. Polis, a Democrat with a libertarian streak, saved his opinions on the coverage near the vest all through the legislative course of. He didn’t publicly point out whether or not he would signal the invoice till Thursday, at the same time as he confronted immense exterior strain from teams on both facet of the problem.

His workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Whereas he hesitated to extend public scrutiny of the measure, his workplace was closely concerned in making the ultimate product much less restrictive than its unique type. As launched, the invoice envisioned an outright ban on semi-automatic firearms that didn’t have a completely affixed journal able to holding 15 or fewer rounds—a coverage even broader than typical “assault weapon” bans that Polis has expressed skepticism of prior to now.

Working carefully with the Governor’s workplace, the invoice’s sponsors added a number of pages to its provisions to craft a completely novel course of for Coloradans to proceed buying the weapons in query. It features a potential purchaser having to first acquire a newly established “firearms security course eligibility card” from their native sheriff, which requires paying a charge, submitting fingerprints, and going by way of a background verify.

As soon as issued, a firearms security course eligibility card can be legitimate for 5 years. The issuing sheriff can be required to submit cardholders’ information to a newly created “Firearms Security and Coaching Course Report System” administered by the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife, an company that presently doesn’t deal with something involving firearm gross sales.

With a sound eligibility card, a potential purchaser may enroll in both a “fundamental firearms security course” or an “prolonged firearm security course.” The essential firearms security course is open to eligible cardholders with a hunter training certification and requires 4 hours of in-person instruction. Potential consumers with out hunter training coaching will likely be required to attend the prolonged firearm course, which should embody at the least 12 hours of in-person instruction unfold throughout at the least two days.

The invoice requires each programs to incorporate curricula on protected weapons dealing with, safe storage and little one entry prevention, firearms deaths and psychological sickness, excessive threat safety orders, and “sufferer consciousness and empathy.” Finishing every course can be contingent on receiving a rating of at the least 90% on a closing take a look at.

If a cardholder desires to proceed shopping for the affected firearms, they need to bear the method once more after 5 years.

Along with proscribing the provision of sure weapons, the measure additionally incorporates provisions going after bump shares, binary triggers, and related equipment. It bans the possession of any “rapid-fire gadget,” outlined broadly as any mixture of elements that has the impact of “growing the speed of fireside of a semiautomatic firearm above the usual price of fireside.” It additionally codifies elevated legal penalties for violating the state’s twelve-year-old ammunition journal ban, now a category 1 misdemeanor punishable by as much as a 12 months in jail.

The legislation’s provisions are set to enter impact on August 1, 2026.