Colorado’s new firearms law leads to run on gun shops
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New state requirements and restrictions on semiautomatic guns with detachable magazines that take effect Saturday mean firearms sales, transfers of ownership and background checks have been frenzied.
“We are jam-packed,” Justin Green, owner of SDS Guns in Colorado Springs, said Tuesday, as people streamed in and out of the shop at Palmer Park and Academy boulevards.
He doesn’t usually work the sales floor. But during this normally slow month, as Coloradans have realized enactment of a law passed in April 2025 is bearing down, that’s where Green has spent his days, instead of fishing in his new boat or camping in his new fifth-wheel.
Business has been so brisk that “all my bills are paid,” Green said, adding that he’s run out of inventory and restocked three times in recent months.
But that’s where the buck of plenty stops for opponents of gun control.
“They constantly think that making guns harder to buy is going to prevent crime and violence, but it doesn’t,” Green said. “We’ve gone so soft on crime there’s no one enforcing. Instead, they’re making law-abiding citizens pay in a complete show of fecal matter.”
With a three-day waiting period, Tuesday was the last day to apply for background checks and not be subjected to Colorado’s tightening on what advocates refer to as assault weapons.
As of midday Tuesday, 6,504 applications for background checks were waiting to be accepted by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, with the longest wait for processing being two days, 19 hours and 25 minutes.
If the wait time goes over 72 hours, people will be subjected to the expanded process that involves increased background checks and completion of a firearm safety training course of either four or 12 hours. The course must be taken from an approved third-party outlet overseen by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The 12-hour training would cost $500, said Roy L. Bartlette Jr., who has lived in Teller County for 10 years.
The former military gunner who did two tours in Iraq showed up at Freedom 30 Arms on Tuesday, hoping to squeak in before the new system kicks in to register the serial number on his magazine-fed semiautomatic rifle he had shipped overnight from Texas.
“I’ve been shooting the semiautomatic rifles since I was a kid. It’s a hobby. It’s something I enjoy,” he said.
Semiautomatics are trigger-activated but fire faster than the bolt-action design because the bullets load automatically. But they are not discharged automatically in a semiautomatic.
People buy the commonly used weapons for hunting, sport, home protection and self-defense, said Chris Albarelle, owner of Freedom 30 Arms in Woodland Park.
“Everyone has their own opinions, but this is a pretty severe overreach for the government,” he said. “We shouldn’t have to pay for constitutional rights.”
El Paso County Sheriff Joseph Roybal called the new measure “the most egregious and unconstitutional anti-Second Amendment bill in Colorado’s history.”
Last year’s introduction of the bill in the statehouse began with a ban on semiautomatic weapons but was altered to include a “permit-to-purchase” and mandatory training model after Gov. Jared Polis said he would not sign a complete prohibition.
Going forward, background check applications of qualified gun buyers, who don’t include convicted felons, are sent to county sheriff offices, where another background check is undertaken. Applicants also must pay a mandatory fee of $52 to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Local sheriffs also are allowed to add on their own local administrative and background check fees.
El Paso County Sheriff’s Office won’t charge a fee for El Paso County residents, said spokesperson Cassandra Sebastian. Fees for nonresidents will be listed on the website later this week, she said. The website also will post local facilities that are providing the training.
Roybal thinks the law will “saddle law-abiding Coloradans with unnecessary fees, bureaucratic hurdles and state-mandated registration for those who want to exercise their constitutional rights,” according to a public statement he issued last year after he testified against the bill at the state Capitol.
Members of Colorado’s Democratically controlled house and senate who backed the measure have said they believe the new rules will reduce gun violence.
The Gun Violence Archive lists 69 mass shootings as having occurred in Colorado from 2020 through Tuesday.
The most recent incident happened on July 20 at the Ultra Lounge in Denver, when a gunman killed one victim and wounded eight others. A mass shooting is defined as four or more victims injured or killed in one location, excluding the suspected shooter.
Sheriff Jason Mikesell of Teller County said in a video that he’s advocating for objectors to legally fight the law, which he describes as “aimed to take away your gun rights and push the most restrictive gun rights bill in U.S. history.”
The Colorado State Shooting Association, which is headquartered in Falcon and is the official statewide association of the National Rifle Association, is challenging the law in federal court as a violation of the Second Amendment.
The association also is exploring a preliminary injunction to temporarily halt the process, said Daniel Fenlason, director of operations and a survivor of the 2014 school shooting at Seattle Pacific University.
“The implementation of this law has been such a complete and utter debacle — we’re talking weeks before getting through the process because of the hoops,” he said. “It’s not only unconstitutional, but implementation also creates a de facto ban — you can’t even get the background check to start the process to buy.”
Gun dealers note that a marketplace rush happens whenever elected officials succeed or even indicate they want to chip away at what firearms owners believe to be Second Amendment rights, but supporters defend the moves as necessary for public safety.
“They’re trying to keep them out of the hands of people who want to legally purchase guns,” said Albarelle of Freedom 30 Arms.
