Coloradans deserve to feel safe in their schools, grocery stores, movie theaters and every aspect of their daily lives.
But unfortunately, that isn’t the reality for far too many Coloradans. Our state is no stranger to gun violence. In an average year, 805 people die and 360 are wounded by guns in Colorado. In the face of increased gun violence, the Colorado legislature has taken meaningful steps to promote gun safety and reduce incidences of violence in our state. There is clearly more work to do, but here’s a summary of the gun safety laws we’ve passed in recent years.
This bill allows additional qualified individuals, such as teachers and District Attorneys, to file extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs). Colorado’s current Red Flag law is one of the most important tools we have to reduce gun violence in our communities. Expanding the pool of individuals who can file ERPOs will increase opportunities to recognize warning signs and prevent someone in crisis from accessing firearms.
Increasing Minimum Age To Purchase Firearms SB23-169
This bill increases the age to possess or purchase a firearm from 18 to 21. A disproportionate amount of violent crime in the U.S. is committed by youths between the ages of 12-24, including gun crimes. Restricting access to firearms to minors will help prevent gun violence of all types and save lives.
This bill establishes a minimum 3 day waiting period for a firearm purchase. By delaying immediate access to firearms, waiting periods can help prevent impulsive acts of violence, including suicide.
Gun Violence Victims' Access To Judicial System SB23-168
This bill repeals Colorado’s overly-broad immunity law to help victims of gun violence and their families seek the justice they deserve. Currently in Colorado, the gun industry is shielded from most civil lawsuits, and victims of gun violence who sue the gun industry must pay the company’s legal fees if the case is dismissed.
Unserialized Firearms And Firearm Components SB23-279
This bill prohibits the possession, sale, or transfer of unserialized firearms, frames or receivers – commonly known as “ghost guns”. It would prohibits manufacturing a firearm, frame or receiver, unless done by a federally licensed firearm manufacturer, including via a 3D printer. “Ghost guns” are unregulated, untraceable firearms that can be bought online and assembled at home, often through DIY kits or downloadable blueprints. They are designed to avoid all gun laws, and are available to purchase without a background check, serial number, sale record, or other protections.
Everyone should feel safe from intimidation when they are voting. Colorado law now prohibits openly carrying a firearm within any polling location or within 100 feet of a ballot drop box while an election is in progress. Those who violate this law are punishable by fine and/or imprisonment.
Colorado law requires firearms be securely stored when not in use to prevent access by children or any others who should not have access. It created a new offense of “unlawful storage of a firearm,” a class 2 misdemeanor, which can be charged if a person stores a gun in a manner that the person knows, or should know, would be accessible to a child without the parent’s permission and/or the resident in the home is ineligible to possess a gun under federal or state law. The bill also requires licensed gun dealers to provide a secure gun lock at the time of sale or transfer of a gun.
Colorado law now mandates that someone who owns a firearm must report the loss or theft of that firearm to a law enforcement agency within five days after discovering it is missing under penalty of a misdemeanor charge and a fine. It also requires the law enforcement agency that receives the report of the lost or stolen gun to enter that information into the Colorado Bureau of Investigation crime information center database.
Advancing the Local Regulation of Firearms SB21-256
Establishing the Office Of Gun Violence Prevention HB21-1299
In 2021, Colorado established the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which treats gun violence in communities as the public health issue that it is. The Office provides evidence-informed resources to organizations to conduct community-based intervention initiatives focused on interrupting cycles of gun violence, trauma, and retaliation that have demonstrated progress at reducing gun violence without contributing to mass incarceration.
Requiring Universal Background Checks for Purchase/Transfer of Firearms HB21-1298 & HB13-1229
Colorado first implemented universal background checks in 2013 to ensure any person wishing to buy or receive a firearm in Colorado must go through a background check. This applies to firearms purchased or transferred anywhere - through a dealer, at a gun show, through classified ads, online, or through friends. In 2021, following the King Soopers tragedy in Boulder, the Colorado legislature expanded the scope of background checks to include violent misdemeanors as a prohibitor of a firearm purchase, and closed the “Charleston loophole,” which ensures background checks are approved before a gun sale can be completed. Prior to this law being passed, due to federal law, gun purchases were allowed to move forward by default after three business days—even if a background check had not been completed.
Prohibitions for those with a History of Domestic Violence HB21-1255 & SB13-197
In 2013, Colorado passed a law to require anyone convicted of a domestic violence offense or who has had a domestic violence protection order taken out against them to relinquish his or her firearms and ammunition. The law also prohibited them from acquiring firearms or ammunition for the duration of the order.
In 2021, Colorado improved implementation of the 2013 bill and strengthened these regulations, closing the “partner or boyfriend loophole.” The loophole refers to the fact that current federal law (and Colorado law prior to this bill’s passage) bars firearm purchases for those convicted of domestic violence against someone they have been married to, lived with, or with whom they have a child, but it does not include dating partners. Research has shown that states that have closed the “boyfriend loophole” have experienced a 16% reduction in intimate partner gun homicides.
Enacting a Red Flag Law / Extreme Risk Protection Orders HB19-1177
Colorado’s extreme risk protection order law (commonly known as a Red Flag law) prevents gun tragedies by providing a process that law enforcement and family members can use to petition a court to temporarily remove firearms from people who are at an elevated risk of harm to themselves or others. In Colorado, temporary and final orders are available; the temporary order lasts up to 14 days after it is officially filed and the final order lasts 364 days.
Large capacity magazines have the ability to kill many people in a very short period of time, which is why in 2013 Colorado became one of the few states to prohibit the sale and transfer of large capacity ammunition magazines designed to accept more than 15 rounds.
