Colorado Semi-Auto Ban Serves As Effective Smoke Screen While Other Gun Control is Passed

Updated July 1st, 2024 to reflect the current status on each of the below proposals. Original Publish date is May 8th, 2024.

This week many gun owners in Colorado and various pro-gun political rights organizations are waking up feeling good about themselves and celebrating the victory in Colorado.

And it is worth celebrating. A bill, which would have outlawed all semi-auto firearms in the attempt to outlaw so-called “assault weapons” has officially been defeated. To be more accurate it has been rescinded by its sponsors realizing they had neither the time nor the votes to get it passed.

Meanwhile, as everyone celebrates the death of the only gun control bill that got any news coverage the Colorado legislature continues to move forward with the other 9 gun control proposals this year.

This is a standard political strategy. Propose something so outrageous that everyone freaks out, writes letters, stages protests, and drives media coverage. Meanwhile push through “lesser” bills that will effectively be ignored by gun rights activists and gun owners because they are too busy losing their minds over the outrageous proposal.

I applaud the many organizations and individuals who see through all the drama and have been diligently fighting against all gun control but I think at large the public is oblivious to all the other proposals.

Don't celebrate so quickly. Here is the status and summary of the other 9 bills proposed this year.

SB24-003 – Tax Dollars to Enforce UnConstitutional Gun Laws

Status: Enacted. This is now law

Summary: This bill allocates 1.7 million to CBI to investigate and enforce gun crimes; specifically ghost gun manufacturing, high capacity magazine crimes, and future gun restrictions.

SB24-066 – Work to Allow Financial Institutions Access to Identify Firearm-Related Transactions

Status: Enacted. This is now law.

Summary: This bill forces financial institutions to identify Colorado gun stores and force them to utilize the Firearm Merchant Category Code, thus enabling any bank or credit card company to be able to identify gun-related transactions for whatever purpose they desire. I wrote about the extreme danger of this proposal here.

SB24-131 – Prohibit Open and Concealed Carry in Some “Sensitive Places” & Schools

Status: Enacted. This is now law.

Summary: This law prohibits open or concealed carry in State legislative buildings, a “building of local government's governing body,” and any courthouse or other building used for court proceedings. These places are/were not previously prohibited by statute though could potentially prevent carry with the use of metal detectors and law enforcement personnel.

Further, this law also removes the previous right to have a firearm (with permit) on a college campus or university campus. Exceptions for parking lots remain as before.

HB24-1174 – Increase the requirements for a Concealed Carry Permit

Status: Enacted. This is now law.

Summary: This law changes the required training to obtain or renew a permit. Currently about any gun safety class would qualify one to apply. This law would require a minimum of 8 hours of instruction with a written and live fire test of a minimum of 50 rounds. In addition, it would require a minimum 2-hour class for every permit renewal and it would require instructors to be “verified” by a local sheriff. The law allows the sheriff to charge a fee to verify an instructor.

Any law that requires any training or licensing is unconstitutional but making it more difficult to get the required training will increase the cost to the gun owner and discriminate against those in low economic circumstances who are the most in need of a firearm for self-defense. It will also decrease the number of firearm instructors which decreases competition and will ultimately impact cost even further.

HB24-1270 – Require Firearm Owners to Maintain Liability Insurance

Status: Lost. Celebrate this one.

Summary: This law basically will require homeowners and renters insurance providers to make available coverage for damages resulting from accidental or unintentional discharge of a firearm and then require any firearm owner to have that coverage.

HB24-1310 – Ban Handguns from College Campuses and Make More Difficult to Hire/Arm School Resource Officers

Status: Dead, and in some respects no longer necessary as they built most of these provisions into SB24-131 which did pass.

HB24-1348 – Extend Existing “Safe Storage” Law to Vehicles

Status: Enacted. This is now law.

Summary: Prohibits leaving a handgun in a vehicle unless it's stored in a locked hard-sided container, not in plain view.

HB24-1349 – Levy a 9% Tax on Gun, Gun Parts, and Ammunition

Status: Enacted. This is now law.

Summary: This law would levy an excise tax on gun dealers, gun manufacturers, and ammunition vendors at the rate of 9% of the net taxable sales from the retail sale of any gun, gun precursor part, or ammunition in the state. The law would not be enacted immediately but if passed would be subject to voter approval on the November general election ballot.

HB24-1353 – Colorado Wants to be its own ATF And License Gun Dealers

Status: Enacted. This is now law.

Summary: This law effectively forces all those who have an FFL issued by the ATF to also apply for, pay for, and obtain a license from the State in order to continue to do business. This subjects those businesses to inspections by the state, and requires that all employees pass annual background checks and complete online training provided by the state.

I have absolutely no idea in what way the state feels the ATF is not getting the job done such that they need to step in and do it for them. Sounds like a way to create more bureaucracy and punish gun businesses.