Victory Builds on Progress in Colorado; Colorado Passed Three Gun Safety Bills This Legislative Session After Passing Six Last Year; Seven Former Moms Demand Action Volunteers Now Lead on Gun Safety as Lawmakers in the Statehouse
DENVER — Today, Everytown for Gun Safety and its grassroots networks, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, released the following statements after Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a gun violence prevention bill intended to help prevent mass shootings. Senate Bill 3 will prohibit the purchase and sale of military-style semi-automatic firearms capable of accepting detachable magazines, unless the purchaser first obtains a permit, and will prohibit rapid-fire conversion devices in Colorado. Stemming the flow of military-style rifles and preventing mass shootings does not need to be a one-size-fits-all approach. The Colorado law is an innovative policy that demonstrates how states can follow several different strategies to keep weapons of war out of dangerous hands. Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers advocated tirelessly for the passage of this legislation.
“Colorado’s new law is the definition of common sense: If you want to buy a military-style rifle that can kill dozens without needing to reload, you need to get a permit that requires passing a background check and taking a safety course,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “This innovative approach to keeping weapons of war out of dangerous hands establishes a model for other states, and we applaud Governor Polis and the legislature for coming together to address the threat of mass shootings, which Coloradans know all too well.”
“With the governor’s signature today, Colorado has once again shown what’s possible when leaders prioritize public safety,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action. “Limiting access to the weapons of war used in our country’s deadliest mass shootings shouldn’t be controversial — it’s a logical response to the bloodshed we have seen time and time again when someone armed with hate gets their hands on an AR-15. This is a major victory for every advocate, lawmaker, survivor, and student who fought to get this bill across the finish line, and for every Colorado community that will be safer because of it.”
“Colorado is no stranger to the devastation of mass shootings, and many of the tragedies that have ripped apart our communities were carried out with military-style weapons equipped with high-capacity magazines,” said Kathy Hagen, volunteer with the Colorado chapter of Moms Demand Action. “This bill will make our state safer, and help prevent the next mass casualty event. We are incredibly grateful to the sponsors – Representative Boesenecker, Representative Froelich, Senator Gonzales, and to Senator Sullivan, who has put his heart and soul on the line to honor his son through tireless, relentless, decades-long advocacy to ensure no other families lose their children to senseless gun violence.”
“Today’s victory is because of the countless students that showed up day after day to testify in support of this life-saving bill,” said Grant Cramer, a gun violence survivor and co-president of the Denver East Students Demand chapter. “We refused to take no for an answer and now we’ve strengthened our gun safety laws in Colorado. This is proof that our voices hold power to create change, no matter how big or small.”
SB 3 applies an innovative approach in preventing mass shootings, which are often perpetrated by military-style weapons. Colorado’s law is unique in two ways:
- It defines military-style firearms in a fundamentally different way from traditional “features test” laws.
- This bill establishes a permit-to-purchase system to ensure prospective purchasers undergo a thorough background check and obtain specialized safety training. No other state has defined military-style firearms in this way, and no other state has a permit system exclusively for acquiring the most dangerous military-style firearms on the market.
Colorado continues to be a leader in gun violence prevention. Colorado ranks 10th in gun law strength in the nation, rising from 11th after passing six gun safety bills during the 2024 legislative session, including in the last hours of the session passing a critical gun safety bill instituting a state dealer permitting system. Additionally, in November, Coloradans voted to pass a ballot initiative to create an excise tax on gun manufacturers and retailers in Colorado to be allocated for funding for mental health services, school safety measures, gun violence prevention programs, and support services for victims of violence. Colorado is the second state in the country to pass this type of policy. This session, Colorado lawmakers also passed legislation to regulate the sale of ammunition and legislation to strengthen the requirements for gun show operators in Colorado.
Colorado’s progress on gun violence prevention has been contingent on the pipeline of Colorado Moms Demand Action volunteers running for office and leading on the issue the state legislature, including Senator Tom Sullivan and Froelich, the co-sponsors of SB3. In 2024 alone, 10 Moms Demand Action volunteers ran and won elected office seats in Colorado.
Senate Bill 3 builds on Colorado’s existing high-capacity magazine ban by requiring that individuals undergo safety training and a background check before purchasing semi-automatic military-style weapons with detachable magazines. The newly signed legislation also bans the sale of all rapid-fire conversion devices, which allow semi-automatic firearms to be converted into machine guns. Here’s what else you need to know about SB 3:
- High-capacity magazines make shootings more lethal, increasing the amount of ammunition that can be fired before a shooter needs to pause to reload. While Colorado enacted a ban on high-capacity magazines in 2013 after the Aurora theater shooting where 12 people were killed and 70 were wounded, the previously existing law made it dangerously easy for mass shooters and criminals to cross state lines to buy magazines in neighboring states and attach them to high-powered, military-style firearms—which are currently legal to sell in Colorado with no safeguards.
- Before SB3, a potential mass shooter could legally purchase an exceptionally deadly firearm and obtain a prohibited magazine with relative ease.
- SB3 created a permit-to-purchase system for semi-automatic military-style weapons with detachable magazines. Requiring individuals to apply for and receive a card (often referred to as a purchase permit) prior to a firearm purchase gives law enforcement an opportunity to deny permits to those who pose a danger to public safety, ensuring that all firearm purchasers have completed a rigorous safety training course, and complete a thorough background check.
- The bill will allow semi-automatic military-style weapons to continue to be purchased and sold without a permit so long as they have permanently affixed magazines.
- SB 3 will also prohibit the sale and purchase of the full range of rapid-fire devices which effectively allow shooters to evade federal and state laws regulating machine guns.
- At least eight of the 10 highest-casualty mass shootings involved semi-automatic weapons and a high-capacity magazine. In the 2021 Boulder shooting at King Soopers, the shooter legally purchased a semi-automatic Ruger AR-15, that he then paired with multiple high-capacity magazines, which were illegal to possess under Colorado law, and murdered nine people and one police officer in the line of duty. In the 2022 Colorado Springs Club Q shooting, the attacker perpetrated the attack with a self-assembled AR-15 and several high-capacity magazines that were illegal under Colorado law.
In an average year, 977 people die and 1,392 are wounded by guns in Colorado. Guns are the second leading cause of death among children and teens in Colorado, and an average of 84 children and teens die by guns every year. Gun violence in Colorado costs $2,039 per resident each year. Gun deaths and injuries cost Colorado $11.7 billion each year, of which $156.1 million is paid by taxpayers.