A controversial gun control bill has cleared the Colorado General Assembly and now heads to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.
Senate Bill 25-003, when introduced, initially outright banned the sale or purchase of most semi-automatic rifles or shotguns that take detachable magazines and exempted firearms with “permanently fixed” magazines.
The bill was later amended to allow purchases if an individual secures a “firearms safety course eligibility card” from their local sheriff department and then completes a qualifying firearm education course.
SB 25-003 passed a concurrent vote of 19-15-1 in the upper chamber on Friday after the House passed it with amendments earlier this week.
The bill’s Democratic sponsors argue the legislation is necessary to enforce the state’s 2013 ban on magazines that hold more than 15 rounds. Opponents argue that the legislation amounts to a firearm owner identification card and question its constitutionality.
“We passed legislation – in this building, in this General Assembly in 2013 – that limited the sale and possession of high-capacity magazines over 15 [rounds],” said bill sponsor Sen. Tom Sullivan, whose son was killed in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting.
“In the 10-12 years since, it has been woefully inadequate [and] they were not enforcing it. We knew they were not enforcing it,” said Sullivan, D-Centennial.
Sullivan noted the Boulder King Soopers shooting in 2021 and the Club Q shooting in 2022 as examples where the gunmen used illegal high-capacity magazines.
“If we allow the government to redefine rights as privileges, which I argue this bill does, then we place our freedoms at the mercy of those in power,” Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen said Friday leading up to the vote.
“Rights, once treated as privileges, can be restricted, taxed, licensed and ultimately, if they can do all of that to them, they can take those rights away,” the Republican legislator said.
Gov. Jared Polis is expected to sign SB 25-003 into law.
Other gun bills have advanced through the legislature recently, such as a bill to raise the age for ammunition purchases from 18 to 21 and a bill to require gun show operators to have liability insurance.
Democrats failed to pass outright bans on so-called assault weapons during the last two legislative sessions
