(The Center Square) – Colorado Republicans are calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to review Colorado’s latest gun control law, citing questions about its constitutionality.
Democratic Gov. Jared Polis last week signed into law Senate Bill 25-003, which bans the sale or purchase of semi-automatic rifles that take detachable magazines unless individuals secure a “firearms safety course eligibility card” from local law enforcement and completes a state-approved firearm education course.
“Because of the unconstitutionality as well as the imminent risk posed to Coloradans by eliminating their right to firearms as a means for self-defense, it is our belief that the passage of SB25-003 constitutes an emergency for our state and calls for federal intervention,” said a letter sent this week by 22 Republicans in the Colorado House of Representatives to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Earlier this month, Bondi launched the Second Amendment Task Force aimed at realigning the DOJ’s policies to protect law-abiding gun owners.
“The prior administration placed an undue burden on gun owners and vendors by targeting law-abiding citizens exercising their 2nd Amendment rights,” Bondi said in a statement announcing the task force. “The Department of Justice’s new 2nd Amendment Task Force will combine department-wide policy and litigation resources to advance President Trump’s pro-gun agenda and protect gun owners from overreach.”
The department’s Civil Rights Division in March launched an investigation of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s handling of concealed handgun license applications.
The DOJ warned that the investigation “will be the first of many similar investigations, lawsuits, or other actions involving other localities in California, the State of California itself, and any other states or localities that insist on unduly burdening, or effectively denying, the Second Amendment rights of their ordinary, law-abiding citizens.”
A DOJ spokesperson told The Center Square it doesn’t have a comment on Colorado’s new law at this time.
“SB25-003 places a financial and bureaucratic burden on law-abiding citizens, forcing them to navigate excessive red tape and pay steep fees simply to exercise their Second Amendment right,” the letter from the state lawmakers added.
Pro-gun groups like the Colorado State Shooting Association and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners are also collecting signatures for separate petitions calling on Bondi to review Colorado’s new law, which takes effect August 2026.
