Colorado Semiauto Law Takes Effect Saturday

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Colorado just added a permission slip between you and a semiauto purchase. If you're across the border and thinking about stopping at a gun shop while you're down there, this affects you starting Saturday.

"It seems overbearing, and it seems very tedious. You have to know what the next step is. You have to find the next step. There's no guided path for this."
— Jeremy Manson, General Manager, Spartan Defense Armory and Training

When the guy running the shop — who went through the process himself just to help his customers — describes it as having no guided path, that's not a complaint from someone who hates paperwork. That's a warning. Expect confusion at the counter and longer waits even after the background check clears.

The discretionary denial piece buried in there is the part that should raise eyebrows. A sheriff can reject your eligibility card application if they personally believe you pose a danger — no conviction required, just their judgment. That's a significant amount of authority sitting between a law-abiding buyer and a legal purchase, and how consistently that gets applied is going to vary county to county.

Idaho's constitutional carry setup looks a lot better from this side of the state line. But if you have family or friends in Colorado who are trying to navigate this before the deadline, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife portal is open and their firearms safety line is 303-291-7143.

Anyone here made a purchase at a Colorado shop recently, or know dealers down there dealing with the backlog already? Curious what the actual wait times are looking like at the counter right now.

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett