Colorado Bans 3D-Printed Guns

Colorado's legislature passed a bill Monday banning the 3D printing of firearms and components — after sponsors stripped the provision that would have actually stopped the instructions from spreading.

Driving the news: Senate Bill HB-1144 cleared the Colorado Senate 23-12 on a party-line vote. It expands the state's existing ghost gun ban to cover 3D-printed firearms, large-capacity magazines, and rapid-fire trigger activators manufactured at home.

Catch up quick:

• Colorado already bans unserialized "ghost guns"
• HB-1144 originally also prohibited distributing the digital files used to print guns and components
• Gov. Jared Polis threatened a veto unless that digital-instructions provision was removed
• Sponsors pulled it Friday; the bill passed Monday without debate

Between the lines: Banning the hardware side of 3D printing while leaving the CAD files legal is a bit like banning distilleries but leaving the recipe on the internet. The sponsors know it — they said explicitly they'll bring the digital-instructions ban back once Polis is out of office in early 2027.

"Since a positive debate would've only ended in a veto by one, we have decided to accept the cleanup and, next year, come back with a new administration in place." — Sen. Tom Sullivan, D-Centennial

This isn't new ground for Polis. Last session, his office killed a near-total ban on semiautomatic rifle sales, forcing sponsors to convert it into a training requirement instead. He's consistently pulled Democratic gun bills back from their more aggressive edges — not out of any love for gun rights, but apparently over legal exposure and enforceability concerns.

What Colorado owners should know: If you're in Colorado, printing a lower, a magazine body, or a Glock switch equivalent just became a criminal act regardless of whether you serialize it. The bill still needs a procedural House vote before Polis signs it.

The bottom line: HB-1144 is real enforcement authority over 3D-printed guns — but half a bill. The files stay legal for now, and sponsors are already counting down to a friendlier governor.