Article Info
Colorado Bans 3D-Printed Guns
| Scope | |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Colorado |
| Impact | state |
| Key Entities | |
| Colorado governor; threatened veto that forced bill amendment | Gov. Jared Polis |
| Democratic sponsor, Colorado Senate | Sen. Tom Sullivan |
| Democratic co-sponsor, Colorado Senate | Sen. Katie Wallace |
| Passed HB-1144 on party-line vote | Colorado General Assembly |
| Legal Issues | |
| |
| What It Means | |
| |
| Timeline | |
| March 28, 2026 | Sponsors amended bill Friday to remove digital instructions provision under veto threat |
| March 30, 2026 | HB-1144 passed Colorado Senate 23-12; awaits procedural House vote |
| Related Laws | |
Colorado Bans 3D-Printed Guns
HB-1144 passes the Senate, but a veto threat gutted its most significant provision before the vote
From The Boise Gun Club Handbook
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.
- Phils Custom Handloads(Swartz Creek, MI)
- Gls Guns(Sumner, IA)
- J & L Gunsmithing(Chesapeake, VA)
- Oliver Firearms(Spartanburg, SC)
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