The Colorado legislature rolled out the text of its 2025 “assault weapons” ban and it’s nothing short of a citizen disarmament scheme.
SB 25-003, introduced on Thursday, January 9, aims to ban the manufacture, distribution, transfer, sale, or purchase of semiautomatic rifles and shotguns, along with gas-operated semiautomatic handguns that have a detachable ammunition magazine.
The bill would ban AR-15s and AK-47s (and their variants) and the majority of modern handguns.
As with many anti-gun laws, it attempts to create new classifications and categories as a “catchall.” This bill introduces the term “specified semiautomatic firearm,” which it defines as “a semiautomatic rifle or semiautomatic shotgun with a detachable magazine or a gas-operated semiautomatic handgun with a detachable magazine.”
It also creates the term “rapid-fire device” which it defines as “any device, part, kit, tool, accessory, or combination of parts that has the effect of increasing the rate of fire of a semiautomatic firearm above the standard rate of fire for the semiautomatic firearm that is not otherwise equipped with that device, part, or combination of parts.”
It classifies rapid-fire devices as dangerous weapons, which are prohibited under Colorado law.
If it passes, violations (read: exercising your Constitutional rights) would be considered a misdemeanor offense, and a second violation is upgraded to a felony charge. As usual, a section of the bill provides an exemption for law enforcement.
State Senator Tom Sullivan, District 27 – D, is a sponsor of the bill. The bill has 18 original cosponsors in the Senate and needs 18 votes to pass. The Republicans are minorities in both the House and the Senate. If passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Polis, the act would take effect September 1, 2025. A similar, although less egregious bill, was shelved last year.
In 2013, the state banned the sale of detachable magazines that hold more than 15 rounds of ammunition, similar to New Jersey.
In a statement on Twitter, the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR) said, “We will not abandon states others have decided are lost causes. We will stay in Colorado and fight until the very end.”
