Both sides criticize rollout of Colorado’s new gun law

Colorado’s new gun law, SB25-003, takes effect Aug. 1. Though gun control supporters and Second Amendment advocates disagree on the law itself, both say the rollout of its permit-to-purchase system has been confusing and inadequate.

“People cannot even go through this process that they laid out,” said Daniel Fenlason, the director of operations at the Colorado State Shooting Association. “The rollout’s been so much of a debacle that people who have every good intention of going through this process have no chance.”

SB25-003 restricts the making, selling, transferring and purchasing of many semi-automatic guns with detachable magazines — rifles, shotguns and gas-operated handguns. Semi-automatic guns can still be purchased after obtaining a permit and completing safety training. The law still permits fixed-magazine versions of these firearms.

Sen. Tom Sullivan, a lead sponsor of the bill, said it was originally intended to be an outright ban. It was meant to fix issues with the enforcement of Colorado’s 2013 large-capacity magazine ban, House Bill 13-1224, which banned the purchase of magazines holding more than 15 rounds. Sullivan said the problem is that law enforcement has been turning a blind eye to the magazine ban for over a decade, allowing people to buy 30-round, 50-round and 100-round drum magazines.

“We’ve gone so far as to go to gun shops and ask them and try to buy a high-capacity magazine, and they would clearly bring them out from behind the counter or show you them in a kit and show you how to build one from all of the parts that were there,” Sullivan said. “We would go then to the local sheriff’s office, give them the names and addresses of the 10 shops in their area that were in violation of the law, and law enforcement wouldn’t do anything about it.”

Sullivan’s son was killed in the 2012 Aurora Theater mass shooting, in which the gunman used a 100-round drum magazine, prompting the passage of HB-13-1224. However, because the large-capacity magazine ban outlined in that bill is not currently enforced, Sullivan and his co-sponsors believe SB25-003 will render the detachable magazine versions of these guns “obsolete.”

“You’ll just have to manually load the firearm, and that fill would give you all of the aspects that you want,” Sullivan said. “Less than 1% of the guns and gun owners will ever fire their weapon at another individual in self-defense, in saving themselves or somebody else. And when those instances come up, the average number of shots that are fired are four.
 So they don’t need 50. They don’t need 100. I mean, it’s not what they see on TV or in the movies or in their video games.”

The main difference between the bill that Sullivan and his co-sponsors introduced and the law taking effect is the permit-to-purchase exception to buy these restricted guns, which was added by Gov. Jared Polis’ office.

“I’ve been getting a lot of pushback and threats and misunderstanding about the legislation,” Sullivan said. “They’re really blaming the sponsors of the bill for any problems that they were having in the implementation, and quite clearly any of those concerns should be directed at the governor and his staff.”

Fenlason, who works for Colorado’s National Rifle Association affiliate, called the rollout of the law a “dumpster fire” and a “complete disaster.”

“This is not a permit-to-purchase,” Fenlason said. “This is a de facto ban when it comes to these AR-15s and other types of these weapons here in Colorado. What I mean by that is the process that was created is so long, so expensive, that it is a direct infringement of our rights.”

Fenlason highlighted that the permit-to-purchase process includes a background check without a state-approved vendor list and a potential processing fee from the sheriff’s office. It also requires a two-day, 12-hour extended course that Fenlason said costs several hundred dollars, followed by a test that requires a 90% passing score — a higher accuracy percentage than Colorado State Patrol’s own firearm program test requires to pass: 80%. 

Overall, the entire process will take several days at its very fastest but is likely to take weeks or even a month or two. Fenlason claims that when combined with other fees, the buyer could spend nearly $1,000 before purchasing their gun, which he believes will exclude the vast majority of Coloradans.

“What people need to make sure that they understand is this is a constitutional right,” Fenlason said. “Can you imagine the outrage if we made people pay a $52 fee to vote, or a $52 fee to go to church?”

Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams shares Fenlason’s concerns about the burden of the permit-to-purchase program. Although Reams disagrees with SB25-003, he said refusing to enforce the law would only make it harder for people in his county to buy guns.

Reams said his office is trying to make the process as quick as a same-day turnaround, or at least within the same week. He added that they will not charge additional fees beyond the $52 minimum requirement, which goes to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

“We’re basically supplementing the process with local taxpayer dollars because we believe that an armed society is a safer society,” Reams said. “Our goal is to make sure that people can exercise their Second Amendment rights without putting undue costs in front of them. We can’t control what the state charges, but we can control what we charge here locally.”

Both Reams and Fenlason argue that SB25-003 will not reduce gun violence.

“I don’t think it’s going to be effective at stopping or reducing gun violence in Colorado or anywhere else in the country because criminals don’t follow the law,” Reams said. “So it’s impeding law-abiding citizens from exercising a right.”

Fenlason is a survivor of the Seattle Pacific University school shooting in 2014. He was standing by the door with his teaching assistant holding a pocket knife and scalpel as a last defense if the gunman were to enter his classroom. Fenlason stated that his experience shaped his belief that guns are part of the solution, not the problem. 

“Once both sides are equally armed, the cowards who are school shooters don’t go to the place that they’re going to face resistance,” Fenlason said.

Sullivan said SB25-003 is a step in the right direction but not the end of the state’s gun violence work. He said lawmakers still need to revisit legislation related to 3D-printed ghost guns and pointed to SNAP cuts, housing instability, hunger and suicide deaths as part of the larger picture.

“All of this stuff is connected,” Sullivan said. “People need to be educated. People need to be fed. People need to be housed. It’s not, oh, if we pass this legislation, gun violence will end as we know it.”