2024 Colorado Assault Weapons Ban Appears Dead

Here’s a headline that I’ve been waiting to write ever since I first reported on Colorado’s proposed Assault Weapons Ban way back in February. Now, I’m happy to report that it appears the 2024 Colorado Assault Weapons Ban may be dead in the Senate, with time running out for lawmakers to pass the bill. Here’s the full story.

The Bill

On February 13, 2024, Denver Democrats Elizabeth Epps and Tim Hernandez introduced HB1292 into the Colorado House of Representatives. The bill defined the term “assault weapon” as:

• Rifles: Essentially any semi-auto rifle. Also any non semi-auto rifle with a pistol grip, barrel shroud, threaded barrel, muzzle break, or a folding, telescopic, or detachable stock.
• Pistols: A semi-auto pistol that can accept a detachable magazine AND also has a threaded barrel, second pistol grip, shroud attached to the barrel, muzzle break, or stabilizing brace.
• Shotguns: Any semi-auto shotgun with a pistol grip, fixed large-capacity magazine (anything beyond 15 rounds), or a folding, telescoping, or thumbhole stock.

The bill also banned dozens of specific weapons by name. Some of the guns included were any AR-15, AR-10s, AK-47s, MAC-10s, and TEC-9s.

In addition to defining what a so-called “assault weapon” was, HB 1292 also prohibited Colorado residents from buying or selling them. In other words, you couldn’t buy any new “assault weapons.” but if you already had one, you could keep it.

The Situation

This bill looked like it had a pretty good chance of passing right from the get-go. Epps had sponsored a similar bill last year, which failed to pass out of the House Committee that debated it.

However, this year, that same Committee had a much different party makeup: 7 Democrats and 3 Republicans. HB1292 passed that Committee in a 7-3 vote along party lines. Then, it passed a full vote in the House of Representatives 35 to 27.

Next, the Senate had to pass the bill before it hit Governor Jared Polis’ desk. The bill met much stiffer resistance in the Senate than it did in the House and eventually the bill’s sponsor, Colorado Senator Julie Gonzales of Denver, asked for the bill to be “shelved indefinitely.”

Reactions from Citizens

Reactions to the bill from Colorado residents had been consistently negative. In March, hundreds of Coloradans turned out to protest the law at the state’s capitol as the Colorado House voted on the bill (check out our coverage here).

More than 600 witnesses signed up to speak against the ban, and spent more than 12 hours testifying. The protest even drew the attention of gun community darlings like Brandon Herrera (aka the “AK Guy”). It even saw firearms advocates like Mike “Oz” Geist in attendance. Geist is a former Marine who saved the lives of 25 Americans in the 12-hour firefight in Benghazi in 2012.

Regular everyday Colorado residents were opposed to the ban, too. “You know, I didn’t want an AR-15 until the government started trying to tell me I couldn’t have it,” one resident told me.

Reactions From Gun Stores

There’s one demographic that’s definitely breathing a sigh of relief after the death of HB1292: gun stores.

As a resident of Colorado, I’m pretty familiar with many of the Denver-area gun stores. Over the last few months, I’d stopped by my regular haunts as I picked up parts, and asked the people working there what their plans were if the bill passed.

Some of them were fairly nervous that the bill would put them out of business.

“Chances are we’re going to have to close up shop,” one sales rep told me. “This would basically ban us from selling anything except for bolt action rifles, revolvers, and some shotguns, and how many stores do you need selling those in one city?”

Others said that even if the bill passed, they expected it to fail legal scrutiny.

“Don’t even worry about that, man” a rep at a different store told me. “We’re gonna beat that [in the courts].”

But perhaps my favorite response came from a third store, which said that it wouldn’t follow the law even if it did pass.

“We’ll probably just go balls out and ignore it,” the third rep said. “If we followed it, we’d probably have to go out of business.”

The Debrief

This is a huge win not only for gun owners in Colorado, but throughout the country. After Washington’s draconian assault weapon ban passed in April of last year, it looked like Colorado might be the next domino to fall. But fortunately, that looks like it won’t be the case this year.

Of course, state lawmakers can always introduce a similar bill in next year’s legislative session (and they probably will, like they did in 2023). But for now, Colorado gun owners, you can rest easy knowing that you’ll still be able to pick up all semi-auto weapons – for now at least.