A woman takes aim with an AR-15-type rile at a shooting range in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Photo Provided by Shutterstock, Jim Lambert)
March 14, 2025
By Darwin Nercesian, News Field Editor
Anti-Second Amendment legislation can be confusing and convoluted, perhaps intentionally but more likely due to the inept nature of those who draft it. Just ask the average gun owner in any of the highly restrictive oblasts still masquerading as American states. It’s hard to know what’s legal and what will send you to prison and wreck your family forever. Nice places to live, right? While I can’t bring sense to lawmakers who have chosen totalitarianism to let their constituents know where they stand, or I should say kneel, I was able to speak with attorneys from the Richards Carrington law firm located in Denver to see if I could shed some light on Colorado’s latest round of seditious gun laws.
One of the first perspectives brought to my attention is that Senate Bill 25-3 will, in effect, mandate a type of back-door permit-to-purchase scam. That was not its original intent, and the bill does not use language describing a firearm-purchasing license so much as it bans most modern firearms in existence while containing amendments that carve out a path for exemption based on a licensing scheme. The bill was initially introduced with the hope of an all-out ban on semi-automatic firearms that feed from a detachable magazine. So, what happened?
Colorado’s Governor Jared Polis is somewhat reluctant when facing sweeping firearms regulation, and the amendments altering SB 25-3 from its original form were meant to appease his discomfort while crafting a measure that he might sign into law. However, don’t get too carried away with the idea that a Democrat governor may have been the noble bottleneck that put the brakes on such an extreme measure because Polis’ hesitance here is nothing shy of self-serving. You see, back in 2013, Coloradoans signed recall petitions and ousted politicians after the state passed restrictive gun measures, further subjugating citizens and causing the exodus of Magpul to Wyoming , taking many jobs with them. Make no mistake, a bill such as this, even in amended form, is still unconstitutional and authoritarian and will damage, if not destroy, many Colorado businesses.
Amendments to SB 25-3 carve out a provision for buyers to obtain a license that exempts them from the bill’s restrictions and allows them to knowingly manufacture, distribute, transfer, sell, or purchase a specified semi-automatic firearm. The only other exception I am aware of in the law is that an individual may transfer a specified semiautomatic firearm to an heir, an individual residing in another state, or a federal firearms licensee (FFL).
Advertisement
To be clear, Colorado defines a “specified semiautomatic firearm” as a semi-automatic rifle, shotgun, or gas-operated handgun with a detachable magazine, and the magazine limit has been 15 rounds (for any magazine purchased after July 1, 2013, with the exception of .22-caliber tubular magazines). Exclusions include certain hunting guns and any firearm chambered in .22 caliber or less. Per the definition, this bill would not only apply to all often-scrutinized rifles labeled as “military-style assault weapons” but common handguns as well such as those made by Glock, SIG SAUER, and Smith & Wesson.
The process to obtain a “Firearms Safety Eligibility Card,” or FSEC, begins with providing two sets of fingerprints to your county’s sheriff, one of which will be kept on file and the other sent to the FBI for a background check. Of course, there will be fees as well. Why wouldn’t there be? It’s not like the right to bear arms is a Constitutionally enumerated guarantee, right? A non-refundable firearms safety course eligibility card extortion fee will be paid to the sheriff, and upon a positive background check, the sheriff shall issue the mark of the beast, i.e., the FSEC, which is valid for five years.
Colodadoans can then take their FSEC to a “verified firearms instructor” and pay another fee set by and remitted to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, meaning the state is taxing the class, and additional costs for tuition will apply. This blatant attempt to disrupt, tax, and discourage semiautomatic purchases in Colorado will create a labyrinth of requirements involving multiple agencies that will be expensive and cumbersome.
Advertisement
Firearms safety classes will vary in length depending on whether the individual holds a Colorado Hunter’s Safety Card in the state. If they do, they are required to take a four-hour in-person class, but if they do not, that class time increases to twelve hours and likely a higher fee. The Division of Wildlife will administer the curriculum and all processes and procedures for the classes, which require a score of 90% or higher on a final exam to pass. A permanently attached magazine clause does create exemptions allowing manufacturing, distribution, transfer, sales, and purchasing without an FSEC.
Additionally, the bill exempts a list of guns by name.
AG42 Ljungman Benelli Argo E Pro Benelli R1 Big-Game Rifle Browning BAR MK 3 Browning BAR Longtrac Rifle Browning BAR Shortrac Rifle Fabrique Nationale Model 49 (FN49) Fusil Automatique Modele 1917 (RSC M1917) Gewehr 43 Globco Mohawk Hakim Rifle H&K SL6 H&K SL7 M1Carbine M1941 Johnson Rifle Marlin Camp Carbine MAS49 Remington Model 4 Remington Model 8 Remington Model 740 Remington Model 742 Remington Model 750 Remington 7400 Ruger Deerfield Carbine Ruger Mini-14 Ranch Rifle Ruger Mini Thirty Rifle Ruger Model 44 Springfield Armory M1A Standard Issue Rifle Svt40 Valmet Hunter M88 Vz.52 Winchester Model 100 Winchester Model 1905 Winchester Model 1907 Winchester Model 1910 SB 25-3 also prohibits the possession of “rapid-fire devices,” creating a statute that classifies them as dangerous weapons (bump stocks, trigger cranks, binary triggers, etc.). “Rapid Fire Devices” are defined as any device, part, kit, tool, accessory, or combination of parts that has the effect of increasing the rate of fire above the standard rate for the firearm when it is not otherwise equipped.
The bill does not prohibit the possession or importation of these specified semiautomatic firearms, however, which will benefit gun owners in that it appears they are free to obtain long guns out of state. The same applies to banned firearms already owned by residents, as they are still legal to own and possess. Because of this, SB 25-3 will negatively impact Colorado’s firearms industry and small business owners, likely shuttering many dealers within the state.
For out-of-staters concerned with matters of reciprocity, the SB 25-3 limitation to manufacturing, distributing, transferring, selling, or purchasing should not impact carrying while visiting or passing through the state. This would also apply to those who travel to Colorado with a semiautomatic hunting rifle. Keep in mind that since the bill does criminalize possession of “rapid-fire devices,” I’d leave binary and FRT triggers back home in America. At this point, I don’t see why any American would want to visit unless, of course, a trip to the Kremlin is out of their budget.
In the unlikely event that a visitor should choose to purchase a long gun from whatever shops survive that Marxist playground, they would be required to comply with the licensing scheme to do so, another hit to dealers who will surely miss out on those sales.
A final issue I spoke with the Richards Carrington law firm on was the possibility of SB 25-3 creating a back door firearm registry. They were optimistic about the bill being geared more toward burdensome roadblocks than being used as a back door registry. I disagree and feel that a person who will steal your car would also rob your home and should not be trusted on any front, giving me no doubt that the state is making lists. Guess who else made lists back in the 1940s.
It’s exhausting telling my conservative friends day in and day out to pack it up and dump commie toilets like California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and the like. If you can’t swing it now, start planning. California has been trying to find ways of charging income tax to those who flee the state and even issues an exit tax in certain instances due to mass exodus over the past decade. This absurd and lawless effort tells us something. We can hurt these economies and leave these places to waste so anti-American agenda-minded leaders and their sycophants can bask in the totalitarian utopia they’ve produced while being subject to the criminal element they’ve nurtured. It is what they created and what they deserve. Meanwhile, the consolidation of conservatives in free America will serve to fortify those states with overwhelming voting power, a form of secession we have at home.
