Colorado's Massive Gun Law Repeal Just Died in Committee. Here's What It Attempted.

The Bottom Line

If you've been following the flurry of gun legislation in Colorado over the last decade, this bill attempts to hit the undo button on almost all of it. It would wipe out the state's bans on high-capacity magazines and rapid-fire devices, eliminate the three-day waiting period, and remove the ability of local governments to pass their own stricter gun ordinances. Essentially, it resets Colorado's gun laws back to how they looked in the early 2000s.

What This Bill Actually Does

The overarching goal of the Second Amendment Protection Act is to systematically repeal dozens of state statutes that regulate the sale, possession, and storage of firearms and ammunition. The legislative declaration argues that recent gun control measures infringe on constitutional rights without actually improving public safety. To reverse this, the bill dismantles essentially every major piece of firearms legislation passed in Colorado since 2013.

The specific rollbacks cover nearly every aspect of gun ownership. It wipes out the three-day waiting period for gun purchases, the requirement to be 21 years old to buy a firearm, and the ban on high-capacity magazines (anything holding more than 15 rounds). The bill also strikes down prohibitions on "ghost guns" (unserialized firearms) and rapid-fire devices. On the logistics side, it eliminates the requirement for background checks on private firearm transfers between individuals, making it completely legal to sell a gun to a neighbor or friend without running their name through a database.

The bill also drastically changes where you can carry a weapon and who enforces the rules. It removes bans on carrying firearms in sensitive areas like schools, government buildings, polling locations, and licensed child care centers. Critically, it restores state preemption, meaning local cities and counties would no longer be allowed to enforce their own strict gun regulations or prohibit concealed handguns in specific local areas. Finally, it completely dismantles recently created state agencies and programs, including the state's Office of Gun Violence Prevention, the Firearms Dealer Division within the Department of Revenue, and the state-mandated safe storage rules for homes and vehicles.

What It Means for You

If you are a gun owner or enthusiast in Colorado, this bill would drastically shift how you buy, store, and carry your firearms, removing layers of recent state regulation. The elimination of the three-day waiting period and the 21-year-old age minimum means purchasing a firearm would go back to being an immediate transaction upon passing a federal background check, and 18-year-olds would once again be legally allowed to buy rifles and shotguns. You would also no longer face state criminal charges for failing to lock up your firearms at home or in your vehicle, as the mandatory safe storage laws would be wiped from the books.

For parents, educators, and general residents, the most noticeable change might be where firearms are allowed in public. Because the bill repeals the bans on carrying concealed weapons in schools, universities, government buildings, and child care centers, the default rules in those spaces would change significantly. Furthermore, if you live in a city like Boulder or Denver that has enacted its own strict local gun control ordinances, those local laws would be voided. The bill re-establishes a uniform statewide standard, meaning your local city council couldn't legally ban things like concealed carry in public parks or municipal buildings.

The legislation also alters how the justice system handles weapons during active cases. It strips away the requirement that individuals who are subject to a mandatory criminal protection order must automatically relinquish their firearms and ammunition. If you are navigating the legal system—whether as a defendant or a protected party—this fundamentally alters the standard procedures surrounding domestic violence and other criminal protection orders in Colorado courts, keeping the burden on federal law rather than state mandates.

What It Means for Your Business

For Colorado's licensed firearms dealers, this bill represents a massive reduction in state-level red tape, compliance costs, and oversight. The state would abolish the newly created Firearms Dealer Division and eliminate the requirement to hold a specific state permit to sell firearms. You would no longer have to pay state permitting fees, navigate mandatory state-level background checks for your employees, or maintain the specific state-mandated training and safety course record systems. You would still need to comply with all federal ATF regulations, but the extra, newer layer of Colorado-specific oversight would disappear entirely.

If you run a retail payment processing business or a sporting goods store, the bill removes recent mandates regarding payment processing codes. Specifically, it repeals the requirement to use a dedicated merchant category code for the retail sale of firearms and ammunition, simplifying your point-of-sale compliance. Additionally, for manufacturers and dealers, the bill restores crucial product liability protections. It dictates that civil lawsuits for injuries or damages caused by a firearm can only be based on an actual physical defect in the design or manufacture of the weapon—protecting your business from being sued over the inherent danger of the product or the criminal actions of a third party who uses it.

Finally, if you operate a licensed child care center or a private educational facility, you will need to carefully review your internal security and property policies. Because the state law broadly prohibiting firearms on these premises would be repealed, it would fall entirely on you as the private property owner or business operator to set, post, and enforce your own specific rules regarding firearms on your grounds. You would need to consult with your legal counsel to ensure your signage, employee handbooks, and trespass policies are airtight if you still wish to strictly prohibit weapons on your property.

Follow the Money

Dismantling these programs results in a massive drop in state spending, but it also wipes out the revenue streams that funded them. According to the state's fiscal analysis, the bill would reduce state expenditures by about $7.9 million in its first year and $8.9 million annually after that. This savings comes from eliminating roughly 44 full-time state positions, including shutting down the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, the Firearm Dealer Division, and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) statewide firearm investigation unit. The state also expects a reduction in trial court and probation workloads since fewer people would be prosecuted for state-level gun offenses.

On the flip side, the state would lose about $2.3 million per year in cash fund revenue. This loss is primarily driven by the elimination of fees collected for state firearm dealer permits and state-level background checks. The bill also requires the state to refund over $1.5 million currently sitting in the Firearms Training and Safety Course Cash Fund back to the Parks and Outdoor Recreation Cash Fund, effectively returning the money to its original source to close out the accounts.

Where This Bill Stands

HB26-1021 is currently In Committee. The latest official action came on 02/17/2026: House Committee on Judiciary Postpone Indefinitely.

That means the bill is still in the committee stage, and it is currently sitting in the Judiciary. To keep moving, it would need to clear committee and then survive floor votes in both chambers.