A New Bill Would Erase Colorado's 'Red Flag' Gun Laws. Here's the Breakdown.

The Bottom Line

This bill would completely erase Colorado's "Red Flag" laws, meaning law enforcement and family members could no longer petition courts to temporarily seize firearms from people deemed a danger to themselves or others. It also eliminates the state's crisis hotline and removes extreme risk protection orders from the list of reasons domestic violence survivors can legally break a residential lease.

What This Bill Actually Does

At its core, HB26-1072 is designed to completely dismantle the legal framework for Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs)—widely known as "Red Flag" laws. Right now, under Colorado law, law enforcement, family members, medical professionals, and educators can petition a judge to temporarily confiscate someone's firearms if they present credible evidence that the person is an imminent danger to themselves or others. This bill repeals that entire process. In its place, it adds a new statute explicitly codifying that an individual has the right to own, possess, and use a firearm "to the maximum extent permissible by the state and federal constitutions."

But the bill doesn't just stop at the court process; it takes a sledgehammer to the entire administrative infrastructure built around Red Flag laws. By entirely deleting Article 14.5 of Title 13, it unplugs the dedicated ERPO hotline managed by the Department of Public Safety. It also strips out the mandatory reporting requirements that currently force the state court administrator to track and publicly report exactly how many of these orders are requested, granted, and denied each year.

The legislative changes also ripple into housing and education. Currently, if a tenant is a victim of domestic abuse, stalking, or unlawful sexual behavior, having a civil or extreme risk protection order serves as a legal "get out of lease free" card, allowing them to break a rental agreement without financial penalty. This bill strikes ERPOs from the Unlawful Detention and housing statutes. Furthermore, it explicitly removes the requirement that state-mandated concealed carry classes and basic firearm safety courses include instructional modules on extreme risk protection orders or the connection between firearms and mental illness.

What It Means for You

If you are a gun owner, this bill represents a massive shift in how the state treats your second amendment protections. It guarantees your right to possess firearms free from the specific threat of an Extreme Risk Protection Order, ensuring that an estranged spouse, a disgruntled coworker, or local law enforcement cannot use the civil court system to proactively, temporarily seize your weapons based on perceived future risk. For anyone who has previously been denied a Concealed Handgun Permit (CHP) due to a temporary or permanent ERPO, you would instantly become eligible to apply or renew, provided you pass the standard federal and state background checks.

On the flip side, if you are a parent, educator, or someone with a loved one spiraling into a mental health crisis, this bill completely removes one of the most prominent legal tools currently available to intervene. If you suspect a family member is on the brink of violence or suicide, you would no longer be able to ask a judge for a temporary red flag intervention. Instead, you would have to rely on traditional law enforcement channels, emergency mental health holds (like an M-1 hold), or standard criminal restraining orders, all of which operate under different rules and burdens of proof.

Finally, if you or someone you know ever needs to flee a dangerous domestic situation, it's vital to understand the housing implications here. Right now, an ERPO can be presented to a landlord as valid, unquestionable proof to legally break a lease and get out of town. Without ERPOs, you will need to secure a traditional Civil Protection Order or a criminal restraining order to trigger those same Victim-Survivor Protection housing rights. It narrows your options when time and safety are of the essence.

What It Means for Your Business

For firearms instructors, gun shops, and self-defense academies, this bill mandates a change to your official curriculum. You will no longer be legally required by the state to include instruction on extreme risk protection orders or specific empathy modules regarding "firearm deaths associated with mental illness" in your basic safety or concealed carry courses. You will want to update your syllabus immediately to reflect the new state standards, which could slightly streamline your class times but requires a swift audit of your training materials to ensure compliance with the Concealed Handgun Training requirements.

Property managers, landlords, and real estate developers face a direct operational shift in tenant relations and lease enforcement. Under current Unlawful Detention statutes, your leasing office must allow a tenant to break a lease without penalty if they present an ERPO as proof of stalking, domestic violence, or abuse. If this bill takes effect, your property management teams will need to update their internal compliance manuals. Because ERPOs will no longer legally exist, they will no longer be valid documentation for breaking a lease. Your staff must be retrained to recognize and accept only traditional civil or criminal protection orders for these specific domestic violence exemptions.

For healthcare providers, crisis counselors, and mental health professionals, the elimination of ERPOs removes a specific protocol you might currently discuss with families trying to manage a patient in crisis. Additionally, the state will pull funding for its grant-based public education campaigns regarding gun violence prevention. If your clinic or community center relies on state-supplied literature or funding to educate the public about firearm safety and legal interventions, expect those specific resources to dry up completely.

Follow the Money

Dismantling a statewide legal apparatus actually saves the state a decent chunk of change. According to the fiscal note, eliminating the ERPO system reduces state expenditures by $692,562 every single year starting in Fiscal Year 2026-27. Because these programs are currently funded by taxpayers, that money would revert back to the state's General Fund.

Where do those savings come from? The state would eliminate 4.2 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions across two departments. The Judicial Department drops about $383,000 previously spent on court-appointed counsel, magistrates, and the mandatory mental health evaluations provided for individuals responding to an ERPO petition. The Department of Public Safety saves over $309,000 by unplugging the ERPO hotline and cutting the staff who run it. On the revenue side, the state expects a very small bump in cash from background check fees ($52.50 per application), as folks who were previously disqualified by an ERPO re-enter the system to apply for concealed carry permits.

Where This Bill Stands

HB26-1072 is currently Dead. The latest official action came on 03/02/2026: House Committee on State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs Postpone Indefinitely.

That means the bill is no longer advancing this session. In practice, measures that are postponed indefinitely or otherwise declared lost generally stay dead unless they are reintroduced in a future session.