(The Center Square) - The Colorado Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee considered a bill Thursday to require firearm barrel purchases be made in-person by licensed dealers.
Senate Bill 26-043 was proposed by Democratic lawmakers as part of a series of gun rights bills as the state recovers from its latest school shooting.
As of press time late Thursday afternoon, the Senate committee had not taken a vote on the gun barrel bill. If passed, it would move onto the state Senate and House, chambers where Democrats hold a majority, before landing on the desk of Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.
“Over the past several years, 3D printers have become more accessible, and it is becoming cheaper and easier to use them to make firearms,” said Stephen Lindley, a former law enforcement officer in San Diego and policy manager at Brady Campaign policy advocates for gun control to the Colorado senate committee. “One major component of the firearm – the barrel – is difficult and poses extreme challenges for 3D printers.”
Proponents for SB 26-043 said gun barrels are the most difficult piece to manufacture in a 3D printer, which can otherwise be used to make all other parts of an unregulated “ghost” gun.
While the ownership of ghost guns was banned in a 2023 state law, barrel sales remain unregulated. Proponents of the bill argued people banned from gun ownership could buy an unregulated barrel and easily put it together with a 3D printed ghost gun.
“In the last three years, only one person has been convicted of the illegal transfer of firearms. All this bill does is put in place another trip wire for lawful gun owners,” Denver resident Keith Emerson told the Senate committee at the Capitol in Denver. “It could add another $150 to $200 to the gun … Everybody will be affected except the criminal owners who will just drive two hours north to get a gun barrel.”
The Center Square was unable to verify the number of individuals who had been convicted of illegal firearms transfers since the 2023 legislation, but did find one example of inter-state illegal gun transfers out of Colorado from 2024. Roughly two hours north of Denver in Wyoming, gun barrels remain unregulated. General gun laws in the state have been de-regulated in recent years, including a near-total ban on gun-free zones.
Several university students expressed support of the bill at the committee hearing, including Rhiannon Danborne from the University of Boulder, who said she skipped an economics class to speak at the meeting. “It will keep firearms out of the hands of people in the state who should not have them,” she said, adding that the 2023 legislation did not go far enough.
Opponents of the bill argued it would do little in the way of preventing criminal gun owners from obtaining ghost guns, but would force legal gun owners to unnecessarily spend more on gun barrels. They also raised questions about the vagueness of the language of what a gun barrel could be defined as, and how gun barrels, which are usually not given serial codes, would be determined to be sold by a federally registered dealer or not.
At the same time as SB 26-043 is being worked out, the Colorado legislature is considering a bill to expand the state’s Extreme Risk Protection Order or ERPOs.
ERPOs allow people personally or professionally close to an individual to flag them and potentially prevent their ability to obtain a firearm, if they are considered at risk to harm others. The most recent bill would expand who can file ERPOs to “institutional petitioners,” such as schools and universities.
“Teachers spend a lot of time with our children and are aware of their potential for violence,” former Colorado state Sen. Evie Hudak, a Democrat, said at a Jan. 27 hearing on the bill. “In many cases, the people who commit school shootings are connected with the school, and they nearly always exhibit warning signs.”
Second Amendment advocates have raised issues about both bills’ risk of limiting personal liberties, primarily the constitutional right to bear arms.
The Center Square reached out to the Colorado State Shooting Association, which is affiliated with the National Rifle Association, but did not respond by press time. The Colorado association's executive director, Huey Laugesen, was at the committee meeting and told senators he opposed the firearm barrels bill.
This past September, Colorado experienced yet another mass shooting when a 16-year-old student opened fire at Evergreen High School outside of Denver. Two students were critically injured in the attack, before the shooter killed himself with his firearm.
SB 26-043 is similar to a California law passed last year, which requires background checks for gun barrel purchases.
