Colorado’s New May-Issue Permit Scheme for Purchasing Commonly Owned Firearms Clearly Violates Bruen

Since the Supreme Court has said the Second Amendment applies to ownership of weapons “in common use” for “lawful purposes like self-defense,” S.B. 3 clearly impinges on conduct covered by the amendment’s “plain text.” Can Colorado show that the law’s restrictions are “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation”? To do that, it will have to identify historical analogs that are “relevantly similar” to the new law. Given the evidence that states have been able to muster in defense of other gun control laws, it seems unlikely that Colorado will be able to cite representative historical regulations of a similar scope.

S.B. 3 makes the freedom to acquire a broad class of commonly owned firearms contingent on a local law enforcement official’s approval, which can be denied if that official deems the applicant dangerous. And even when the applicant receives a sheriff’s permission, the application fee and training requirement impose an additional financial burden that may be daunting to would-be gun owners of modest means.

In an April 2 letter that unsuccessfully urged Polis to veto S.B. 3, four Republican members of Colorado’s congressional delegation argued that the bill, which they described as “one of the most restrictive gun ownership laws in the United States,” “blatantly infringes upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans.” In addition to imposing “fees and time commitments that no criminal” will comply with, they warned, “the bill gives any sheriff hostile to the individual—or semi-automatic firearms in general—carte blanche authority” to reject applications based on the sort of “subjective, discretionary standards” that Bruen rejected in the context of carry permits.

The Colorado State Shooting Association plans to challenge S.B. 3 in court. “Polis might think he’s scoring points with the anti-gun crowd, but as far as we’re concerned, he has just handed us a rallying cry,” said Huey Laugesen, the group’s executive director. “This fight is far from over, and we’re playing for keeps.”

— Jacob Sullim in Colorado Will Soon Require a Discretionary Permit To Acquire Semiautomatic Rifles