A proposed sweeping ban on semiautomatic firearms in Colorado is part of a larger trend to that state becoming more urbanized than left-leaning, a Wyoming gun rights advocate said.
“I hope we and other groups can stop this, but it’s pretty bad,” said Mark Jones of Buffalo, who’s also the national director for Gun Owners of America.
Controversial gun control bills are nothing new in Colorado. During its 2024 session, the Colorado Legislature considered a ban on “assault weapons” (semiautomatic rifles with high-capacity ammunition magazines).
The measure failed against heavy pushback, including hundreds of protestors showing up at the Colorado Capitol last March.
The latest gun control effort, Senate Bill 25-003, goes further, extending the proposed ban to almost all semiautomatic firearms with detachable magazines.
That could include not only rifles, but also many modern pistols and even some shotguns.
If it passes, the bill would include a grandfather clause allowing Coloradans to keep the semiautomatic firearms they already have.
A firearm with a semiautomatic action fires one round for each pull of the trigger. It does so without the shooter having to manually use a reloading mechanism, such a bolt, lever or pump action.
Semiautomatics are nothing new. They’ve been popular with sport shooters and hunters since the early 20th century.
Duck Hunters Love Semiautos
Colorado’s bill might seem unprecedented to Wyomingites, but attempts to ban various types of semiautomatic weapons have been ongoing for years, Jones said.
A measure in Massachusetts went after “gas-operated, semiautomatic shotguns,” Jones said.
Those included shotguns popular with duck hunters, which are hardly high-capacity weapons, he said.
Federal migratory bird hunting regulations have long prohibited waterfowl hunters from having shotguns that could hold more than three shells at a time.
Duck hunters like semiauto shotguns because they absorb recoil and can hold three shells, rather than the two-shot capacity of double-barreled side-by-side or over-and-under shotguns.
Reduced recoil can be a big perk in a waterfowl shotgun. Many hunts involve lots of shooting over extended periods, as waves of birds come into decoy spreads.
Urbanization Drives Gun Control
The Colorado bill’s sponsors include state Sen. Tom Sullivan, D-Arapaho and Douglas counties.
He’s previously pushed for assault weapons bans. His son Alex, 27, was among those killed in a mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater in 2012.
Sullivan argues that semiautomatics with detachable magazines allow mass killers to fire rapidly and reload quickly, claiming more victims.
Jones said such proposed gun control legislation is part of larger trend in Colorado politics as that state’s population becomes more urbanized.
“Colorado has really gone to the left,” he said. “It has lost a lot of conservative seats and pro-Second Amendment seats in its legislature. It’s driven by the rapid urbanization of the I-25 corridor.”
In light of that, there’s a chance that SB 25-003 could pass.
And if that happens, he anticipates hard pushback, including from many sheriffs in rural Colorado counties refusing to enforce the bans.
“Sometimes the people push back so hard on these things. They’re not going out tomorrow and round up everybody’s 9 mm handgun,” he said. “I hope that’s what happens in Colorado, that this can be stopped.”
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
