Craig Raymer and his wife were visiting Cheyenne from Nebraska on Saturday, shopping for a mattress at Bomgaars, when a bright orange sign on the gun case caught his eye.
It read, “Firearms not sold to Colorado residents.”
“My immediate thought was how unfortunate this is for law-abiding Colorado residents,” Raymer told Cowboy State Daily. "Particularly those who enjoy hunting, shooting sports, and the outdoors.”
He snapped a photo of the sign and posted it to Facebook, where it quickly drew more than 1,000 comments, with some people bickering over whether state law, federal law or store policy was to blame, while others capitalized on an opportunity to clown on Coloradans.
“It turned into a big discussion,” Raymer said.
As a Nebraska resident, Raymer doesn’t have a dog in the Wyoming-Colorado rivalry. He said his main concern, and the reason he posted the photo, is protecting the Second Amendment.
“The Second Amendment was established to protect a fundamental constitutional right, and I believe that right should be respected regardless of which state a person calls home,” Raymer said.
Having worked for more than two decades in retail management, including finalizing firearm sales, Raymer said restrictive laws not only keep buyers from purchasing but also place a burden on sellers.
“I understand the legal responsibilities and potential liabilities businesses face when selling firearms,” Raymer said. “I certainly don’t fault a business for making decisions it believes are necessary to protect itself.”
‘An Abundance Of Caution’
Aaron Bomgaars, executive vice president of Bomgaars, told Cowboy State Daily that the company has a statewide policy in Wyoming prohibiting sales to Colorado customers for exactly that reason.
“For us, it’s out of an abundance of caution,” Bomgaars said. “We don’t allow sales of firearms to Colorado residents due to the differences in state regulations.”
Colorado has tightened its firearms rules in recent years with a three-day waiting period on purchases, a minimum purchase age of 21 and, as of Aug. 1, a permit and safety course requirement to buy many semiautomatic rifles, shotguns and pistols with detachable magazines.
Wyoming has no such waiting period or permit requirement, and crossing the state line means entering a stricter and more confusing set of regulations, including for private sales.
Bomgaars said navigating around those regulations is too much to manage for a large company with 14 locations across Wyoming.
Small Shops Fill The Gap
That leaves a profitable window for smaller gun shops in Cheyenne, located about 10 miles from the Colorado line, to pick up the customers a large chain turns away.
Ryan Allen, owner of Frontier Arms Supply in Cheyenne, told Cowboy State Daily that his shop is still able to sell to Colorado residents because, as a small business, he can easily navigate those regulations.
“We sell to Colorado residents,” Allen said.
To account for Colorado’s three-day waiting period, Allen said his shop marks the time of sale, calculates when the customer can pick up the firearm and tells them, then keeps the gun in a secure location with the customer’s name on it until that time passes.
Federal law adds another layer for handguns.
A licensed dealer can only hand a handgun directly to a buyer who lives in the dealer’s own state, so a handgun bought by an out-of-state resident has to be shipped to a licensed dealer in the buyer’s home state, which then runs the transfer.
“I could sell them a handgun,” Allen said. “But it would have to ship down to Colorado.”
‘The Gift That Keeps Giving’
Allen said the different rules might sound complicated, but for him they are pretty easy to keep up with.
“It behooves a small store owner like myself, especially right on the border with Colorado, to keep track of what’s going on in their legislative body,” Allen said. “By paying attention to that, you get quite the heads up.”
Allen said the differing state laws create a few more hoops to jump through, but they have also brought a new stream of customers looking for items they can no longer easily get in Colorado, such as semiautomatic rifles with detachable magazines, which now require a permit there, and magazines that hold more than 15 rounds.
“It’s wonderful,” Allen said. “Colorado is kind of the gift that keeps on giving because they pass all these laws.”
Allen likened it to fireworks, which people will travel to buy wherever they are legal. Plenty of Colorado customers also shop in Wyoming to make their voices heard about their own state’s laws, he said.
“It’s like protesting with your wallet,” Allen said.
‘Avoid The Colorado Tax’
Colorado law reaches beyond the guns themselves.
Since April 2025, Coloradans have paid an added 6.5% tax on top of sales tax for firearms, as well as for ammunition and firearm parts.
Mike Rigg, manager of Rocky Mountain Gun Trader in Cheyenne, told Cowboy State Daily that the store has seen an influx of customers buying shotgun shells only.
“We have a lot of people come up just to buy shotgun shells,” Rigg said. “Avid trap shooters will buy 10 cases of shotgun shells at a time to avoid the Colorado tax.”
Rigg said the laws have also cost the store some business, since most customers do not want to buy a gun and then drive back to Cheyenne three days later to pick it up.
“We’ve had a couple people drive all the way from Pueblo to pick up a gun after a waiting period, but not often,” Rigg said.
Back home in Nebraska, Raymer does not have to worry about laws like Colorado’s.
Still, he said the bright orange sign at the Bomgaars in Cheyenne might be a red flag for others, just as it was for him.
“To me, it’s a warning about the direction firearm ownership and individual rights may be heading,” Raymer said. “Frankly, I don’t like what I’m seeing.”
Bomgaars said Colorado customers still have the right to buy guns from the company, and are encouraged to. They just have to do it in Colorado.
Emma Jane Jackson can be reached at emma@cowboystatedaily.com.
