Senate Bill 3, described by the Denver Post as the “most sweeping gun control law” in Colorado history, will come before a House committee this Tuesday.
SB 3 is a semiautomatic firearm ban which targets numerous gas operated semiautomatic rifles and shotguns.
The bill says:
The bill defines a “specified semiautomatic firearm” as a semiautomatic rifle or semiautomatic shotgun with a detachable magazine or a gas-operated semiautomatic handgun with a detachable magazine. The bill prohibits knowingly manufacturing, distributing, transferring, selling, or purchasing a specified semiautomatic firearm; except that a person may transfer a specified semiautomatic firearm to an heir, an individual residing in another state, or a federally licensed firearm dealer.
On February 20, 2025, Breitbart News noted that SB 3 cleared the Colorado Senate. It was passed after a deal was struck to allow exemptions to the ban for would-be gun buyers who cooperate with special prepurchase conditions and requirements, including training and a vetting process similar to that required for a concealed carry permit.
At the time of Senate passage, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners president Dudley Brown told Breitbart News, “The Colorado assault weapons ban went from bad to worse — with a midnight Senate amendment that turned it into a firearms owner ID card. Colorado is trying to leapfrog California into being the most anti-gun state and we’re going to fight like hell against it, all the way through.”
FLASHBACK — AWR Hawkins: Dem’s Solution to Failed Gun Control Is More Gun Control
On March 8, 2025, Breitbart News pointed to PEW Research data showing rifles–including the AR-15 and other rifles which Democrats label “assault weapons”–accounted for only four percent of U.S. gun murders in 2023.
Shotguns accounted for one percent of U.S. murders. Yet Colorado Democrats are working feverishly to ban a wide swath of semiautomatic rifles and shotguns.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly:
