Governor Jared Polis (D-CO) occasionally throws a bone to conservatives. He might support some tax cuts. Last fall, he praised Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary.
But is he a reliable voice for liberty? No. See Colorado Senate Bill 25-300– the new gun control bill going into effect on August 1st, 2026.
Colorado gun owners desiring to purchase modern sporting rifles like AR-15s will jump through hoops to own these popular firearms and be subjected to an onerous permitting regime.
“It originally started off as a straight up gun ban. It basically said that any semi-automatic rifle, shotgun or gas-operated handgun that had a detachable magazine was nobody could buy it unless the magazine was permanently fixed,” Ava Flanell, a Colorado-based firearms instructor and Second Amendment advocate, said on my District of Conservation podcast. “The problem with that is that doesn't exist. I only know of one manufacturer who makes an AR with a permanently attached magazine. Even the ones in California and all these other states that have “fixed mags” - those can still be removed with a tool.”
Flanell elaborated, “There's a reason why guns have detachable magazines, and that's so that they could properly unload the gun. This is also incredibly unsafe. And they're all preaching that, well, this is a bill about safety. Clearly, it is not because it's making people have these either inoperable guns, or if they do manage to load them, they're incredibly unsafe.”
Crimes where firearms are used rarely involve AR-15’s. Anyone who regularly handles AR-15 rifles also knows they aren’t designed with attached magazines. But facts don’t matter to Governor Polis and his ilk in Denver.
SB 25-300 also compels the state wildlife agency, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, to enforce gun control legislation.
“The bill requires the division of parks and wildlife (division) to develop and maintain a firearms training and safety course record system (system) that includes records of persons who hold a valid firearms course card and who have completed a hunter education course, a basic firearms safety course, or an extended firearms safety course,” the legislation reads. “The system must allow the instructor of a basic or extended firearms safety course to request and receive information about whether a person holds a valid firearms course card, the instructor of a hunter education course or a basic or extended firearms safety course to electronically enter into the system information about each student who completes a course, and a federal firearms licensee to electronically request and receive information about whether a person has completed the courses necessary to purchase a specified semi-automatic firearm.”
This is peculiar because state wildlife agencies receive funding from excise taxes collected on firearms and ammunition under the Pittman-Robertson Act of 1937. For Fiscal Year 2025, Colorado received over $24 million from the Office of Conservation Investment.
It’s uncertain if the Parks or Wildlife division will administer this misguided law. If it were the latter, however, it’ll likely be a misuse of PR-dollars.
“Colorado’s bill authors intend to pay for their “permit-to-purchase” Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) by drawing on funds from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Exactly where those funds will come from is still an open question and could jeopardize funds paid out by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) Wildlife Restoration Trust Fund, commonly called the Pittman-Robertson fund,” said Mark Oliva, National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) managing director of public affairs, in a statement to Townhall.com.
He added, “Colorado intends to draw funds from this gun control effort by drawing on funds from Colorado Parks, leaving the 'Wildlife' part of that budget alone. However, it isn’t clear that Colorado funds “Parks” separately from “Wildlife.” If the money to fund this gun control program is drawn from “Wildlife,” Colorado could be jeopardizing those funds, which is imperative to ensuring abundant wildlife in Colorado. The Pittman-Robertson cannot be used for anything outside of wildlife conservation, hunter education and target range construction or improvements. Colorado cannot use funds dedicated by the federal government through the Pittman-Robertson Act to maintain a gun control database.”
Oliva added that if the incoming U.S. Fish and Wildlife Director nominee Brian Nevsik is confirmed and suspects those monies are being misappropriated for items not covered by P-R, he “can audit those expenditures at his or her discretion.”
Unfortunately, Colorado SB 25-300 wouldn’t be the first “permit-to-purchase” scheme in the U.S.
Oregon Measure 114 is another notable example. It’s a controversial 2022 Oregon ballot initiative narrowly adopted by voters by a 50.65%-49.35% margin. This week, several state-based gun owners appealed to the Oregon Supreme Court to block the law for violating Article 1, Section 27 of the state constitution guaranteeing the right to keep and bear arms. And another case challenging the ballot measure, Eyre v. Rosenblum, is also pending before the very lefty 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
There are over 30 million lawfully-owned Modern Sporting Rifles (MSR) in circulation in the U.S. today. Banning a popular firearm disqualifies one from ever becoming president.
Governor Polis not only botched forced wolf reintroduction efforts, he’s a wolf in libertarian’s clothing too.