Over 500 people completed Colorado’s new safety course for semiautomatic guns in August
Around 500 people in Colorado have completed a firearm safety course and exam required by a new state law to buy certain popular guns during the first month of the law’s implementation. That’s according to a legal filing in a lawsuit against the new law, created by Senate Bill 25-3. The law established a process […]
Around 500 people in Colorado have completed a firearm safety course and exam required by a new state law to buy certain popular guns during the first month of the law’s implementation.
That’s according to a legal filing in a lawsuit against the new law, created by Senate Bill 25-3. The law established a process for people to purchase semiautomatic firearms with detachable magazines in the state. Opponents say it is an onerous hoop to jump through to practice a right guaranteed by the Second Amendment.
But “a person with a genuine intent to comply with (the law’s) requirements for obtaining a specified semiautomatic firearm (‘SSF’) can do so within a matter of days,” says a Sept. 1 filing from state lawyers, headed by Attorney General Phil Weiser, representing defendants Gov. Jared Polis, Colorado Parks and Wildlife head Laura Clellan and Weiser.
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Over 3,500 people submitted applications for an eligibility card in August. Then, 1,125 of those cards were issued at 39 sheriff’s offices and 502 people went to complete a safety course and pass the exam, according to the filing. The number of people who completed the basic four-hour course available for people with hunter education was 409, and 93 people went through the 12-hour extended course.
It’s unclear how many people submitted an application but failed to follow up with a sheriff to get an eligibility card. Eligibility cards are valid for five years, so the 623 people who didn’t take a course still have plenty of time.
The data came from a declaration from Kirk Teklits, the manager of business operations for CPW. The declaration was part of a response to a request for a preliminary injunction against Colorado’s permit-to-purchase scheme.
“That’s a 14% completion rate. That does not show that this is a system that’s functioning well,” Daniel Fenlason, the Colorado State Shooting Association director of operations, said in a video posted to the organization’s YouTube account.
Anecdotal evidence
The new law went into effect Aug. 1. It requires prospective buyers to pass a background check, obtain an eligibility card from a county sheriff and complete a safety course to buy semiautomatic rifles and handguns with detachable magazines on a list developed by the state’s Department of Revenue. The process makes someone eligible to buy those guns for five years. CPW operates a database so industry professionals can keep track of who has an eligibility card and who has completed a safety course. Teklits wrote that 330 firearm instructors have created accounts with that database system.
CSSA sued Weiser, Polis, Clellan and El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen over the law last September, but then asked the judge to issue a preliminary injunction after the main components of the law began in August. In that newer request, the plaintiffs argue that it is too burdensome to buy the type of gun considered under the new regulations.
Lawyers for the state, however, contended in their response that the number of people who have successfully undergone the new process undermines CSSA’s argument, which was mostly supported by anecdotal evidence and speculation over wait times and costs.
“The four intended-purchaser declarants who have attempted to satisfy SB25-03 offer no factual support for Plaintiffs’ speculative concerns about ‘lengthy waits’ or ‘exorbitant’ costs, and in many instances undercut them,” the response says.
Declarants in that CSSA motion for a preliminary injunction said they experienced an application timeline of less than two weeks and application costs of $82.
Coloradoans interested in going through the (firearm) purchase eligibility process have been able to do so reasonably quickly and in large numbers, particularly given how new this process is.
– Dan Coil, CPW’s firearm safety program manager
Teklits wrote in his declaration that the average time in September between a person’s completed application and when they got an eligibility card from a sheriff was 10.9 days. The average time between the card issuance and course completion was 11 days.
“The number of individuals who have already successfully completed the course is a testament to the fact that the courses are widely available and that the materials are understandable and accessible to participants,” wrote Dan Coil, CPW’s firearm safety program manager, in his own declaration for the filing. He wrote that he has received “unsolicited positive feedback” from people who have undergone the process, which he helped design.
“While the Motion for Preliminary Injunction relies on anecdotal accounts to characterize
the Firearm Safety System as dysfunctional, the statistics tell a different story,” he wrote. “Coloradoans interested in going through the SSF purchase eligibility process have been able to do so reasonably quickly and in large numbers, particularly given how new this process is.”
Lawyers also contended that costs and wait times are attributable to third parties, such as firearm instructors and sheriffs who refuse to process applications for eligibility cards. CSSA filed a declaration from Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell, who said his office is not participating in the program due to financial and constitutional concerns.
“The refusal of a particular sheriff to meet SB25-03’s requirements may subject them to injunctive relief by affected persons in a different lawsuit; it does nothing to demonstrate the law’s unconstitutionality in this case,” state lawyers wrote.
Lawyers also contend that the “shall-issue” licensing plan the law creates is constitutional under New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that requires a historical analogue for firearm regulations. The law creates a narrow and specific standard and is analogous to licensing requirements throughout the country’s history.
Additionally, they wrote, historical tradition doesn’t include the widespread civilian use of guns like AR-15s, a model that began with military use in the Vietnam War.
“Colorado’s licensing regulation for SSFs is lawful for another reason: the state could, like ten other states have, prohibit possession of SSFs outright. All but one circuit to consider assault weapons bans since Bruen have upheld those laws’ constitutionality,” the filing says. “This Court can and should reach the same conclusion. The SSFs subject to SB25-03 are not arms protected by the Second Amendment.”