Colorado Gun Ban 2026: What to Buy Before August 1 (SB25-003)

Colorado SB25-003 takes effect August 1, 2026. Gov. Jared Polis signed it in April 2025, the implementation rules are now landing through the Department of Revenue, and the buying window is down to a few weeks. Anything you can document as lawfully owned before the cutoff is yours to keep. After August 1, the path to a semi-automatic rifle runs through a sheriff-authorized permit and a state-certified safety course.

This is the buying-order guide for the time that is left. The scope is narrower than the headlines suggest in some places and sharper in others, so the first job is getting the facts exactly right before you spend a dollar. The single most common mistake Colorado buyers are about to make is treating this like Virginia, where 30-round magazines were the top priority. Colorado is a different statute with a different list, and a couple of the obvious moves are either pointless or, in one case, a felony.

SB25-003 creates a new offense: unlawful manufacture, distribution, transfer, sale, or purchase of a specified semiautomatic firearm. A specified semiautomatic firearm is a semiautomatic rifle or semiautomatic shotgun with a detachable magazine, or a gas-operated semiautomatic handgun with a detachable magazine. A first violation is a class 2 misdemeanor; a second is a class 6 felony. Critically, the offense does not include possession, which is why rifles you already own are grandfathered.

After August 1, you can still acquire one of these rifles, but only through the new education pathway. First the buyer obtains a firearms safety course eligibility card from the county sheriff, which requires a background check and fees. With the card in hand, the buyer completes a state-certified course (a basic firearms safety course combined with hunter education, or a longer extended course) administered through Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and only then can buy the rifle. That is the friction. It is not a lifetime ban on the rifle; it is a permit, a class, a fee, and a wait standing between you and the next AR-15 you buy in Colorado.

One major change is not tied to August 1 at all. When SB25-003 was signed in 2025, it struck the old machine gun conversion device language and added rapid-fire devices to Colorado's list of dangerous weapons, effective on signing under the act's safety clause. Possession of a dangerous weapon is a class 5 felony, which means forced reset triggers, binary triggers, and bump stocks are already prohibited in Colorado. There is no grandfather clause and no permit option. This is the one category that cuts the opposite way from the rest of this page, and the August 1 buying window does not apply to it.

The exemption list is wide. Rimfire firearms of .22 caliber or smaller, manually operated firearms (bolt, pump, lever, and slide action), semi-automatics with a permanently fixed magazine of 15 rounds or fewer, and recoil-operated handguns all fall outside the specified semiautomatic firearm definition. The Department of Revenue is publishing model-specific guidance for dealers; when in doubt on a specific gun, that list governs.

The single highest-value buy in the weeks left is a complete, duty-configured AR-15 on a standard 4473. The reason is the permit math: buy now and the rifle is grandfathered with zero added process. Buy after August 1 and the same rifle costs you a background check, a sheriff sign-off, a certified course, an exam, a fee, and the wait for an eligibility card. Nothing about the rifle changes; the cost of acquiring it does.

The picks below span roughly $620 to $2,200 and are all complete rifles in the box. Any of them gets you onto a Colorado 4473 before the cutoff. Inventory will move fast over the next several weeks, so check the link on each card and keep a backup pick if your first choice is out of stock. Local Colorado FFLs that stock these brands are worth calling directly, since counter inventory often does not show up in online retailer feeds.

The specified semiautomatic firearm definition is platform-agnostic. A semi-automatic rifle with a detachable magazine is covered whether it is an AR or an AK, so the same permit friction lands on both after August 1. A WASR-10, PSA GF5, or Zastava in standard configuration is a specified semiautomatic firearm; if you have been deferring an AK purchase, this is the deadline.

The supply picture for AKs is structurally tighter than for ARs. WASR imports are limited by Romanian production and approval cycles, domestic options like the PSA GF5 line are the mid-tier fallback, and demand spikes hit the AK shelf faster than the AR shelf in a buying wave. Expect Colorado AK inventory to clear quickly once the pre-deadline rush starts.

This is the part where Colorado breaks hard from the Virginia playbook, and getting it wrong is expensive. Forced reset triggers, binary triggers, and bump stocks are not grandfathered, and this restriction is not tied to the August 1 deadline. When SB25-003 was signed in 2025, it moved rapid-fire devices into Colorado's list of dangerous weapons, effective immediately under the act's safety clause, and possession of a dangerous weapon is a class 5 felony. There is no permit pathway and no continued-possession clause.

What that means in practice: a forced reset trigger or binary trigger is already prohibited to possess in Colorado, and buying one now does not change that. This is the one category on this page where the honest advice is to subtract, not buy. Do not treat August 1 as a deadline to act on these; the restriction is already in force, so if you own a rapid-fire device, consult a Colorado firearms attorney about your lawful options.

If you are outside Colorado, the math is completely different. Forced reset triggers and binary triggers are legal in most states, and the national picture is shifting in their favor after recent court rulings. For readers in legal states, our forced reset selector guide and our coverage of the states where binary triggers are legal cover what is worth owning. For Colorado residents, both are already a hard no.

If you came here from the Virginia buying guide, unlearn the magazine reflex. Virginia's top pre-ban priority was stacking 30-round PMAGs because the magazine cap was brand new. Colorado capped magazines at 15 rounds in 2013 under HB13-1224. Magazines over 15 rounds have been illegal to sell or transfer in Colorado for more than a decade, so there is no last-call window to stock up.

What SB25-003 does to magazines is narrow: it raises the penalty for selling, transferring, or possessing an over-capacity magazine from a class 2 misdemeanor to a class 1 misdemeanor. The 15-round limit itself is unchanged. Standard 15-round and smaller magazines remain legal to buy, so if you are picking up a new rifle, grab a few compliant magazines with it; just do not treat magazines as the urgent line item they were in Virginia. For the cost-per-round breakdown on compliant magazines, see our best AR-15 magazines guide.

Nothing in SB25-003 touches optics, lights, or furniture. They are not on any list and never were. The reason to front-load them now is purely supply: when the pre-deadline rush starts, Colorado retailer inventory on red dots, LPVOs, and weapon lights tightens alongside the rifles. If you are buying a rifle before the cutoff, buy the glass and the light for it in the same trip rather than fighting a thinned-out shelf in late July.

SB25-003 creates no registry, and the grandfather protection for rifles is automatic in the sense that possession was never criminalized. But the practical defense, if there is ever a question about when a rifle entered your safe, is documentation. Keep your 4473 receipts and dealer purchase records, and retain order confirmations and shipping invoices for anything bought online and delivered before August 1, 2026.

For rapid-fire devices, documentation is not a defense. Because possession itself is the offense, and has been since SB25-003 was signed in 2025, a receipt showing you bought a forced reset trigger does not help you; it arguably hurts. There is no pre-deadline window to document here, which is why a Colorado firearms attorney, not a paper trail, is the right call on any device you already own.

Several categories are outside SB25-003 entirely and do not belong on a deadline list. Recoil-operated handguns, which are more than 90 percent of the pistol market, are exempt; a Glock, M&P, or P320 is not a specified semiautomatic firearm. Bolt, pump, and lever guns are explicitly excluded. Rimfire .22s are exempt regardless of action. Tube-fed semi-auto shotguns like the Benelli M4 and Beretta 1301 have no detachable magazine and are not covered, though a detachable-magazine semi-auto shotgun is.

Suppressors are federal NFA items and are untouched by Colorado's definition. With the federal tax now at $0 and eForm 4 approvals running in days, the suppressor pipeline is open and SB25-003 does not slow it. The constrained item is the threaded-barrel host rifle, which is exactly why the rifle goes on the buy list and the can does not need to.

The Colorado buying decision over the next several weeks reduces to three questions. Do you want a semi-automatic rifle without going through a permit and a safety course? If yes, buy a complete AR-15 or AK on a standard 4473 before August 1. Do you own a rapid-fire device? It is already a felony to possess one in Colorado under SB25-003, so the question there is lawful disposition, not a buying deadline; talk to a Colorado firearms attorney. Do you have the glass and lights for the rifles you are buying? If no, grab them now while Colorado inventory is still deep.

Colorado is not the only 2026 deadline. Virginia's assault weapons ban takes effect July 1, 2026, and the pre-deadline playbook there centers on magazines and complete rifles. Our Virginia pre-ban buying guide lays out that state's list and shows exactly where Colorado's rules diverge. Use our rifle builder to lock in the parts list for the build you actually want, then take the configuration to a Colorado FFL while the standard 4473 path is still open. Anything you can prove you owned on July 31, 2026 is yours to keep.