Does Colorado Have an Assault Weapons Ban?

Colorado's SB 25-003 uses the term gas-operated semiautomatic firearm and regulates the purchase and transfer channel for specified firearms beginning August 1, 2026. It is structured around a safety course and an eligibility card rather than a prohibited-feature list.

The act includes exceptions for peace officers, armored-vehicle guards, members of the armed forces acting in official duties, and specified transfers. Those exceptions attach to the purchase-channel requirements and should not be generalized to unrelated firearm rules.

There has been no federal assault weapons ban since the 1994 ban expired in 2004; no feature restrictions apply federally to semi-automatic rifles or pistols. The 2023 ATF pistol-brace rule was vacated nationwide and is not enforced, but federal SBR classification for a brace-equipped firearm still turns on whether the specific weapon is designed and intended to be fired from the shoulder. Cargill v. Garland (2024) made bump stocks federally legal. Feature bans are entirely a matter of state law.

Federal baseline verified 2026-07-31. Scope: State laws restricting semi-automatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns by configuration features: threaded barrels, pistol grips, folding or telescoping stocks, flash suppressors, forward grips, and similar. Magazine capacity limits are tracked as a separate class.