Gun buyers in Colorado are already subject to a three-day waiting period, but that arbitrary delay could last even longer if a newly introduced bill becomes law.
HB26-1302 would give the Colorado Bureau of Investigation the power to set its own operating hours for conducting background checks on firearm transfers. At the moment CBI is required by state law to staff its background check office 12 hours a day, excluding Christmas and Thanksgiving. But the bill’s sponsors claim that, since the state has imposed a three-day waiting period, there’s no pressing need for CBI to conduct an instant background check.
Allowing CBI to flex its operational hours based on business needs will enable CBI to staff its background check services more strategically, streamline its processes, and reduce costs by eliminating unnecessary employee shifts, all while continuing to provide timely background check services.
At the very least, HB26-1302 is premature. Colorado’s three-day waiting period is still subject to litigation, and though a Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals panel denied Rocky Mountain Gun Owners’ request for a preliminary injunction, the case is still pending a decision on competing motions for summary judgment in U.S. District Court.
Since those motions were filed last May, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled New Mexico’s 7-day waiting period does violate the Second Amendment’s protections. In Ortega v. Grisham, the appellate court concluded that “cooling-off periods infringe on the Second Amendment by preventing the lawful acquisition of firearms.”
The panel added that “cooling off periods do not fit into any historically grounded exceptions to the right to keep and bear arms, and burden conduct within the Second Amendment’s scope,” so New Mexico’s law lies outside the national tradition of gun ownership and regulation.
The Tenth Circuit denied New Mexico’s request for an en banc hearing, and so far New Mexico has not appealed its loss to the Supreme Court. Time is running out, with the deadline for that appeal coming later this month.
Based on the language of the Ortega ruling, Colorado’s three-day waiting period should be struck down by the federal courts as well. The panel didn’t say that some “cooling-off” periods would be okay, so long as they didn’t last as long as a week. The entire concept is ahistorical and infringes on the right to keep and bear arms.
If HB26-1302 becomes law in Colorado, though, it could be used to impose a brand new delay for gun owners, even if the waiting period is struck down by the courts. The language of the bill allows CBI to set its staffing hours for background checks to “best meet the business needs of the Bureau,” not to meet the needs of gun owners who are trying to exercise their 2A rights. CBI could claim that, due to staffing shortfalls, it can only conduct background checks a few hours each day, or even a few hours each week.
Colorado Democrats continue to target lawful gun owners this session, while largely ignoring repeat, violent offenders. HB26-1302 is yet another effort to make it harder to exercise our Second Amendment rights by allowing a state agency to put its “business needs” ahead of the constitutional rights of the citizens its supposed to serve.
Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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