Colorado residents are lining up to buy guns ahead of the latest weapons restrictions set to take effect this Saturday.

The new law mandates individuals seeking to purchase semiautomatic firearms with detachable magazines to first complete a firearm safety course administered by the state’s wildlife division.

Tuesday was the last practical day to purchase the guns ahead of its effective day, as the state imposes a mandatory three-day waiting period before a gun may be delivered to a buyer.

Kale Sykes, a manager with Shootist Gun Range in Englewood, said the store has been slammed with long lines and more than a hundred customers per day. The store set a monthly sales record for June, which was then immediately broken within the first week of July, Sykes said.

He said the vast majority of sales have been for weapons under restriction by the new law.

“It’s pretty much exclusively stuff that’s on the chopping block for the bill,” Sykes said.

When asked about the new law, Sykes said he is frustrated by it, adding the legislation was passed with little thought to how it would financially affect gun retailers. He is additionally frustrated with a lack of direct communication from the state about what specifically needs to be taught in the training curriculum to make customers eligible to purchase the weapons, he added.

“They’re killing our business and they’re not even prepared to help with the transition,” Sykes said.

Brian Curran, manager of digital services with Bighorn Firearms in Denver, said there is currently a waitlist at the shop to pick up firearms. He said the store has seen consistent lines out the door, as people rushed to buy semiautomatic rifles and shotguns with detachable magazines before the ban took effect.

“We’ve tripled our business,” he said. “The last three weeks have been nonstop.”

Curran said this week has been the busiest for the shop, with Tuesday — the effective deadline to purchase such weapons before the restrictions kick in — being the busiest. Going forward, Curran said Bighorn plans to help educate customers on how to obtain a pass to purchase the weapons, which includes several options for completing firearms safety courses.

Curran said he believes the new law is unconstitutional, as it prevents people from having access to firearms and places an undue burden on people to obtain them legally.

Meanwhile, store clerks who answered phones at BluCore Shooting Center and High Country Armory said the shops were too busy for anyone to speak with The Denver Gazette.

“We are jam-packed,” Justin Green, owner of SDS Guns in Colorado Springs, added Tuesday, as people streamed in and out of the shop at Palmer Park and Academy boulevards.

He doesn’t usually work the sales floor. But that’s where Green has been spending his days, instead of fishing in his new boat or camping in his new fifth-wheel, in what was typically a slow month.

In the last few weeks, Colorado residents have realized the new law’s requirements are just around the corner.

Business has been so brisk that “all my bills are paid,” Green said, adding that he’s run out of inventory and restocked three times in recent months.

“They constantly think that making guns harder to buy is going to prevent crime and violence, but it doesn’t,” Green said. “We’ve gone so soft on crime there’s no one enforcing. Instead, they’re making law-abiding citizens pay in a complete show of fecal matter.”

With a three-day waiting period, Tuesday was the last day to apply for background checks and not be subjected to Colorado’s tightening on what advocates refer to as “assault” weapons.

As of midday Tuesday, 6,504 applications for background checks were waiting to be accepted by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, with the longest wait for processing being two days, 19 hours and 25 minutes.

If the wait time goes over 72 hours, people will be subjected to the expanded process that involves increased background checks and completion of a firearm safety training course of either four or 12 hours. The course must be taken from an approved third-party outlet overseen by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

The 12-hour training would cost $500, said Roy L. Bartlette Jr., who has lived in Teller County for 10 years.

The former military gunner who did two tours in Iraq showed up at Freedom 30 Arms on Tuesday, hoping to squeak in before the new system kicks in to register the serial number on his magazine-fed semiautomatic rifle he had shipped overnight from Texas.

“I’ve been shooting the semiautomatic rifles since I was a kid. It’s a hobby. It’s something I enjoy,” he said.

Semiautomatics are trigger-activated but fire faster than the bolt-action design because the bullets load automatically. But they are not discharged automatically in a semiautomatic.

People buy the commonly used weapons for hunting, sport, home protection and self-defense, said Chris Albarelle, owner of Freedom 30 Arms in Woodland Park.

“Everyone has their own opinions, but this is a pretty severe overreach for the government,” he said. “We shouldn’t have to pay for constitutional rights.”

El Paso County Sheriff Joseph Roybal called the new measure “the most egregious and unconstitutional anti-Second Amendment bill in Colorado’s history.”

As introduced, the 2025 bill was very similar to its predecessors, which sought to prohibit outright the sale, manufacture and purchase of semiautomatic weapons with detachable magazines.

However, sponsors faced a roadblock, as Gov. Jared Polis said he would not sign the ban into law. In an effort to get the governor on board, sponsors amended the bill to allow individuals to purchase the weapons upon completion of the safety course administered by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

The bill passed through both chambers, with all Republicans and a handful of Democrats voting in opposition. The governor signed the bill into law on April 10, 2025.

Going forward, background check applications of qualified gun buyers, who don’t include convicted felons, are sent to county sheriff offices, where another background check is undertaken. Applicants also must pay a mandatory fee of $52 to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Local sheriffs also are allowed to add on their own local administrative and background check fees.

El Paso County Sheriff’s Office won’t charge a fee for El Paso County residents, said spokesperson Cassandra Sebastian. Fees for nonresidents will be listed on the website later this week, she said. The website also will post local facilities that are providing the training.

Supporters of the new law see it as the logical next step after the magazine capacity limit, arguing it marks a crucial step toward reducing gun violence.

“These weapons that (SB 003) is mainly focused on are powerful weapons that have been used in very, very awful situations,” Eileen McCarron, the legislative director for Colorado Ceasefire, earlier said. “If you look at mass shootings, almost all of them have been using assault weapons of some sort.”

The perpetrators of some of Colorado’s deadliest mass shootings, including Columbine, Aurora, Club Q in Colorado Springs and King Soopers in Boulder, used semiautomatic weapons to carry out their attacks, she said.

The Gun Violence Archive lists 69 mass shootings as having occurred in Colorado from 2020 through Tuesday.

The most recent incident happened on July 20 at the Ultra Lounge in Denver, when a gunman killed one victim and wounded eight others. A mass shooting is defined as four or more victims injured or killed in one location, excluding the suspected shooter.

Critics have countered that the staccato of gun restrictions over the years has neither reduced violence nor prevented mass shootings. Instead, they have burdened law-abiding citizens, making it more difficult for them to defend themselves, they argued.

Sheriff Jason Mikesell of Teller County said in a video that he’s advocating for objectors to legally fight the law, which he describes as “aimed to take away your gun rights and push the most restrictive gun rights bill in U.S. history.”

The Colorado State Shooting Association, which is headquartered in Falcon and is the official statewide association of the National Rifle Association, is challenging the law in federal court as a violation of the Second Amendment.

The association also is exploring a preliminary injunction to temporarily halt the process, said Daniel Fenlason, director of operations and a survivor of the 2014 school shooting at Seattle Pacific University.

“The implementation of this law has been such a complete and utter debacle — we’re talking weeks before getting through the process because of the hoops,” he said. “It’s not only unconstitutional, but implementation also creates a de facto ban — you can’t even get the background check to start the process to buy.”