Colorado’s law is not just a waiting period on the right to possess peaceably purchased property. It is a delay on safety itself.
On October 1st, 2023, Colorado’s new 3-day waiting period law went into effect as passed by the state’s legislature and Governor Jared Polis, requiring those who purchase a firearm to wait three days before acquiring the gun. That is, once a citizen has passed a federal background check a state background check, and paid for a firearm upfront, the government then mandates an additional 72-hour delay before possessing a firearm.
With this new law, Colorado is delaying and therefore denying its citizens their Second Amendment rights and their right to self-defense. Mountain States’ client Alicia Garcia says, “Asking someone to wait 3 days for self-defense is to put them at risk for harm.” Alicia personally has friends who are trying to stay away from abusers, and in many cases, a firearm is the only chance they have of defending themselves. When Colorado forces them to wait an additional three days to have access to the protection and security a firearm gives, it leaves these women vulnerable and puts their lives in danger.
Alicia said, “This law puts people like my friends and so many other women at risk for death, harm, and rape. The politicians say this is about people’s safety—this law is a danger to the most vulnerable.”
Anyone who paid attention to the Supreme Court’s historic decision in NYSPRA v. Bruen decision would realize that this new Colorado gun law is unconstitutional.
The fact that anti-gun politicians would even attempt this law speaks to their desperation to undermine the Supreme Court and our supreme law. It is part and parcel of a hostility toward the rights of Coloradans and Americans to defend themselves.
Brian Abbas, director of MSLF’s Center to Keep & Bear Arms, says, “They have an agenda to outlaw guns as much as possible and they are going about it meticulously and keep trying to chip away at gun rights.”
If the courts strike down the law, it will send a clear signal that any delay in a person’s right to keep and bear arms is a denial of that right. If the courts uphold the law, however, it will stand contrary not only to the text of the Second Amendment and the Supreme Court, but against the most basic right of protecting oneself and family.
Mountain States Legal Foundation is representing Alicia Garcia in her fight to educate and protect others, as well as Rocky Mountain Gun Owners. We seek nothing short of a complete invalidation of the law by the federal courts and a return to constitutional sensibility.
Mountain States Legal Foundation
Mountain States Legal Foundation is a nonprofit, public-interest legal foundation established in 1977. MSLF is dedicated to individual liberty, limited and ethical government, and Second Amendment rights. MSLF defends its clients through pro bono litigation, primarily against the federal government, in defense of constitutional liberties and the rule of law. With its litigation MSLF seeks victory for its clients at the highest level possible, establishment of binding legal precedents to benefit millions of Americans, and education of the American public on the threat to their liberties that unrestrained government presents.
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