Colorado will be allowed to implement a permit-to-purchase scheme for modern semiautomatic firearms after a federal judge refused Wednesday to grant an injunction.
Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed legislation in April 2025 that required individuals seeking to purchase a modern semiautomatic firearm, including an AR-15 rifle, to obtain a firearms-safety-course eligibility card and complete an approved firearms safety course within five years. The National Rifle Association and the Mountain States Legal Foundation supported litigation filed by the Colorado State Shooting Association on behalf of several members, who sought a preliminary injunction to prevent the law's implementation from Senior United States District Judge William Joseph Martinez of the District of Colorado, an Obama appointee. Martinez denied the request, saying the Second Amendment didn't cover modern semiautomatic firearms. (RELATED: Gun-Rights Group Asks Supreme Court To Put Blue State's Gun Ban Appeal On Ice)
BREAKING: CSSA and the individual plaintiffs in Del Toro v. Polis have filed a motion for preliminary injunction asking a federal court to temporarily block SB25-003’s permit-to-purchase requirements.
— Colorado State Shooting Association (@CSSA1926) August 12, 2026
Colorado had roughly 16 months to build this system. In several counties, the… pic.twitter.com/C3NuqDWcpJ
"Plaintiffs have not successfully shown, however, that the 'arms' regulated by Section Two—[specified semiautomatic firearms]—are covered by the Second Amendment, as required under Bruen step one," Martinez claimed in his opinion.
Martinez also argued that since Colorado's permit-to-purchase scheme was "shall issue," it was constitutional.
The permit legislation passed after being changed from an outright ban on so-called "assault weapons" that passed in other Democratic-controlled states like California, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts.
Firearms sales surged in the weeks and months before the disputed law went into effect, with over 6500 requests for background checks pending at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI), as of July 28, the Pikes Peak Courier reported. Due to Colorado's three-day waiting period, July 28 was the last day Coloradans could buy modern semiautomatic firearms without going through the process mandated by the new law.
A 152-page draft document featured hundreds of photos of modern semi-automatic firearms, some of which have been out of production for decades, as examples of the guns to be regulated under the law.
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