August 1st is the date. As of today — May 15th — we finally have the list.
Colorado’s Department of Revenue (yeah you read that right) published the official guidance document for SB25-003 today, naming the specific firearms that fall under the new “Specified Semiautomatic Firearms” (SSF) category. That’s the awkward bureaucratic label the state landed on to avoid the politically loaded “assault weapon” framing. Functionally, it’s the same thing.
An AI generated image that communicates how I feel about this law.
I already wrote at length about why this law is an infringement on the rights of law-abiding Coloradans when Governor Polis signed it. You can read that breakdown here. Short version: SB003 doesn’t ban anything outright, but it builds a permitting maze around the most popular sporting rifle in America and calls it “safety.”
What’s new is that we now know exactly what’s on the list, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife has released the customer-facing roadmap for how this is going to work in practice. Let’s go through both.
What’s on the SSF List
The state’s guidance document runs 152 pages and breaks into three categories: semiautomatic rifles with detachable magazines, semiautomatic shotguns with detachable magazines, and gas-operated semiautomatic pistols with detachable magazines.
If you’ve been paying attention, you can probably guess what dominates the list. The rifle section is roughly 90 pages of AR-pattern rifles — AR-15, AR-10, and AR-308 variants from just about every manufacturer that has ever stamped a lower. Add AK-pattern rifles, Beowulfs, Grendels, .22 LR variants built on AR platforms, pistol-caliber carbines on AR lowers, and any other Modern Sporting Rifle configuration you can think of. The state’s own document specifically calls out the AR platform as the target.
The shotgun section is shorter and catches a narrow category — detachable-magazine semiautos. Saiga-pattern shotguns, MKA 1919, BP-12 series, AR-style box-magazine shotguns, bullpup shotguns. Your Mossberg 500, Remington 870, Beretta 1301, Benelli M4, and every other traditional tube-fed pump or semiauto shotgun is not on this list.
The pistol section is the one most people will misread. It only catches gas-operated semiautomatic pistols with detachable magazines. That’s not your Glock, your Sig P320, your M&P, your CZ, or your 1911 — none of which are gas-operated. What it catches are AR and AK pistols (essentially short-barreled or pistol-braced AR/AK platforms) and a few specialty platforms like the B&T APC pistol family.
The practical takeaway: if it’s an AR or AK pattern — rifle, pistol, or shotgun configuration — assume it’s on the list. Bolt-action rifles, lever guns, traditional shotguns, and conventional handguns are not.
Two caveats worth flagging. First, the document is marked DRAFT and the state has said the list will be reviewed and updated before August 1st when the law goes into effect and again regularly after the law goes into effect. Translation: more models can be added later, including newly released firearms that meet the functional criteria. Don’t assume the list is static. Second, the law itself includes exemptions under 18-12-116(1)(d)(II) for rifles that don’t meet the functional definition — meaning featureless configurations and a small set of specifically exempt models can still be purchased outside the SSF process. The details are technical and the state’s own guidance is the place to confirm any specific build.
One more thing worth saying out loud: this law restricts purchase, not possession. If you already own an AR, an AK, or anything else on this list, nothing about your ownership changes on August 1st. The law looks forward.
How the Process Actually Works
CPW has published a step-by-step walkthrough of what a consumer has to do to legally purchase an SSF after August 1st. The whole system is built around a new state-run database that ties together four parties: the consumer, certified instructors, county sheriffs, and federal firearms licensees.
Here’s the flow:
- Create a profile on the new CPW Firearm Safety System website. The system checks whether you already have a hunter safety certification on file with Colorado.
- Visit your county sheriff’s office with your application, a valid state ID, and a completed background check. There’s a fee at this stage.
- Eligibility card. If you pass the background check, the sheriff issues you an eligibility card authorizing you to take the required training.
- Take the training. The course comes in two flavors. If you already have a Colorado hunter safety certification, you take the 4-hour Basic course. If you don’t, you take the 12-hour Extended course. Both must be taught by a state-verified, state-certified firearm safety instructor.
- Pass the course. Your instructor enters your test results into the state database.
- Go to your FFL. The retailer verifies your eligibility in the database, runs the standard CBI Instacheck, observes the mandatory 3-day holding period, and — if everything clears — you walk out with your SSF.
Your eligibility is good for five years. After that, the whole process resets and you start over.
One detail in the CPW guidance that isn’t fully clear yet: the customer journey assumes you walk into the sheriff’s office with a completed background check already in hand — but the materials don’t actually specify where you’re supposed to get that background check done first. Given that sheriff’s offices already run background checks for a whole list of other state licenses and permits, the most likely answer is that the background check ends up happening at the sheriff’s office anyway, as part of the same visit. But as of right now, that’s an inference, not an instruction. Expect this to get clarified before August 1st — or, more realistically, in the first few weeks after, once early applicants run into it.
A Few Things Worth Knowing
The Colorado Concealed Handgun Permit program has zero overlap with this. If you already hold a Colorado CCW, that doesn’t count for anything under SB003. The instructor certification for SSF safety courses is a completely separate state credential from the CCW instructor system. None of this changes how the CCW program works, and none of your CCW privileges transfer over. Two different programs, two different state divisions, no crosswalk.
The 5-year reset matters for planning. If you go through the process now and don’t make any SSF purchases for a few years, the clock keeps running. Budget for redoing the whole stack in 2031 if you want to keep your eligibility live.
What About Legal Challenges?
First, a clarification, because the headlines have been busy. The U.S. Department of Justice recently filed back-to-back federal lawsuits against the City of Denver and the State of Colorado over gun/magazine bans — and those filings have nothing to do with SB003. Different statutes, different ordinances, different legal theories. We covered the DOJ suits in detail here if you want the breakdown. Don’t conflate the two stories.
As for SB003 specifically: there will be lawsuits. Second Amendment legal organizations have been telegraphing action since Polis signed the bill, and I’d expect filings to ramp up between now and August.
Here’s the honest read, though: none of it is going to stop August 1st. Litigation moves slowly. Preliminary injunctions on Second Amendment challenges are hard to win, particularly in the Tenth Circuit, and Colorado courts have not been friendly venues for gun-rights plaintiffs in recent years. The legal fight matters for the long game. It does not change the calendar.
The Practical Takeaway
If you’ve been thinking about adding a carbine to the safe — an AR, an AK, an MSR of any flavor — buy it before August 1st. After August 1st, you can still buy one, but you’ll do it through the eligibility card, the training course, the sheriff’s office visit, the database, and the rest of the bureaucratic stack the state is building.
If you already own one, nothing changes for you.
If you want to be able to make SSF purchases after August 1st, start the process early. Pull your hunter safety records if you have them, schedule your sheriff visit, and get an eligibility card on file. The first few months are going to be a mess — instructor availability, sheriff capacity, database glitches — and being on the early side of that wave will matter.
I’ll keep updating this article as more details come out. Today is the first day we have the actual list, and that alone changes the conversation.
