that are set to go into effect in Colorado on Sunday will institute a three-day waiting period for purchases and make it easier for victims and their families to sue gun manufacturers and dealers.
The laws, passed by the legislature in April, were among several gun-violence prevention measures signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis this year. Lawmakers also passed a bill expanding the state’s red-flag law, which has already taken effect, plus a fourth measure that generally will require a person to be 21 or older to buy a gun. A federal judgealso was passed and signed into law this spring, though some provisions won’t take effect until Jan. 1.
Like the minimum age measure, the waiting period law — which requires that at least three days pass between when someone purchases a firearm and when they take possession — was immediately challenged in court by the gun rights advocacy group Rocky Mountain Gun Owners. In August, a federal judge declined to block it from going into effect because the gun group hadn’t demonstrated it had been harmed.
The group has since dropped its lawsuit, but RMGO executive director Taylor Rhodes told The Denver Post this week that he planned to purchase a firearm after the law takes effect Sunday, triggering the statutory delay. He then plans to refile the lawsuit, he said. When Polis signed the bills in the spring, he said they would make Colorado safer and that residents “deserve to be safe in our communities, in our schools, in our grocery stores, in our nightclubs.”as Democrats’ majority control over the legislature allows them to more easily pass the measures.