Denver7’s Danielle Kreutter reports on the rocky rollout of Colorado’s new concealed‐carry rules under HB 24-1174, as sheriff’s offices and instructors scramble to implement eight hours of training, live‐fire drills, de-escalation lessons, and a controversial instructor database requirement.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Hoops of hell: Applicants now need eight hours of in-person instruction, live-fire drills, de-escalation training, and a crash course in every firearms law tweak from the last five years—because nothing says “protect your rights” like a state-mandated obstacle course.
- Panic mode: Instructors and sheriff’s offices report “confusion,” “panic,” and lines so long Weld County literally capped applications—1,500 in June vs. 600 typical. Chaos: achieved.
- Unfunded mandate alert: Local governments and volunteer instructors get stuck footing the bill to track, vet, and list every permit-holding teacher—despite a separate law banning such unfunded mandates. Litigation is already brewing. But constitutionality never matters to the left – only the ambiguity created with the passage of uncertain laws.
- Distraction tactics: Trainers warn the avalanche of new requirements may dilute actual firearm safety and tactics—turning serious self-defense education into a legislative checkbox exercise.
- Leftist theater: Supporters insist it’ll make us “more responsible,” but on day one it mostly made us more infuriated—exactly how the left likes it.
My Take
This isn’t about safety—it’s about control. Colorado’s legislature just rammed through an unfunded mandate that turns law-abiding gun owners into bureaucratic lab rats. Eight hours of state-dictated lectures and live-fire drills won’t stop criminals, but they will scare off the very citizens the Second Amendment was meant to protect. Meanwhile, county sheriffs and volunteer instructors get stuck managing the mess on their dime.
If the goal was to choke off concealed-carry permits and punish responsible Coloradans, mission accomplished. But here’s a revolutionary idea: respect the right to bear arms without turning permit seekers into paperwork junkies. Let’s stop this theater of the absurd—and remember: freedom doesn’t ask for permission, it demands respect.
