Colorado Sheriffs Join NRA in Opposing Training Requirements

When law enforcement opposes some pro-gun measure, the anti-gunners will run with that stuff like they’re a combination of David Goggins and Usain Bolt: fast as hell and for days on end. But what happens when law enforcement groups don’t support a measure?

Well, that doesn’t seem to matter, then.

And in Colorado, it apparently doesn’t matter even more than normal, because sheriffs are opposing the new training mandate for modern sporting rifles.

Colorado’s gun control law that went into effect last week is receiving widespread pushback from many notable organizations in the state, including two county sheriffs’ offices.

And the National Rifle Association joined a lawsuit against the governor for enacting the bill, which requires purchasers of semiautomatic firearms and rapid-fire devices to get training and be certified for using the guns.

…

Pro-gun rights groups such as the Second Amendment Foundation and Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Gun Owners strongly opposed the bill on constitutional grounds. Relatedly, DCF Guns, Colorado’s largest gun store and range company, pledged $400,000 to fight the bill in court and reduce rates for its firearm safety class, which the new law requires for certain gun purchasers. 

…

Many county sheriffs’ offices, however, pushed back on the law’s implementation, either issuing a statement of disagreement while still participating in its enforcement, or disagreeing and refusing enforcement altogether. 

The latter is what the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office did just four days before the the law went into effect.

Sheriff Steven Nowlin issued a statement announcing his office “will not be participating in the management and issuance of the training certificate required through the mandated Colorado Parks and Wildlife program for any person to purchase or transfer a specified restrictive semiautomatic rifle, shotgun or handgun identified by the Colorado Department of Revenue as provided by Senate Bill 25-003 effective August 1, 2026.” 

Nowlin talked to The Center Square during an interview and noted laws are generally enacted to promote public safety and security. However, he did not feel that SB25-003 adequately does this, even if that were the intention. 

Nowlin also wrote in his online statement that he “swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the state of Colorado, and perform the duties of the Office of Sheriff in Colorado by protecting those rights for all citizens in Montezuma County.”

The Custer County Sheriff’s Office issued a similar statement on Aug. 11, posting a picture of Colorado’s Constitution, Article II, Section 13: the right to bear arms. Though he did agree to oblige with the bill’s implementation, Sheriff Lloyd Smith wrote in the post that he “did not take an oath to help the state erode those rights one requirement, one fee, and one bureaucratic hurdle at a time.”

Honestly, this is kind of absolute BS, only there’s no “kind of” about it.

Basically, in order to own the most popular model of long gun on the market today, you have to sit through a mandated training class, at your expense and burning through your time, all in an effort to make sure that you, the law-abiding citizen, have been granted permission to own such a deadly firearm.

Meanwhile, active shooters still prefer handguns, for the record.

With several sheriffs’ offices throughout the state denouncing the law, you’d think that anti-gunners might rethink the law since they think so highly of law enforcement opinions on such matters.

They don’t.

Shocking, I know, but here we are.

Look, I respect law enforcement. I just don’t care if a group of police chiefs think that some law that restores my rights makes their jobs harder. The truth is that our rights have a profound tendency to do just that. What do you think the Fourth Amendment does? That doesn’t change our right to be protected from unreasonable search and seizure, right?

I, unlike Everytown and Giffords, am consistent on this. It’s nice when they agree with me, but I honestly don’t lose anything when they don’t, because while I’m more than willing to support law enforcement, that support isn’t a suicide pact.

Yet they never seem to blink at that.

The reality, though, is that these sheriffs understand something the anti-gunners don’t. They understand that evil people will do evil things, and they don’t exactly need government permission in order to do them. Make it harder to get an AR-15? So what? They’ll either jump through the hoops or they won’t. If they don’t, though, there are still plenty of ways to murder innocent people in job lots.

That’s what many law enforcement officers get that the anti-gun jihadists don’t and won’t.

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

Help us continue to report on and expose the Democrats’ gun-grabbing schemes. Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.