In 2023, Colorado passed a comprehensive law prohibiting untraceable guns, known as ghost guns, and regulating the sale and possession of parts used to make them.1
Ghost Gun Parts and Kits
As of January 1, 2024, it will be illegal for a person to knowingly possess or transport, or sell, offer to sell, transfer, or purchase, an unfinished frame or receiver.
An “unfinished frame or receiver” is defined as any forging, casting, printing, extrusion, machined body, or similar article that has reached a stage in manufacture when it may readily be completed, assembled, or converted to be used as the frame or receiver of a functional firearm; or that is marketed or sold to the public to become or be used as the frame or receiver of a functional firearm once completed, assembled, or converted.
The law makes an exception for unfinished frames and receivers that are required by federal law to be serialized and are serialized. If federal law does not require an unfinished frame or receiver to be serialized, then it is generally illegal in Colorado. Certain transfers and categories of federally licensed firearms dealers are exempt from these prohibitions.
Fully Manufactured Ghost Guns and Frames/Receivers
Also as of January 1, 2024, it will be illegal for a person to knowingly possess, purchase, transport, or receive, or sell, offer to sell, or transfer, a firearm or frame or receiver of a firearm that is not imprinted with a serial number. Similar exceptions to the prohibition against ghost gun parts and kits apply. It will also be illegal to use a a three-dimensional printer, a frame or receiver of a firearm.
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- Colo. Rev. Stat. § 18-12-111.5 et seq.[↩]