Now that the Supreme Court has agreed to address bans on “assault weapons,” I think there’s a very good chance that those bans will have been deemed unconstitutional this time next year.
We know that the gun control lobby isn’t just going to accept defeat, anymore than they did when “may issue” concealed carry permitting schemes were struck down in Bruen four years ago. States like New York, New Jersey, and Hawaii responded to the fact that they could no longer deny permits to almost everyone who applied by making it impossible for anyone with a permit to carry to actually do so in most publicly accessible places. California not only expanded the number of “sensitive places,” but allowed localities to jack up the application fee to supposedly cover the real cost of processing an application, which has led to some jurisdictions charging $1,000 or more to obtain a permit.
So what will the anti-gunners do if and when bans on “assault weapons” are struck down? I think the gun control lobby’s fallback position will be to require a permit-to-purchase so-called assault weapons; a policy that was adopted by Democrats in Colorado last year and is set to take effect in just a few weeks on August 1.
Though the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department will be the agency that generally oversees the permitting process, the first step for buyers will be to obtain an “eligibility card” from a law enforcement agency.
During a March CPW Commission meeting, Rio Blanco County Sheriff’s Office Operational Officer Jeremy Muxlow warned that the administrative responsibility of reviewing background checks, going through applications and verifying approved training courses could become a problem for small offices.
“For a large urban agency with massive staff, maybe that’s manageable. For small rural sheriff’s offices, such as ours, covering thousands of square miles with limited deputies, it’s a serious burden,” he told commissioners. “Policies created in rooms like this will eventually become the problems sheriff deputies have to deal with.”
At the sheriff’s office, a buyer will need to provide a name-based background check and identification card for that application to get processed. The sheriff will collect a $52 fee for CPW and any additional fee for administrative costs, depending on the county. Weld County, for example, decided not to impose a sheriff’s fee, while Adams County plans to charge $50 for county residents and $100 for people outside the county.
“Our demand is probably going to go be pretty high, but we don’t know what that looks like, if it’s going to be a couple weeks (after Aug. 1), six months, or if it’s going to be in flux since these cards are good for five years,” Adams County Sgt. Shea Haney said. “We have no idea, so we’re preparing for a large influx when this happens, and we’re just going to be flexible in that process.”
Once you have your eligibility card in hand, you then need to take a state-approved training course. If you’ve already completed a Hunter Education course within the last five years, you’ll have to undergo a 4-hour training session. If not, the state mandates a 12-hour course, which includes live-fire training and a written test; both of which require applicants to score at least 90% in order to pass.
Once you have both your eligibility card and training certificate in hand, you can then proceed to your local gun shop to purchase some of the most popular firearms on the market today.
We may see states that currently have outright bans make some tweaks to Colorado’s scheme; higher application fees and things like psychological testing (already required for concealed carry permits in some California counties), character references, and longer training requirements to name just a few.
That would still be an improvement over outright bans on sales and possession, but it would also be ripe for abuse… and future lawsuits as well. We’ll be carefully watching and covering the rollout of Colorado’s permit-to-purchase scheme, because something similar could soon be coming to a state near you.
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