Colorado high capacity magazine ban law
Courtesy KUSA TV

Gun stores all over Colorado are getting around or simply ignoring the state’s six-year-old magazine capacity limit law. 

Gee, it’s almost as if legislators who don’t know the first thing about the items they’re seeking to regulate create laws that don’t do what they intended.

Denver’s KUSA TV sent a reporter with a hidden camera around to gun stores around Colorado and found that so-called high capacity magazines are still widely available in the state. Some are sold as kits to take advantage of the law’s vague wording. And some are sold complete, in clear violation of the law.

What’s more, local law enforcement seems to have no interest in pressing the issue. Virtually the only time individuals are charged under the law is in combination with other, more serious offenses.

In the mean time, Coloradans who want 30-round (or more) magazines don’t seem have any problem getting them. That must make legislators like former Senate President John Morse, former Senator Angela Giron and former Senator Evie Hudak wonder why they risked (and lost) their jobs over the useless legislation.

As Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams put it . . .

That’s proof that you don’t need the law, and that’s been the proof since it was passed in 2013. This law, while it made some people feel like, ‘Hey, we’ve addressed the situation in Colorado,’ it’s wholly ineffective, which your video shows.

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73 COMMENTS

      • yes, it’s called white privilege.. not too mention you have to work to have money and money to purchase them..

        • I’m personally trying to rack up as much privilege as possible. I’ve already attained white privilege, male privilege, and gun privilege. Next I’m trying to attain wealth and get in on the rich privilege, then convert to Judaism so I can nab that ever sought after Jewish privilege liberals seem to hate. Then I figure I’ll be pretty much invincible.

        • Merle’s O,

          You are setting an example for the rest of us.
          But I am 50% Puerto Rican and 50% Jewish, so can I aspire only to 50% priviledge for each of those categories?

        • That’s a good question. We’ll probably have to look it up in a university approved manual on intersectionality.

        • No, Jack, you don’t have to work to have money.
          While many “assistance” programs work hard to ensure the money provided is only used for the items and purposes intended, others straight out give money (or debit cards) to people who don’t work.

        • Oh, Life…

          Not being a dispenser of privilege, you wouldn’t know to recall the “one drop rule.” Being 50 /50 makes you 100% of each, for privilege counting.

        • Guest, those two 50% can’t be added to make 100%, but you can have one parent from Puerto Rico and the second parent Jewish. Even though I don’t think it works this way. I believe the rule is if your mother is Jewish –> you are Jewish.

  3. Oddly enough, I’ve never had a problem acquiring them here in Commiefornia either. Freedom Week destroyed any enforcement of the law.

    • Exactly this.

      While I myself took full advantage of Freedom Week and backed up the truck, I know many are simply bringing in whatever they want from out of state now, as the simple possession of a 10+ rd mag is no longer illegal or considered probable cause for a search or arrest. So that entire conversation is now moot and swept under the rug.

      Ammo possession will be considered the same, as there’s absolutely no way to determine whether ammo (loose, removed from its original factory date-coded box) was obtained via CA’s horrendous BGC system or simply brought in from elsewhere. After all (and this is true, you can easily confirm this on CA’s DOJ site), any of your out-of-state friends and relatives are allowed to bring in as much as they want without restriction when they visit, and can “gift” you up to 50 rds. Of course, when they leave they’ll conveniently “forget” another 500 rounds on your coffee table for you to take care of.

        • Again, I myself have not done that, but as long as a vendor in another state will sell to you (and there’s no reason not to, since it would be legal to perform the sale in that jurisdiction), you can. It’s perfectly legal for a Californian to go to, say, Nevada and buy all the mags and ammo he/she wants. It’s NOT currently legal, however, to bring them back (import) to California.

          So if you drive to Las Vegas to meet with your brother who lives there, and you both drive back, he can’t bring (import) his 10+ rd mags, but he CAN bring as much of his own ammo as he wants, as long as it’s primarily for his own use. You, however, as a resident of our Golden State, are not allowed to bring any of that back, with very narrow exceptions for the ammo.

          Sux. Illogical. And nobody’s complying with it anyway.

        • not like California has its own border patrol or customs officers…and NEVER consent to have your vehicle searched…ever (advice from LEOs)

        • It is still technically illegal to possess 10+ mags, but the part of the law dealing with possession was declared unconstitutional and enforcement has been stayed (the law mandated that all 10+ mags previously grandfathered be turned in, destroyed, or sold out of state), so police cannot arrest you for possessing them. It is still illegal to sell or buy 10+ mags, except for the one week window after that law was declared unconstitutional and before the stay. The case is up on appeal. I suspect that the Ninth will wait to see if the Supreme Court declares a standard of review applicable to 2A cases in NYRPA v. NYC before it decides this one.

        • Yes.

          Because magazines are unregulated at a federal level, a person living in California or MA, or CT or NY or NJ can just drive to NH, RI, ME, PA, WV and buy a standard capacity magazine over the counter.

          So the law is effective against honest people who don’t own a car.

          Brilliant, eh??

        • “It’s perfectly legal for a Californian to go to, say, Nevada and buy all the mags and ammo he/she wants.”

          I had thought that a store that sold guns and ammo, right by the border, like they have legal bordellos mere feet from county lines with “dry” counties, would be a good business plan.

          More interesting though, yesterday I read that their bullet train from nowhere to nowhere in CA appeared to be morphing into a bullet train from the LA area (kinda) to Las Vegas. If they could actually get the train into downtown LA, they would really have a “bullet” train, paid for by the CA taxpayers.

  4. Its actually not that hard to find stuff that’s common. And you can always drive to Wyoming. But it has to be pretty common. 20 Rounder for my Zastava m77? I’ll pretty much never get that mag. The REAL big problem is that if a gun SHIPS with more than a 15 rounder, most companies will not even ship the weapon here. So unless the gun is SOLD with a 10 or 15 round option, i cant even order it. It almost makes certain guns illegal. The other problem is that they may sell mags, but every time I see Classic Firearms or another place have a 30 round Mag sale, I can’t get them to ship to CO, so i will not get them dirt cheap.

    I appreciate that local shops provide what I need. We just need internet sellers to ignore the same law.

    • I would never admit or actually do this (😉) but I would order online and send them to family in a legal state. They ship them here. Dirt cheap, just an additional shipping charge. It would especially work if your family had lived here prior, they could just be returning your property to you.

      • You can’t do that. If the billing or shipping address is in CO the sale will be denied online. I have found zero vendors that will work with you on this and I have looked hard.

        I tried to order mags as a present for my dad, to be delivered to NM. I couldn’t order them. Eventually I wrote my mom a check and had her order them because with a CO billing address mags over 15 rounds were not available for order at all, regardless of shipping address.

        It’s easier to just use a LGS. On the West Side of the Denver Metro I recommend Westminster Arms (ironically located in Arvada). They’ll get you what you need. I’ve bought things from them that come with the standard mags. On the East Side I recommend Soruth Platte Tactical in Hudson. The owner’s a good guy.

        • Gunmagwarehouse.com only requires an out of state shipping address. Brownells requires both.

          I gifted an out of state buddy of mine that just got patrol rifle certified with some equipment for his rifle from gun mag warehouse. Transaction went through with no problem, plus they have great pricing!

        • I had that same problem with Bud’s. I tried to order a purse gun for my daughter that was on sale for a great price, but Bud’s would not sell even though she lives in Ohio because my address was in California, and the gun was not on the California roster. They blamed it on their computer system, saying that it automatically defaults to billing address and you can’t change it. I haven’t had that problem with any other internet gun seller so far.

        • If someplace cares about billing addresses, either get a card at the out of state address (or change the address of an existing card), or use a prepaid card, which doesn’t have an address. Problem solved. Also, the prosecutor has to prove you received the magazine after July 1, 2013. Unless it’s plastic with a date coded mold mark or a magazine that didn’t exist prior to then, they don’t have proof. Even with a plastic mag, you could argue that they didn’t prove you didn’t replace a cracked body on an existing mag. They further castrated the law trying to appease Magpul, who promptly gave them the finger and moved to WY and TX. You can manufacture magazines (as long as you mark them as made after 7/13) for sale out-of-state or to excluded agencies, but there’s no time requirement in the law. I could have a large stock of properly marked artesianally crafted 100-round AR mags for sale at $1k a piece, but the demand doesn’t seem to meet my projections, so I continue to possess them.
          As of August, 104 were charged with violating, and 6 were convicted, but almost all stem from other crimes (simple possession is a misdemeanor, possession while committing a felony is a class 6 felony). I don’t know how many of the 6 were pleas v. verdicts.

        • That’s interesting. Gunmagwarehouse denied my transactions, but were nice enough to explain why right up front.

          I wonder if they changed that policy.

          • That’s interesting. I did it approximately 6 months ago for a buddy of mine in FL that lateraled onto a department down there. Haven’t bought anything since. Definitely a bummer since it sounds like they changed their policy!

  5. Old new stock? In 94 I bought pistol mags of more than 10 rounds that were 2 or 3 years old and maybe older as in mags for mil surplus.

    • Newsom literally ran his gubernatorial campaign last November with the slogan #RESIST. So I guess he, as the leader of a State, can pick and choose which laws he wants to follow, but the unwashed masses are not.

      Anyone remember his bold declaration a decade ago about gay marriage “is now here, whether ya like it or not!”??? That was during the time that gay marriage was not yet recognized by SCOTUS, and our CA Prop 8 upholding traditional marriage had been approved by popular vote. But he ignored it anyway.

      So the question, POTG in CA, do we follow his lead and choose which gun control laws we will observe, and which ones we’ll refuse to comply with?

      • “So the question, POTG in CA, do we follow his lead and choose which gun control laws we will observe, and which ones we’ll refuse to comply with?”

        Now, this is real easy for me to say, not living in that legal shithole, but Leftists consider it a ‘civic duty’ to ignore laws they feel are morally wrong.

        If they give you any shit about it, point out their hypocrisy and go about your business.

        Now, good luck trying that on a Leftist California judge, but that angle just *might* work on a jury in a conservative area, where your peers on the jury think like you do…

      • I think you overlooked that the California Supreme Court struck the proposition, and that Newsom’s declaration was as a result of that decision.

        • Not at all, Mark.

          Prop 8 was passed by CA voters in 2008. Newsom then famously defied it with his public statement that same year, in 2008.

          Prop 8 was overturned by judicial review in Aug 2010, two years later.

          ****
          My timeline in my earlier comment above is correct.

    • 👍 The big law abiding majority realized they were suckers. The empire has lost the respect and now are in the process of losing the consent of the governed.

  9. They used to have a law against making alcohol. They called it “Prohibition.” It did not work our too good.

    • “…it did not work OUT too WELL.”

      Sorry, but my grammar OCD kicked in when I saw your mangled Engrish.

    • You could actually manufacturer small amounts of certain alcoholic beverages for self consumption, but it was the commercial wholesale and distribution that was largely outlawed by the volkstad act.

  10. The ATF has issued a statement that they just simply do not have the Manpower to enforce these laws and I’m sure they are getting a little if any support out of local law enforcement, this was issued after the bump stock ban, or if there ever was one, they are still for sale….TRUMP !!!

  11. 5:21 – “I know what you were intending to do…”
    Yes senator, you were trying to subvert the 2nd amendment.

  13. It’s been an open secret for years. Some online retailers – Badger Mountain Outdoors for example – even sell the disassembled “repair kits” to us online. The police union testified in 2013 when the bill was in committee that the law would be unenforceable and as such if passed they would make no attempt to enforce it. Definition of “do something” useless legislation

  14. Didn’t the SCOTUS just rule in a case that the AR-15 and the most common magazine for it, the 30 round size, were legal according to the US Constitution/2nd Amendment? That line from the Heller decision about ‘commonly used’, and the AR-15 being one of the most common in America. It seems o me the Colorado Law is there by unconstitutional. Seems to me there are several states in the same boat.

  15. Colorado State Supreme Court is hearing arguments for repeal tomorrow. The argument for repeal is simple: the way the law is written, a de facto ban could be implemented, therefore the law is unjust. Hopefully we get it changed.

    To side note the actual article, almost every shop in the state (other than big box) will sell “kits”. Disassembled mags for “parts”. Works.

  16. “Virtually the only time individuals are charged under the law is in combination with other, more serious offenses.”

    This is a very important point. Just like the Federal GFSZA, they are terrified to allow a case with a sympathetic defendant, because they KNOW it would be ruled unconstitutional.

    NYSRPA is coming.

  17. I’m not a fan of ambush journalism nor poke the monkey articles that don’t let sleeping dogs lie. However, this lack of compliance to the law or to the spirit/intent (assumed) is a fine example of We The People resisting tyranny AND throwing knee jerk politicians out of Office. Politicians know this issue is deadly to their career asperations but there remains great potential full enforcement or continued cherry picking applications. The anti-gun politicians won’t address “loopholes” for fear of getting recalled. The Pro gun politicians won’t touch it as every time there’s a mass shooting of any type they will be blamed and bashed for it. So there it sits and the only thing the law really did was give MAGPUL great cause to move out of Colorado.

    Last point is politicians don’t know shit about the firearms/accessories that they attempt to restrict. Circumventing a law is not breaking a law. The buzzword “loophole” is all to often inferred as an “illegal act” but it is not. The term loophole is in fact aligned with legal and can be interchanged without any loss of content meaning.

  19. Sure, you might be able to obtain those mags now, but once they are out of ammunition, they won’t work anymore! Isn’t that how the law is supposed to operate?

  20. Is it just me and my dyslexia or arn’t all laws unconstitutional that curtail an individual’s right to bear arms? Don’t trust no backwoods politicians.

  21. Well I’m not surprised by any of this. It’s absurdly EZ buying verbotten magazines as an ILLinois resident in Indiana(God’s country). Same for knives. If a weenie at Cabelas won’t sell me an assisted knife some other shop WILL. Same for 60-100 round mags. Good luck Colorado!

    • Colorado did get fully automatic knives legalized in 2017, although still not allowed on federal property and some cities.

  23. I’ve heard Cali is getting sneaky about their new ammo restrictions. I’ve heard the CHP takes runs thru the parking lots of neighboring NV cities’ gun shows using their license plate readers, looking for CA plates. When those same plates are read coming back, they find a reason to pull over the vehicles. Not sure how they justify any search for ammo, or how they prove you bought it there. Probably mostly harrassment

  24. I’m glad to watch from a distance people trade their Liberty (guns) for legalized drugs sexual liberation.

  26. Colorado stands as an example of what an exodus of wealthy Californians can do to their new home. Florida is rapidly filling with New York and New Jersey gun grabbers and Texas is too. Its an infestation no different than how rodents bring diseases. Its the Republican governors of these states that are looking for growth in their states despite the damage these new people will inflict by their progressive minds and hatred of the second amendment. In less than a decade Texas and Florida will become communist states, reflective of the newly planted who bring the destruction with them.

    • Yes, sadly you are spot on. I’ve told my wife next time I move it will not be within Florida. Over 900 people a day are moving to Florida. We’re sunk.

  27. Right after the CO 15+ magazine law went into effect, I bought a Glock 17. Murdock’s had quit carrying G17s, but continued to sell most of the Glock line that came with <=15 round magazines. So, I went to a small gun shop in the neighborhood that sold me the G17 with three disassembled 17 round magazines in sealed plastic bags. I had all 3 magazines assembled before I left the parking lot.

  28. Notice the surprised look on Field’s face when she is shown the video.
    This is what happens when pols surround themselves with “yes people.” “Yes, what you wanted done is being done. And it works.”
    The idea of actually checking to see what the results really are is a foreign concept to those who expect their authority to be followed unquestioningly. It never enters their thoughts that their edicts wouldn’t be followed.
    When they are shown that their policies not only aren’t being followed, but are actually harmful, they are Shocked! Shocked, I say!
    This isn’t limited to Dems, either. Pols who are too impressed with their own power are far too often willfully ignorant of what they are doing.

  29. Actually, you guys missed the point. Its to cause aggravating circumstances for charges so a person who shoots someone with a 15 round clip goes to jail for longer thna a person who shoots someone with a 10 round clip.

    Yes, I said clip, get over it.

    What this basically means is that for identical crimes, one person is imprisoned longer.

    These laws, often called rider charges, are clearly a workaround means for the constitutional limitation requiring that all people are treated equally by the law for crimes committed.

    its blatantly an abusive law as are other rider charges.

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