By Gabby Easterwood | KDVR Fox31
LONGMONT, Colo. (KDVR) — A portion of House Bill 24-1353 has gone into effect as of July 1, and firearm dealers say it’s just another burden for their businesses.
The portion taking effect requires firearm dealers to have a state permit. Lawmakers have said the goal of the bill is to crack down on illegal firearm sales. Part of the law went into effect in 2024, and the final part went into effect starting in July, requiring that firearm dealers have a state firearms dealer permit, where they must hold a federal firearms license and other requirements.
But firearm dealers like Rod Brandenburg, owner of Grandpa’s Pawn and Gun, say it’s just another unnecessary hoop they have to jump through.
“They’re putting a huge burden on us and they can enforce these regulations to put us out of business,” Brandenburg said.
With this new required state permit, each employee has to submit a set of fingerprints and complete a training course. They have eight days to get the necessary fingerprints done for grandpa’s employees and other firearm stores. Brandenburg says there is confusion on where the vendors are for this requirement and the eight days is really more like four with the upcoming holiday. The permit also costs $400.
“It’s redundancy, it’s a huge burden on us. It’s an all-of-a-sudden burden. Here we are smack dab in the middle of summer and you give us eight days to get all this administrative work done and there’s the Fourth of July in all of that,” he said.
Local sheriff’s offices are frustrated, too, claiming it’s creating congestion at offices. Meanwhile, some, like the Larimar County Sheriff’s Office, took to social media saying it isn’t an approved vendor for dealer fingerprinting. The state does have a list of those vendors online.
All of this, continuing what Brandenburg says is an overarching theme of an over-regulated industry.
“We are in an over-regulated industry already. I don’t know of another industry that has so many hoops to jump through. It’s the feds, it’s the state, it’s the local sheriff’s office, it’s the local police,” he said.
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