Crossing the state line from Wyoming into Colorado means crossing into a stricter, confusing patchwork of gun regulations that Wyomingites need to be cautious about when selling firearms to their friends to the south, a former U.S. Attorney for Wyoming said on Thursday.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
By Mark Heinz<\/p>\n\n\n\n Crossing the state line from Wyoming into Colorado means crossing into a stricter, confusing patchwork of gun regulations that Wyomingites must be cautious about when selling firearms to their friends to the south, a legal expert said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think a dealer would be well advised to not sell ARs to people from Boulder. In fact, I would hesitate to sell a gun to any Colorado resident since they have other weird laws, like banning \u2018high-capacity\u2019 magazines,\u201d said Christopher Crofts of Cheyenne, the former U.S. Attorney for the District of Wyoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Federal statute prohibits knowingly selling a firearm to someone from a place where that firearm would be illegal, Crofts told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even so, Ryan Allen, owner of Frontier Arms in Cheyenne, told Cowboy State Daily that the primacy of federal regulations regarding what\u2019s legal and what isn\u2019t still covers him from potential blowback over local regulations in Colorado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If somebody takes a firearm bought in Wyoming into a Colorado area where municipal regulations restrict it, \u201cthat\u2019s on them, not on me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He cautions his customers from the Centennial State to be keenly aware that what they buy legally in Wyoming might not be legal in their hometowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, restrictions on AR-15s in Boulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was implemented in response to a March 22, 2021, mass shooting at a King Soopers supermarket in Boulder that left 10 people dead, Crofts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a grandfather clause for people in Boulder who owned AR-15s before the ban, but they have to register those firearms, Allen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to private sales across the state line, Wyomingites would do well to cover their behinds, Allen said. Colorado residents buying guns here should go through a background check before taking possession of the firearm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAccording to the laws in Colorado, even for private purchases, you have to go through a background check,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s not a requirement for gun sales or trades between private parties in Wyoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, there\u2019s a chance that a private seller from Wyoming could get into hot water by selling a gun to somebody from Colorado without a background check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For instance, many gun shows in Wyoming allow private sales between individuals at the event. Allen advises Wyomingites to ask for potential buyers\u2019 identification at gun shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou see a lot of Colorado license plates in the parking lots at those Wyoming gun shows,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the buyer is from Colorado, the next best step would be to ask a licensed firearms dealer to run a background check on the buyer, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are usually licensed dealers at gun shows. Or, Allen said, folks are welcome to stop by his shop to run the background check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s a chain of possession involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The dealer can take possession of the firearm from the seller, run a background check and, if the buyer passes, the dealer can transfer possession to the buyer, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Allen added that he won\u2019t pass handguns directly to Colorado residents. And he cautioned other Wyomingites against doing the same, because of regulations regarding the transfer of handguns across state lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, if a Colorado customer buys a handgun from his store, Allen said he\u2019ll have it shipped to a licensed firearm dealer in Colorado and the customer can pick it up there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Colorado Regulations A Confusing Patchwork<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Things got confusing in Colorado after that state\u2019s legislature did away with \u201cpreemption\u201d regarding firearms regulations, Mark Jones of Buffalo, spokesman for Gun Owners of America (GOA), told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Preemption prohibited municipalities from passing gun control measures not authorized by the state of Colorado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNow it is possible to have a wide variety of local restrictions,\u201d Jones said. \u201cFor example, some municipalities restrict common magazine capacities often carried throughout Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s not a problem in Wyoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFortunately, GOA supported efforts to clarify Wyoming statutes in the 2023 legislative session to strengthen preemption here. Local authorities cannot pass gun control not authorized by the Wyoming Legislature,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBack to Colorado \u2014 the removal of preemption creates a real problem for Colorado citizens and people who travel. In our view, these local restrictions are unconstitutional as well,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that elimination of preemption in Colorado loops back to the potentially dicey nature of selling guns to Colorado residents, Crofts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat Boulder law, of course, came from the King Soopers shooting. Originally it was overturned because Colorado had a law that banned local jurisdictions from passing laws more stringent than the state law. It is said that the state law \u2018preempted\u2019 local law,\u201d he said. \u201cBut after the publicity of that event, the courts of Colorado allowed Boulder\u2019s ban to take effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how it could work unless they built a \u2018wall\u2019 around Boulder, but it is the law and it had so much publicity it would be hard for a Wyoming dealer to claim ignorance, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, that might put Boulder at odds with the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think the last big Supreme Sourt case, the Gruen or Bruen case, made it clear that ARs may not be banned per the Second Amendment, but lower courts have been regularly thumbing their noses at the Supreme Court on that issue and upholding the bans,\u201d Crofts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think there is a case in the pipeline now that will settle that, but New York and California and Colorado and a few others may ignore it too,\u201d he added. \u201cGun law is a strange and ever-changing thing now, and I feel sorry for people trying to follow law that can be so unpredictable and changeable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given the state of Colorado\u2019s gun regulations, Jones said Wyomingites should be careful about even bringing their own firearms there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWyoming citizens have to be careful traveling into Colorado,\u201d Jones said. \u201cSome of the standard weapons that are legal here might not be in some Colorado towns. I’m not aware of a good clearinghouse for all the local laws, but I know it tends to be worse in the I-25 Corridor. Most of the Plains and West Slope haven’t embraced these restrictions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is a nice showcase on the Californiaization of Colorado, and to be aware that if you travel into Colorado you could be running afoul of local laws banning firearms and magazines as its a hodgepodge of confusion. Consequently, it’s also a wonderful example of all that is right in Wyoming and probably why I’m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wyoming"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6019,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6018\/revisions\/6019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Gun](\"https:\/\/cowboystatedaily.imgix.net\/gun-shop-9-6-22-scaled.jpg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&q=75&auto=format%2Ccompress\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nNo ARs In Boulder<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Run That Background Check<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t Hand Over Handguns<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
A \u2019Wall\u2019 Around Boulder?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Thumbing Their Noses\u2019 At SCOTUS<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Have Gun, Will Travel \u2014 With Caution<\/h4>\n\n\n\n