Last month, on May 13, the Colorado State Legislature officially adjourned sine die for the 2026 regular session. Lawmakers have wrapped up their work for the year, meaning all pending bills that failed to pass are officially dead for the term.
While it was a highly active year for anti-sportsmen rhetoric in the Centennial State, our community secured defensive victories, a pro-sportsmen win, and a couple of losses.
Defensive Victories:
- Defeated: HB 26-1323, “Wildfire Resiliency Prohibiting Taking of Beavers,” would have made it illegal to wound or kill (take) a beaver on any public land in Colorado for sport, recreation, or the commercial trade of fur and pelts. This bill was postponed indefinitely in committee.
- Defeated: SB 26-043, “Record Keeping & Regulation of Sale of Firearm Barrel,” sought to mandate that independent firearm barrels be transferred through Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) while establishing a five-year state registry of these components. The bill threatened to criminalize routine maintenance for hunters and sportsmen, such as switching barrels, by requiring in-person FFL transfers and creating a paper trail.
- Success: Withdrawal of Problematic CPW Nominees: In a major win for sportsmen, two controversial nominees for the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) Commission, John Emerick and Chris Sichko, withdrew their nominations after the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee voted against their confirmation. Note: On June 3, Governor Polis announced three new appointments, who will serve on the commission starting with their first meeting on July 16 – 17, before facing the Senate confirmation process held in the 2027 legislation session:
- Dr. Peter Maguire, a veterinary neurologist in Grand Junction,
- Rebecca Niemiec, a tenured associate professor at Colorado State University’s Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources in Fort Collins, and
- Johnny Le Coq, a founder of a fly fishing business who owns and lives on a ranch north of Silverthorne.
Pro-Sportsmen Win Signed into law on May 27.
- SB 26-141, the Wildlife Collision Prevention Act, creates an optional $5.00 fee during motor vehicle registrations to fund projects to build wildlife overpasses, underpasses, and high-tech fencing to reduce vehicle accidents involving animals.
Anti-Sportsmen Bills Signed into Law on June 3 and take effect on August 12, 2026.
- HB 26-1302 removes the state mandate that required the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Firearms InstaCheck Unit to operate for at least 12 hours a day. This allows the bureau to set its own hours, and bureaucratic discretion can now be leveraged to create artificial operational delays for law-abiding sportsmen seeking background checks.
- HB 26-1126, an “FFL-Killer” bill, overhauls state-level “industry standards” for FFLs, and includes:
- Requiring a state permit for a dealer to transfer firearms, not merely to conduct the business of dealing.
- Expanding mandatory training requirements for dealers and their employees.
- Implementing costly mandatory security requirements at the dealers’ expense. The security plan submission for dealers is October 1, 2027.
- Expanding record-keeping obligations to cover all firearm transactions, shifting the emphasis away from only pistols and revolvers.
- Fines for violations can reach up to $100,000 for a dealer’s second or subsequent violations. This takes effect on January 1, 2027.
You can review our complete list of monitored bills via our Interactive Legislative Map.
Why We Must Stay Vigilant
Adjournment means the formal session is over, but the threats to our outdoor heritage do not vanish. Anti-hunting organizations use the off-season to fundraise, draft even harsher legislation, and lobby lawmakers at local community events.
We need you to stay engaged, keep your boots on the ground, and remain ready to mobilize at a moment’s notice. Please share this message with fellow sportsmen and urge them to join you and the Sportsmen’s Alliance in protecting and defending our way of life in the Centennial State.
The Sportsmen’s Alliance guarantees hunting, fishing, and trapping for the American sportsman now and forever. We’re there when sportsmen need us most. We are the only organization specifically created to protect the individual hunter, angler, and trapper – no matter the threat. We will never compromise when it comes to defending our way of life in the courts, in the legislatures, in the public square and at the ballot box. We make this promise to the American sportsman: we will never give up and never give in while proudly securing our future against those seeking to destroy our values, beliefs, and traditions.
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