As we've detailed here at Bearing Arms, the new rules and regulations for concealed carry holders in Colorado has created confusion among law enforcement and gun owners, while also leading to a dire shortage of concealed carry instructors. To make matters worse, many of the instructors who have been verified to teach the new concealed carry training regime don't have agreements with local ranges, which makes it difficult if not impossible for them to teach and test the live-fire portion of the training.
While the new laws have caught some Coloradans off guard, the number of concealed carry applications began climbing ahead of the July 1 effective date. In fact, in a couple of counties authorities have seen triple-digit increases in the number of carry applicants.
Weld County, known for its conservative roots, saw applications rise more than 300% at the deadline as residents tried to obtain their permit under the previous, less-stringent guidelines.
"The responsibility of being a smart and trained gun owner has resonated with me," said Mike Benavidez of the Makhaira Group.
The Makhaira Group is one of Northern Colorado's most utilized firearms training organizations. Primarily operating out of Liberty Firearms Institute in Johnstown, Makhaira has been teaching advanced concealed handgun permit training courses in the region for years.
... Under the new law, first-time applicants in Colorado must be trained by sheriff-certified instructors, attend eight hours of in-person classroom training, pass a written test with an 80% score or better, fire at least 50 rounds with 70% shooting accuracy, and more.
"When July 1 happened, that changed everything," Benavidez said. "We have definitely seen a change in attitude in the students coming through our classrooms."
With the new law going into effect on July 1, many Colorado residents rushed to get their less-stringent training requirements completed and applications submitted through the sheriff's offices.
"On June 30, when I came to work, there was a line of people waiting to get into this building," said Weld County Sheriff's Capt. Matt Turner. "That has never happened before."
Turner says he noticed an increase in interest about two months before the new laws took effect, but in days leading up to July 1 the number of applicants skyrocketed.
It's not just Weld County. CBS Denver obtained data showing carry permit applications were up by 137% in Larimer County in the last month before the carry laws changed, and I suspect that was the cast in most, if not all, of the counties in Colorado.
"What it told me was people were worried. What it told me was people knew tomorrow, 'I won't have access to this the same way I did today,'" Turner said.
Turner and Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams have been outspoken critics of the bill from the start.
"Only because we don't favor anything that makes it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to have access to their Second Amendment rights," Turner said. "It delays access, it creates more fees. For some people, that may make it unattainable."
That's the primary reason why these new laws were put in place to begin with. Colorado Democrats couldn't point to a rise in crime or accidents involving concealed carry licensees, though they insisted that requiring a live-fire test will save lives.
“The data is clear - live-fire gun training can save lives,” said Majority Leader Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge. "States that have eliminated their live-fire training requirements to receive a concealed carry permit saw a 32 percent increase in gun assaults. With this lifesaving law going into effect, we’re ensuring that Coloradans with concealed carry permits are properly trained and educated on current laws, like Colorado's safe storage requirements, before they bring their firearm into their communities.”
That "study" came from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, and was authored in part by longtime gun control activists like Daniel Webster and Cassandra Crifasi. And while Democrats cited this junk study as reason to impose new requirements on Coloradans exercising their right to bear arms, they ignored the data that shows violent crime in the state climbed steadily upward even as Democrats imposed magazine bans, "red flag" laws, and a number of other gun control measures aimed at lawful owners.
Colorado's anti-gun politicians haven't taken a bite out of crime with their new concealed carry restrictions, nor have they quelled interest in bearing arms among lawful gun owners. To the contrary; there are now thousands more Coloradans lawfully carrying a concealed firearm than there were just a few months ago. The spike in applications may have subsided with the new restrictions coming into effect, but the anti-gunners in Denver have helped to create more long-term interest in the Second Amendment... which will hopefully lead to a new wave of 2A-centric voters replacing these anti-gun politicians with officeholders who actually respect our right to keep and bear arms.
