Gun Laws - In Colorado (Fort Collins, Boulder: how much, lawyer, where to live)

[guppie]

Hi all,

We are seriously looking at moving to either Ft. Collins, Loveland, or Greeley within the next 1-2 years. I am a pretty enthusiastic hunter and am wondering what the local gun laws are like. Do you have to register your firearms?? What about handguns? Can you carry in plain view, in your car, or concealed?? Any info would be much appreciated. I don't think it would make that big of an impact on our decision, unless the law was no guns at all, which I know is not true. Thanks again.

[california bullrider]

chek these link out.........http://csp.state.co.us/faq.cfm?Section_ID=14 (broken link)

[Christian11]

Hey man!

I am from out of state as well, but I have done some real good research on teh CO gun laws, as I would NEVER move to a place like California or Massachussetss is the gun laws were unfriendly. Hell no.

Here is the basic run down (please note, this is NOT legal advice and I am not a lawyer and this is what I read in a gun law book): To carry a concealed weapon, you must have a permit. To get one, it is not too bad, but I am not 100% sure how much discretion the sheriff has. Larimer county sheriff seems pretty cool (that is the Fort Collins sheriff). On the other hand, liberal Boulder must have a pretty yucky anti-gun sheriff.

Now you can have handguns properly stored in your car pretty much at all times for lawful use.

Hunting seems REALLY nice in CO, as it mantains a strong western state tradition. I have worried, however, as some qucks from California (no offense, but you know who I am talking about) can try to push for changes or sue and use the courts to force laws to be created by activist judges how they want it.

Ok, here are the links. Check for yourself, and remember that the ONLY person who can really tell you about gun laws is a lawyer, and again I am not and you know that I am just saying what I read on a book. Do not follow my advice or anything!

http://wildlife.state.co.us/

http://www.gunlaws.com/links/linksco.htm --> this is where I read CO gun info from.

http://cbi.state.co.us/ic/statutes/18-12-203.htm --> How to get a permit to pack heat.

http://www.packing.org/state/colorado/ (broken link) --> useful site on concealed weapons.

Hope some of this helps. Let me know if you see anything else on the gun laws that is worth noting.

[california bullrider]

yes the qucks from California. but also Oregon and Washington are similar its mostly Hollywood and the coastal areas of California that have the liberal voters. you go inland and its mostly western. cowboys, ranchers, hunter types but we still got the bull **** laws to fallow. i got into a fist fight at a bar and they took my gun rights away. the federal gov. says its OK for me to Owen a gun but the state told me try back in 10 years and good luck. thats one of the many reasons i want the hell out ca.

[Christian11]

I feel bad for what happened to you, CA Bullrider. These states with bad gun laws suck. FL is very good on the gun laws, so I cannot complain about it here, but CO is nice too.

Make sure you VOTE when you move to CO to keep the un law friendlies in office. Beauprez seems like a good pick (NRA endorsed).

Oh and Greely is INFESTED with illegal aliens (that is what I heard when I was in the Loveland/Fort Collins area in March 2006). Gangs and crap there, so stay away from Greely!!

[City Girl]

I don't understand why anyone other than an officer of the law would need to carry a weapon on him at all times or in public period. I can understand hunting and taking your gun out hunting, but why do you need a gun on you other than that? Are you constantly in danger? Is the wild life attacking you? Are there people trying to kill you? Please enlighten me.

[Mike from back east]

This is a political topic, subject to strong emotions. All posters please keep our rules in mind about not letting political or religious topics get overheated and sink into flame wars or namecalling, etc. The only thing we attack in city-data (or respectable debates) are the ideas, not the speaker of the idea. No further warnings will be given.

I have mixed emotions about the "firearm debate" as it exists in our nation, but will save my page-long point of view for the national debate, a debate that will not be conducted here in the Colorado forum. Anyone wishing to debate national or broadly-based gun issues is hereby cautioned to take that debate to the Other Topics forum, and have at it with full logic. For example, the desire to or need to carry a concealed deadly weapon belongs in the national debate in Other Topics, but for this forum we need to only discuss if "concealed carry" is permitted in Colorado and under what conditions. Truly esoteric discussions of guns (or cars, or fishing, or health, or dogs, or global warming or politics or religion or....) belongs at websites catering to that topic, not on city-data, where we cater to discussing where to live and why we like or don't like it here.

The only discussion I'll allow here is on the topic of Colorado-specific gun laws and how to comply with state laws. Anyone who strays from this edict will find themselves restricted, or banned forever, depending on the infraction.

Thank you.
s/Mike

[City Girl]

Thank you Mike. I didn't realize and I apologize for asking those questions on the wrong board.

[Christian11]

As for the guns, our discussion on the forum was cut off! I am sorry I was not aware this was not the place. My bad, Mike.

Wildlife can be wild (LOL) in certain areas, so it is a good idea to pack. It is each individual's job to know what is right and wrong for themselves. Plus it is pointless to get into "heated debates" online anyway.

Chris11

[Mike from back east]

Actually, the discussion on gun LAWS in Colorado wasn't cut off, it may continue on until the topic is exhausted. The topic of state gun laws can be done in all 50 state forums, as that is a reasonable topic for people who are considering a move to another state.

What I asked for was the issue of "why" do open-carry or concealed-carry of firearms be moved to a national forum like Other Topics - as that topic is one that can apply to many states, not just CO. I only want to see the "why" discussion done once, not in numerous state forums. The discussion of "why" did move to Other Topics and is doing fine, so far there are no problems with people behaving outrageously. If that starts, I'll lock the thread and ban any weenie who can't behave like an adult.

If anyone wants to discuss firearm laws in CO, please do that in this thread.

If anyone wants to discuss hunting in CO, that's fine too, just start a new thread in CO, not in this "gun law" topic.

Besides keeping people from getting over-heated, part of what I do is act like a Librarian. By that I mean to keep topics as narrow as possible, so that the title of the thread is truly descriptive of the content therein. This makes it a lot easier for people to find the info they need. If a thread on fishing gets off into multiple areas, like car repair, doing laundry, and baking cakes, it isn't much help to anyone. Each topic should have it's own thread, and sometimes I'll rename threads to make them more descriptive.

All that being said, discuss CO gun laws here all you want.

s/Mike