The Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) is taking the state of Colorado to court over the punitive new gun control law signed by Gov. Jared Polis back in April.
The measure, SB25-003, is fraught with infringements. The new law piles on red tape, requires the payment of excessive permit and processing fees, and reclassifies common firearms and accessories as “dangerous or illegal weapons,” criminalizing their possession.
It also enacts a permit-to-purchase scheme for firearms that could take months to process, leaving citizens stuck in bureaucratic limbo, and is also vague when identifying the types of guns it actually bans.
“Colorado’s new gun law (SB25-003) hides behind the guise of safety but is designed to delay—and ultimately deny—your Second Amendment rights,” MSLF said in a news alert on the lawsuit. “With most of the law already in effect and a permit-to-purchase scheme set to go into effect on August 1, 2026, this is not a regulation—it is disarmament by design.”
MSLF’s lawsuit, Del Toro v. Polis, argues that if the law stands, it sets the dangerous precedents that constitutional rights can be delayed, denied or redefined through bureaucracy. If the law isn’t struck down, law-abiding citizens might find themselves facing criminal charges overnight—not for their actions, but for merely possessing previously legal items.
Additionally, the permit-to-purchase scheme creates a de facto firearm owner registry. And Colorado citizens could lose access to firearms indefinitely due to backlogs, unclear requirements or the simple inability to find an approved instructor.
MSLF filed the lawsuit on behalf of six individuals—Israel Del Toro, Garrett Flicker, Jason Reeves, Kathleen Clayton, Luke Sorensen and Nathanael Skiver—who the organization calls “a reflection of the law-abiding people that the Second Amendment was designed to protect,” along with the Colorado Shooting Sports Association (CSSA).
According to MSLF, for Del Toro, a decorated Air Force veteran, the new gun ban isn’t just unconstitutional—it’s personal. Del Toro, who was burned over 80% of his body by an IED blast in Afghanistan, lost full use of his hands. The very items that allow him to still practice his Second Amendment rights—force-reset triggers and AR-platform pistols—are banned under the new law.
“This is more than unfair—it’s an attack on the very freedoms Israel risked his life to defend,” MSLF stated. “No veteran, no citizen, no American should be denied the ability to protect themselves in the way that works for them. The government has no authority to regulate that right away.”
Michael McCoy, director of MSLF’s Center to Keep and Bear Arms, said his organization is looking forward to the new law being declared unconstitutional.
“If the State of Colorado were to try these backhanded tactics to limit any other fundamental right—whether that be religion, speech, or the right to counsel, those statutes would be quickly struck down as unconstitutional by even the most partisan of jurists,” McCoy said in a press release. “But when it comes to the Second Amendment, these tactics to limit our God-given right to keep and bear arms for self-defense have borne fruit for far too many states . . . and for far too long. No more! With the recent and clear precedent out of the United States Supreme Court and the Tenth Circuit upholding the Second Amendment protected rights of law-abiding citizens, SB3 will not be able to survive review, and will be struck down. I am confident of that.”
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