Colorado lawmakers want to treat a bare barrel like a complete firearm. That’s the short version of the Colorado barrel bill, Senate Bill 26-043, and the video above walks through the details if you want the full breakdown. I’ve been running Western Sport as a licensed dealer since 2017, and I sell barrels out of my shop every week, so this one got my attention in a hurry.
What the Colorado barrel bill actually does
Under the bill, a barrel by itself gets the same regulatory treatment as a finished gun. No more selling a spare to a buddy. No more ordering one online and having it shipped to your door. Every barrel sale or transfer would have to run through a federally licensed dealer, with the dealer recording your information and the barrel’s specs, then keeping those records on file. Unauthorized transfers carry penalties.
Think about what that means in practice. A barrel is a metal tube. It has no trigger, no action, no serial number. If you own an AR and want a spare barrel in a different length, that purchase would now look, on paper, like buying a whole rifle.
The ghost gun argument
Supporters of the Colorado barrel bill say it targets privately made firearms. Their logic: 3D printing a durable metal barrel isn’t practical, so people finishing home-built guns buy legal barrels online to complete them. Regulate the barrel, and you choke off the ghost guns.
The problem is proportion. Homemade guns make up a small fraction of recovered crime guns, and this bill puts a paperwork burden on every single barrel sale in the state to address it. That’s a lot of net for a few fish.
The safety clause is the part that bugs me most
The Colorado barrel bill includes a “safety clause,” which classifies it as emergency legislation. That’s not just a label. It removes the measure from the ballot initiative process, so Colorado voters can’t challenge it by referendum. Once it’s law, it’s largely insulated from the very people it regulates. Whatever you think of regulating parts, a change this big deserves an up-or-down vote from the public.
Why a Texas gunsmith cares about a Colorado bill
States copy each other. Colorado has added a new layer of gun regulation almost every session since 2019: waiting periods, age restrictions, now parts. When one state redefines what a firearm is and it sticks, other legislatures notice. If you’re fuzzy on how dealer transfers and paperwork work in the first place, my plain-English explainer on what an FFL dealer actually does is a good place to start.
As of this writing, SB 26-043 is still working through the Colorado legislature, so check the current status before you act on anything here. Meanwhile, down here in Texas, a barrel is still just a barrel. We keep barrels and choke tubes in stock and ship them same as always. Questions about how any of this might affect an order? Call me at 817-393-4000.
Lance Rankin is the owner and Chief Gunsmith of Western Sport, a family-run Type 07 FFL and Class 3/SOT dealer in Roanoke, Texas, serving shooters since 2007. Born and raised in Texas with over 50 years of experience handling firearms, Lance purchased Western Sport in 2017 and turned his lifelong passion into his profession. He specializes in AR-15 and AR-10 platform rifles, manufactures Western Sport’s own AR-15 line under the Rankin Industries brand, and runs the shop’s in-house Cerakote coating operation. When he’s not behind the counter or the workbench, you’ll find him on his ranch deep into the night, hunting coyotes with an AR-15 and thermal optics. Lance holds an MBA and personally shoots and tests the products Western Sport sells.
