Editor’s Note: The following is a letter, authored by the Teller County Commissioners and submitted to the U.S. Justice Department, regarding a new anti-gun law approved by Colorado state lawmakers and signed by Colorado Governor Jared Polis. It also deals with subsequent legal action taken by the federal government in response to this law that could have big fiscal impacts on the state and for Teller County. As noted by Commission Chairman Dan Williams in further commenting on the issue, and in explaining the board’s action: “We have been reaching across the aisle and had hoped for a compromise. The Colorado Legislature has become activist and is no longer listening to the people of Colorado or county and municipal leaders. Instead after the federal lawsuit was filed against Colorado (recently), the legislature worked through the weekend on Senate Bill 276, which was passed in defiance of the Federal Government. Counties are being squeezed between the federal government and the state government and will bear the greatest cost in harm to our residents. Teller County along with other counties will follow all laws and has been compliant and should not be penalized due to an activist legislature and the city of Denver. We have an obligation to our residents for life, health and safety and enough is enough. Colorado stands to lose 18.4 billion dollars of federal money on top of the impacts counties are already feeling due to the 1.3 billion dollar shortfall in the states’ general fund and regardless of the rhetoric coming out of Denver is not sustainable.”
The Honorable Harmeet Dhillon
Director, Office of Civil Rights
U.S. Justice Department
950 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20530
We write today (May 8, 2025) as the elected Board of County Commissioners of Teller County, Colorado out of an emergent Constitutional necessity on behalf of the residents of Teller County, Colorado.
As County Commissioners, we swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitutions of the United States of America and the State of Colorado. Recent legislative actions taken by the Colorado Legislature and Governor Jared Polis leave us no choice but to appeal to the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Justice to take legal action to reverse the infringements upon the constitutional rights of our residents and prevent the potential loss of existing federal funding for highways, our vulnerable senior population, veterans, and our at-risk families struggling with housing and food insecurity. These threats are due to laws that infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of our citizens and the sanctuary laws that prevent our local law enforcement from cooperating with the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
This legislative session, the Colorado Legislature passed, and Governor Polis signed into law SB25-003, a law which bans the purchase, manufacture and transfer of nearly all semi-automatic rifles, including the most commonly held and purchased rifle in America, the AR-15. Further, the law then creates a burdensome and discriminatory process for the citizens of Colorado to “repurchase” their Second Amendment rights from the State of Colorado through up to 12 hours of paid firearm safety instruction, pass a written test at a 90 percent rate, pass a marksmanship test at an 80 percent rate, an additional and yet-to-be-defined background check, a for-fee application to county sheriffs for the firearms safety certificate, and then with the objective approval of the county sheriff, the citizen “may” receive an identification card that would allow the citizen to purchase the banned firearms. The citizen MUST go through this rigorous, costly, and discriminatory process every 5 years.
This law, in addition to violating the Second Amendment as affirmed in Heller, McDonald and Bruen, which confirmed the Second Amendment applies to state and local government, a citizen’s individual right to self-defense, the right to own commonly-held firearms, and the right to not be prevented from such by objective and arbitrary standards under the law. Further this new law creates new classes of citizenry by making the purchase of these banned firearms only available to the elite class able to afford both the time and excessive expense of going through the State of Colorado’s onerous barrier to regain their Second Amendment rights. Lastly, these laws violate the rights of citizens under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to make accommodation for those with learning or physical disabilities which would prevent them from passing a written test, attend lengthy two-day classes in person, passing the required marksmanship test, as well as other, yet to be discovered barriers to the right to keep and bear arms.
Respectfully Submitted,
Dan Williams- Chairman
Erik Stone- Vice Chairman
Bob Campbell- Commissioner
