Colorado students urge lawmakers to pass 3D-printed gun restrictions
Sara Wilson
(Colorado Newsline) Over 100 high school students rallied at the Colorado Capitol in Denver on Wednesday to urge lawmakers to pass a bill that would ban most production of 3D-printed guns in the state.
“Students should be worried about finals, sports, music and friendships — not whether they’ll make it home from school safely,” said Iris Osmulski, a senior at East High School in Denver. “Gun violence is not inevitable. It’s preventable.”
During its annual advocacy day at the Capitol, members of Students Demand Action meet with lawmakers to share their experiences with gun violence and encourage them to pass policies to reduce firearm deaths and injuries. This year, students were focused on House Bill 26-1144.
That bill would limit the production in Colorado of 3D-printed firearms and components like unfinished frames, large-capacity magazines and rapid-fire devices, strengthening Colorado’s existing ban on unserialized and untraceable ghost guns. The number of 3D-printed guns recovered at crime scenes has increased in recent years, according to a report from the gun control advocacy group Everytown For Gun Safety. In 2020, there were nine such recovered guns in Denver. By 2024, that number jumped to 64.
The bill would also ban the possession of the instructions or digital code needed to print a firearm or firearm part, if the person who has the code intends to use it illegally. There is an exception for federally licensed firearm manufacturers.
First violations of the provisions in the bill would be a Class 1 misdemeanor, and subsequent violations would be a Class 5 felony.
“When you realize that someone your age is able to build a weapon without meaningful oversight, you realize that this isn’t just about one person’s actions. It’s about gaps in the system,” said Nora Krause, a student at Denver’s East High School. “A teenager should not be able to print a gun component at home, assemble a working firearm and bring it into a school building.”
Many of the students at the Capitol on Wednesday were at East High School when a student shot two school administrators in 2023.
Supporters say that as technology advances and 3D printers become more widely available, including at libraries and schools, there is greater risk of bad actors using the process to skirt Colorado gun laws like background checks, age requirements, waiting periods and serialization.
“We need to make sure that Colorado’s gun safety laws are not undermined by new technology that can be utilized by anyone with an ill intention, an internet connection and access to one of the many publicly-available 3D printers,” Sen. Katie Wallace, a Longmont Democrat, said.
Wallace is running the bill alongside Sen. Tom Sullivan, a Centennial Democrat, Rep. Lindsay Gilchrist, a Denver Democrat and Rep. Andrew Boesenecker, a Fort Collins Democrat. It has its first committee hearing next week.
Other firearm related bills at the Legislature this year include a bill to require a permit to transfer a gun, a bill to expand the state’s extreme risk protection order, or “red flag,” law, and a bill to require gun barrels to be sold only in person by a licensed dealer.