Colorado’s latest gun control gambit is a barrel-scraping low: a proposed bill that would clamp down on sales of gun barrels through licensed dealers, ostensibly to curb ghost guns and unserialized firearms. But let’s peel back the layers—this isn’t about public safety; it’s a sneaky end-run around the Second Amendment by targeting a mundane component that’s as essential to a firearm as wheels are to a car. Proponents claim it stops criminals from assembling untraceable weapons at home, yet the source text admits it’s sparking debate on effectiveness, and for good reason. Criminals don’t buy barrels from FFLs; they steal guns, 3D-print parts, or traffic through black markets. Meanwhile, law-abiding Coloradans—hunters, sport shooters, and hobby builders—face yet another hoop to jump through, inflating costs and delaying repairs or custom builds. This echoes California’s microstamping mandates and New York’s serialized-parts obsession: incrementalism disguised as reasonableness.
Dig deeper, and the implications for the 2A community scream slippery slope. Barrels aren’t flashy like suppressors or braces; they’re overlooked until lawmakers realize banning whole guns is a non-starter post-Bruen. By isolating barrels, Colorado tests the waters for broader parts restrictions—next up, bolts, receivers, or stocks? It’s a classic divide-and-conquer tactic, fragmenting the firearm into non-gun pieces ripe for regulation. Data from ATF traces shows most crime guns are unmodified hand-me-downs from legal owners, not DIY kits, debunking the ghost-gun hysteria (ATF’s own 2023 report pegs homemade firearms at under 1% of traces). For gun owners nationwide, this is a canary in the coal mine: if Colorado succeeds, expect copycat bills in blue states, eroding the right to keep and bear arms one safety measure at a time.
The 2A response? Mobilize now. Contact your reps, flood public comment periods, and support orgs like GOA or FPC suing these schemes into oblivion. This barrel ban isn’t just ineffective—it’s an affront to self-reliance and innovation in firearms design. Colorado’s experiment will flop like past flops (remember the bump stock bans’ zero-crime impact?), but only if we make noise. Stay vigilant; our rights aren’t assembled from compliant parts—they’re forged in resistance.
