RESPONSIBLE GUN OWNERSHIP BILL ADVANCES

Bill to require gun owners to report lost and stolen firearms passes the House on second reading

DENVER, CO– The House today advanced Representative Tom Sullivan and Leslie Herod’s bill to prevent firearms from getting into the wrong hands by requiring responsible gun owners to report to law enforcement within five days of realizing their firearms have been lost or stolen.

“Mass shootings grab headlines and capture the public’s attention, but the epidemic of gun violence takes lives quietly every single day in communities across the country,” said Rep. Tom Sullivan, D-Centennial. “This bill will give law enforcement the information they need to prevent crime and track down perpetrators when crimes are committed. No single proposal will end gun violence for good, but with proposals like this bill, we are continuing to chip away at this violent plague.”

“Thousands of lost and stolen firearms end up in crime scenes across the country every day,” said Rep. Leslie Herod, D-Denver. “With 30,000 guns being stolen in Colorado over the course of four years, and estimates showing that about 40 percent of those were not reported to police, it’s clear that this bill is timely and necessary. All we’re asking is that all gun owners act the way the majority of gun owners already do. This simple and commonsense proposal can and will save lives.”

SB21-078 requires an individual who owns a firearm and has reasonable cause to believe that the firearm has been lost or stolen to report that firearm to a law enforcement agency within five days after discovering that the firearm is missing.

A first offense for failure to make such a report is a civil infraction punishable by a $25 fine, and a second or subsequent offense is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum $500 fine. The bill requires a law enforcement agency that receives a report to enter information about the lost or stolen firearm into the National Crime Information Center database and report the information to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.