New Colorado ‘Public Safety’ Law Disarms People at Their Front Doors and on Their Porches

Colorado Governor Jared Polis hasn’t seen a disarmament bill he hasn’t liked, and the newest anti-gun legislation he just signed into law is a reaction to contrived circumstances and mean words that disarms Coloradans in their homes.

HB25-1225, or the “Freedom from Intimidation in Elections Act” was signed by Polis on May 12, 2025. The new law characterizes the need for such an act with some interesting and borderline ridiculous pretext:

Exhibit A: They admit that election intimidation was targeted at people of color, as far back as Federal Law in 1870-1871.

Exhibit B: They assert that Colorado has also been the site of election-related intimidation in recent history. Their evidence: “…the Colorado attorney general sent a cease and desist letter to a mobile home park owner who had engaged in voter intimidation.”

Exhibit C criticizes citizens exercising their First Amendment rights: “In 2022, dozens of individuals shouted at election workers inside the El Paso county clerk and recorder’s office and recorded them.”

Exhibit D is the assertion that “…the Colorado secretary of state says she has received over 1,000 threats of violence or death…” They are referring to the disastrous Jena Griswold, a Democrat who was first elected in 2018 and reelected in 2022. In 2024, her office was responsible for leaking voting system passwords and then delaying informing county clerks until after the Colorado Republican Party publicized it on October 29. A third-party investigation by Baird Quinn found that Griswold’s office violated Colorado Information Security Policies.

Exhibit E: “In 2024, a [single] Cortez resident pleaded guilty to making numerous violent threats and statements against Colorado election officials.”

Exhibit F: “Since 2020, approximately 40% of local election officials in Colorado have left their positions.”

With this backdrop that doesn’t actually mention any criminal use of firearms, the Colorado legislature then proceeds to explain they are, “providing specific, explicit protections for election workers and acknowledging that in this era of increased firearm violence and election denialism, the presence of firearms in proximity to elections is presumptively intimidating.”

Here’s their creative context to disarm law-abiding citizens in their homes:

Because election administration and voting take place in a number of locations including, but not limited to, polling places, elections and other government offices, ballot drop boxes, and people’s homes…

The law defines voter intimidation in the broadest possible terms that will most certainly, and ironically, be used for politically-motivated prosecutions:

An individual who carries a visible firearm, imitation firearm, or toy firearm while interacting with or observing any of the activities described in subsection (3) of this section is presumed, in the absence of any affirmative showing to the contrary by a preponderance of the evidence, to have engaged in intimidation prohibited by this section.

The bill then closes with a catch-all public safety clause:

Safety clause. The general assembly finds, determines, and declares that this act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety or for appropriations for the support and maintenance of the departments of the state and state institutions.

Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, who broke the story on X, have indicated they will be challenging the new law in court.