This is a federal question, not a Colorado one, but it's exactly the kind of federal rule that shapes what Colorado buyers can and can't do when they want to buy a handgun from a dealer outside the state — and it's currently sitting in front of a federal appeals court.
The rule being challenged
Federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(3), prohibits a licensed dealer from selling a handgun directly to someone who doesn't live in the state where the dealer's licensed premises sit. If you're a Colorado resident and you want to buy a specific handgun from a dealer in, say, Texas, that Texas dealer can't just hand it to you and run the background check on the spot the way they could with an in-state buyer. Instead, the handgun has to be shipped to a licensed dealer in Colorado, who then completes the transfer and background check on their end — an extra step, an extra transfer fee, and extra paperwork, entirely because of where you happen to live. Long guns — rifles and shotguns — don't work this way; federal law has long allowed direct interstate sales of those, as long as the sale is legal in both the buyer's and seller's states. Handguns are treated differently, and that difference is exactly what's being challenged.
The case
Elite Precision Customs v. ATF was brought by the Firearms Policy Coalition, the dealer Elite Precision Customs LLC, and two individual FPC members, represented by attorneys from Cooper & Kirk and FPC Action Foundation. The plaintiffs argue that the handgun-specific interstate sales ban can't survive the Second Amendment test the Supreme Court laid out in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen — under which the government has to point to a genuine historical tradition of comparable restrictions, not just a policy rationale, to justify a burden on a right otherwise protected by the Second Amendment's text. The plaintiffs argue there's no historical tradition of blocking an otherwise-qualified buyer from purchasing a handgun from an out-of-state dealer, so long as the sale is legal in both states and the buyer passes the same background check they'd pass at home.
The district court sided with the government and upheld the restrictions. FPC appealed to the Fifth Circuit, filing its opening brief on February 4, 2026, followed by a reply brief on May 27. The Fifth Circuit heard oral argument on September 2, 2026. No decision had been issued as of this article's publication.
Why this would matter for Colorado buyers specifically
If the Fifth Circuit — or eventually the Supreme Court — strikes this rule down, it wouldn't change anything about who's eligible to buy a handgun or what background check applies. What it would change is the friction in the transaction itself: a Colorado resident could potentially buy directly from an out-of-state dealer with a particular model in stock, a specific price, or a specialty build not available locally, without the current requirement of routing the sale through a second, in-state dealer purely because of a buyer's home address. This would sit alongside, not replace, Colorado's own state-level requirements — SB25-003's eligibility-card process for specified semiautomatic handguns, the state's background-check system, and the other steps in Colorado's purchase process would still require separate analysis. This case is only about the separate federal question of whether the sale can happen directly at all.
Where things stand
Nothing has changed yet. The restrictions remain in effect, the district court ruled against the challengers, and the appeal was argued before the Fifth Circuit on September 2. Questions at oral argument are not a ruling, and there is no dependable timetable for a decision. We'll follow the case as it moves.
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