For the first time in a generation, Colorado voters will have a direct say on how the state treats firearms.
Proposition KK, put forward by the state legislature, asks voters to approve a new 6.5% excise tax on guns, firearm parts and ammunition sold in the state. In total, it would raise an estimated $39 million a year, $30 million of which would go to services for crime victims.
Displayed is a Glock 17 pistol fitted with a cable-style gun lock in Philadelphia on May 10, 2023. Colorado voters will decide on Proposition KK, an excise tax on firearms and accessories, this November. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
The ballot measure’s supporters say the new tax’s revenue would give needed financial stability to victim services providers after years of dwindling funding. Opponents see it as adding another barrier for Coloradans to exercise their constitutional rights — while taxing law-abiding gun owners for crimes committed by others.
“This is attacking peaceful Coloradans who have done absolutely nothing wrong,” Ian Escalante, executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, said. “They’re just trying to protect themselves, protect their families or do something sporting.”
Voters will decide the measure in the Nov. 5 election. If approved, the tax — to be paid by dealers and manufacturers, though they’re likely to pass the cost to purchasers — would amount to about $60.45 on a $930 firearm or $1.30 on $20 worth of ammunition, according to the state’s Blue Book voter guide.
The measure provides a rare chance to see just where the broader Colorado electorate stands on a barrier of any kind to buying firearms. The last time a firearm-related measure went to the state ballot was in 2000, when voters overwhelmingly approved a measure requiring background checks for firearm sales at gun shows.
While the bulk of the money in Proposition KK would go to victim services, $8 million of what remains would go to mental health services for veterans and behavioral health services for children in crisis. And $1 million would go to grants for Colorado public schools to help pay for security enhancements.
Backers argue the money for victim services should come from gun sales because of how often firearms are tied to domestic violence and suicide.
House Majority Leader Monica Duran, a Wheat Ridge Democrat and sponsor of the bill that placed Prop. KK on the ballot, recounted escaping an abusive household as a young mother at a rally in support of KK last month. She talked about how she “battled” for survivor resources as she worked her way out of homelessness.
“Proposition KK is not just about services,” Duran said. “It’s about survival. It’s about healing.”
State Sen. Tom Sullivan, a Centennial Democrat, spoke at the rally about the financial costs associated with gun violence that go with the emotional and human impacts. His son, Alex, was killed during the Aurora movie theater massacre in 2012.
Ali Kocis of Louisville and other members of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and students from metro Denver rally for gun violence prevention and gun control measures in front of the Colorado State Capitol building in Denver on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. About 100 of people gathered for the rally. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Gun violence has an economic toll of more than $550 billion a year, he said, citing a Harvard Medical School study published in 2022.
“Seven out of 10 of us don’t own guns, yet we pay the cost of it every single day — when we’re in the hospital, when we’re in court, when we’re at funerals, when we’re figuring out how to get through the extra day,” Sullivan said. “So it’s about time that those people who are perpetrating these crimes — these people who are buying these items — you’re going to start paying for it. Because I’ve already paid the ultimate price with my son.”
Escalante, from Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, called the proposal “a gun penalty” for the law-abiding people who buy firearms, ammo and accessories in Colorado — not, by and large, the people committing the crimes.
In addition to being a tax on a constitutional right, he said, the measure holds money needed for victim services hostage. The General Assembly, if its members wanted, could find the $39 million in the state’s $40 billion-plus budget, he said.
Instead, lawmakers are trying to “guilt-trip” voters into supporting the tax to pay for services that he agrees are important, Escalante said. He also warned that the gun tax would hurt business owners, particularly those in locations bordering states with more gun-friendly laws, like Wyoming, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
Federal grants for victim services have dried up in recent years, according to the pro-KK campaign. Statistics from the Office for Victims of Crime in the U.S. Department of Justice show that the federal allocation dropped from $3.3 billion in 2018 to $779 million in 2024. Colorado’s share of grant dollars decreased from $56.6 million to $13.6 million during that time.
Backers of the ballot measure argue that the tax is simply aimed at making up for dwindling federal money without taking away funding from other state priorities.
“It is not intended to discourage gun purchases or penalize firearm sellers,” Linda Magid, head of the Colorado Chapter of Moms Demand Action, said at the rally. “It seeks to generate revenue to sustain programs that are targeted and effective at mitigating risks of gun violence.”
Financial support for the measure has so far been a one-sided affair. Colorado Supports Crime Victim Services, the committee supporting KK, has reported raising more than $167,000. The committee explicitly opposing the measure, Stop Tax Increases, has reported raising zero dollars.
In January 2013, a large group of demonstrators lines Lincoln Street with signs supporting Second Amendment rights during a gun-rights rally at Lincoln Park in downtown Denver. The backlash to gun laws resulted in two successful recall elections against Democratic senators. (Photo by Joe Amon/Denver Post file)
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Most gun policy changes in Colorado lately have flowed from the state legislature, where gun reform has gone from prompting recalls of two Democratic state senators in 2013 to becoming a matter of almost-routine debate in the Capitol during the last several legislative sessions.
In recent years, lawmakers have enacted a red flag law to allow for the confiscation of guns from people deemed a danger to themselves or others; they’ve also passed new requirements for concealed-carry permits and more.
But the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights requires voter approval to raise taxes, so lawmakers routed the excise tax proposal to this fall’s ballot.
Escalante doesn’t downplay the significance of the looming statewide vote. But he also likened it to the 2020 measure that resulted in a voter mandate to reintroduce wolves in Colorado. The well-populated Front Range urban corridor, he said, will ultimately decide what happens to rural areas that may feel the issue more acutely.
“This is definitely going to take the temperature of the Denver metro and get their measure of it,” Escalante said. “But the majority of counties are definitely going to vote against it.”
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