Colorado has no statutory duty to inform. Nothing in C.R.S. 18-12-105 (unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon) or in Part 2 of Article 12 (permits to...
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
Colorado has no statutory duty to inform. Nothing in C.R.S. 18-12-105 (unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon) or in Part 2 of Article 12 (permits to carry concealed handguns) requires you to volunteer that you are armed when a law enforcement officer walks up to your car window or stops you on the street.
Colorado also has no statutory duty to answer. There is no provision in the scraped statutes that obligates you to say yes when an officer asks "are you armed."
What Colorado does have is a duty to carry and produce. Under C.R.S. 18-12-204(2)(a), a permittee "shall carry the permit, together with valid photo identification, at all times during which the permittee is in actual possession of a concealed handgun and shall produce both documents upon demand by a law enforcement officer." That is the whole obligation at a stop. It is triggered by the officer's demand, not by the start of the encounter, and it is satisfied by handing over two pieces of paper, not by making a statement.
Colorado does impose reporting duties, but they run to the sheriff who issued your permit, not to the officer in front of you. C.R.S. 18-12-210 sets those deadlines and they are covered below. And there is exactly one statute in this archive that compels you to let an officer physically inspect a firearm, C.R.S. 33-6-125, which reaches the chamber of a rifle or shotgun in a motor vehicle and no handgun at all.
Treat those as separate rules. Confusing the carry-and-produce duty with a duty to inform is the most common mistake students make about Colorado.
The statute sets out one requirement, one evidentiary consequence, one penalty, and one escape hatch:
By C.R.S. 18-12-204(2)(b), all of this applies equally to a temporary emergency permit issued under C.R.S. 18-12-209.
The same statute that creates the carry-and-produce duty also describes two situations in which a person carries a handgun with no permit at all. C.R.S. 18-12-204(3)(a) says a person who may lawfully possess a handgun may carry one "without obtaining a permit and the handgun shall not be considered concealed" when:
C.R.S. 18-12-204(3)(b) limits both: the subsection "shall not be construed to authorize the carrying of a handgun in violation of the provisions of section 18-12-105 or 18-12-105.5." So (3) is not a license to carry into a school, a college, or a child care center covered by 18-12-105.5, and it does not authorize anything 18-12-105 forbids.
The consequence for this section is direct. A person carrying under 18-12-204(3) has no permit, so the produce-on-demand duty in 18-12-204(2)(a) does not attach. That duty runs to "the permittee," and what it commands is that the permittee carry and produce "the permit." Someone who was never issued a permit has no document the subsection (2) duty can reach and cannot commit the petty offense it creates. Note that 18-12-105(2)(b) reaches the same private-conveyance ground from the other direction, by making it not an offense under 18-12-105 to carry a weapon in a private automobile or other private means of conveyance for lawful protection while traveling.
One question the statute leaves open: a person who does hold a permit and who is carrying in a private automobile is, by the terms of (3)(a), carrying a handgun that "shall not be considered concealed." Whether that person is still "in actual possession of a concealed handgun" for purposes of the (2)(a) duty is not addressed in the scraped text. The safe practice is to carry the permit and photo ID anyway.
C.R.S. 18-12-210 is titled "Maintenance of permit - address change - invalidity of permit," and it creates two reporting duties. Neither one is owed to the officer at a stop. Both are owed to the sheriff who issued the permit.
| Trigger | Deadline | Who to notify |
|---|---|---|
| A change to the address specified on your permit | Within thirty days | The issuing sheriff |
| Your permit is lost, stolen, or destroyed | Within three business days | The issuing sheriff |
The penalty is stated in the same subsection: "Failure to notify the sheriff pursuant to this subsection (1) is a civil infraction."
Then the part that matters more than the deadline. Under C.R.S. 18-12-210(2), "If a permit is lost, stolen, or destroyed, the permit is automatically invalid." Invalidity is automatic. It does not wait for a sheriff's determination, a hearing, or the end of the three-business-day reporting window. The replacement route is in the next sentence: "The person to whom the permit was issued may obtain a duplicate or substitute therefor upon payment of fifteen dollars to the issuing sheriff and upon submission of a notarized statement to the issuing sheriff that the permit has been lost, stolen, or destroyed."
Read 18-12-210(2) next to 18-12-204(2)(a) and the practical problem is obvious. The 204(2)(a) duty is to carry and produce a valid permit on demand. Once a permit is lost, stolen, or destroyed it is automatically invalid, so there is nothing valid to produce until the fifteen-dollar duplicate issues. In that gap an officer's demand meets no permit, and 18-12-204(2)(a) says: "Failure to produce a permit upon demand by a law enforcement officer raises a rebuttable presumption that the person does not have a permit."
The scraped text does not say whether a duplicate issued under 18-12-210(2) satisfies the 18-12-204(2)(a) dismissal condition, which requires the permittee to exhibit to the court "a valid permit and valid photo identification, both of which were issued to the permittee prior to the date on which the permittee was charged." A duplicate issued after the charge date replaces an original that predates it. Whether a court treats the duplicate's issue date or the original's as controlling is not resolved in the statutes in this archive. Do not plan on the answer. Report the loss inside three business days and pay for the duplicate.
C.R.S. 18-12-210(3) extends the entire section to temporary emergency permits issued under C.R.S. 18-12-209.
Two things 18-12-210 is not. It is not the lost or stolen firearm reporting statute, which is C.R.S. 18-12-113 with a five-day deadline, covered below. And it is not a general change-of-residence rule: the trigger the statute states is a change to "the address specified on his or her permit," which the statute does not further define.
The history line for 18-12-210 records the part added by L. 2003 effective May 17 of that year, and subsection (1) amended by SB 21-271, ch. 462, section 350, effective March 1, 2022.
C.R.S. 18-12-214(1)(b) is the other statute that matters at a traffic stop: "A peace officer may temporarily disarm a permittee, incident to a lawful stop of the permittee. The peace officer shall return the handgun to the permittee prior to discharging the permittee from the scene."
Two things follow. The officer does not need your consent to take the handgun for the duration of a lawful stop. And the officer is required to give it back before you leave. If a stop ends without your handgun being returned, that is not what the statute contemplates.
Exactly one statute in this archive compels affirmative cooperation with an officer, and it is not in the criminal code's firearms article. It is in the wildlife title. C.R.S. 33-6-125, "Possession of a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle," does two things:
Read the second duty narrowly. It is a duty to allow inspection of the chamber of a rifle or shotgun in a motor vehicle. It is not a duty to inform, it is not a duty to answer questions, and it does not reach a handgun. The officer it names is a peace officer empowered under C.R.S. 33-6-101 to enforce articles 1 through 6 of title 33, which is a wildlife-enforcement authority rather than every law enforcement officer in the state.
The penalty is fixed in the statute: "Any person who violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of one hundred dollars and an assessment of fifteen license suspension points."
The statute also supplies its own loaded-or-not rule for muzzle-loaders. A "muzzle-loader" is unloaded "if it is not primed," and "primed" means "having a percussion cap on the nipple or flint in the striker and powder in the flash pan."
C.R.S. 33-6-125 was amended by HB 19-1026, effective July 1, 2019.
The statutory duties reduce to a short sequence:
Volunteering that you are armed is a personal choice. It is not a Colorado legal requirement, and this section does not treat it as one.
Being clear about the gaps matters as much as the rules:
C.R.S. 18-12-213(1) makes an out-of-state permit "valid in this state in all respects as a permit issued pursuant to this part 2" when the permit was issued to a person who is 21 or older and who is either a resident of the issuing state, "as demonstrated by the address stated on a valid picture identification that is issued by the state that issued the permit and is carried by the permit holder," or a resident of Colorado for no more than ninety days as shown by a Colorado picture ID carried by the holder. Reciprocity runs only to states that recognize Colorado permits.
Because the out-of-state permit is valid "in all respects" as a Colorado permit, the carry-and-produce duty in 18-12-204(2)(a) travels with it. C.R.S. 18-12-213(2) also defines what counts: "valid picture identification" means a driver's license or a state identification issued in lieu of a driver's license.
Note that 18-12-210 speaks to "the issuing sheriff," which no out-of-state permit has. The scraped text does not say how the 18-12-210 reporting duties apply, if at all, to a recognized out-of-state permit. Report a loss to the issuing authority in your home state under that state's rules.
C.R.S. 18-12-105(2) lists every circumstance in which carrying a concealed weapon is not an offense under that section. As scraped, the list is:
| C.R.S. 18-12-105(2) | Who or what it covers |
|---|---|
| (2)(a) | A person in his or her own dwelling or place of business, or on property owned or under his or her control at the time of the act of carrying |
| (2)(b) | A person in a private automobile or other private means of conveyance who carries a weapon for lawful protection of such person's or another's person or property while traveling |
| (2)(b.5) | Carrying a concealed firearm at a specific location in violation of section 1-13-724, 18-12-105.3, or 18-12-105.5 |
| (2)(c) | A holder of a valid permit to carry a concealed handgun or a temporary emergency permit issued under part 2, or a valid written permit issued under former section 18-12-105.1. This exemption does not apply, and it is an offense under 18-12-105, if the person was carrying a concealed handgun in violation of section 18-12-214 |
| (2)(d) | A peace officer as described in section 16-2.5-101 carrying in conformance with the policy of the employing agency under section 16-2.5-101(2) |
| (2)(e) | Deleted by amendment in 2003 |
| (2)(f) | A United States probation officer or United States pretrial services officer while on duty and serving in Colorado under rules promulgated by the judicial conference of the United States |
There is no military, veteran, or retired peace officer exemption in 18-12-105(2). A previous version of this page claimed one. The statute does not contain it. Subsection (2)(d) reaches a peace officer only "when carrying a weapon in conformance with the policy of the employing agency," which is a duty-status and employment condition, not a status conferred by past service. Anyone relying on military service, an honorable discharge, or a retired credential as a substitute for a Colorado permit under this statute is relying on something the statute does not say.
That correction stands. It is also narrower than it looks, and the next subsection says why.
Note also that 18-12-105(1) grades unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon as a class 1 misdemeanor. SB24-131 amended the introductory portions of subsections (1) and (2) and added (2)(b.5), effective July 1, 2024.
The 18-12-105(2) list is one statute. Two other bodies of law give status-based authority that 18-12-105(2) does not, and collapsing them into the permit question is what produced the original fabrication.
C.R.S. 18-12-105.3(2), the government-buildings offense. The SB24-131 offense created by 18-12-105.3(1) does not apply to:
| 18-12-105.3(2) | Who it covers |
|---|---|
| (2)(a) | A peace officer carrying a firearm pursuant to the authority granted in section 16-2.5-101(2) |
| (2)(b) | A member of the United States armed forces or Colorado National Guard when engaged in the lawful discharge of the member's official duties |
| (2)(c) | Security personnel employed or retained by an entity that controls or operates a place described in the section, and security personnel described in section 24-33.5-216.7(5), while engaged in the security personnel's official duties |
| (2)(d) | Law enforcement personnel, defense counsel personnel, and court personnel carrying or possessing a firearm in the performance of their official duties as part of the lawful and common practices of a legal proceeding |
| (2)(e) | A person holding a valid permit or a temporary emergency permit under part 2 who is carrying a concealed handgun in the adjacent parking area of a location listed in subsection (1) |
So an on-duty Colorado National Guard member is outside the government-buildings offense. Be precise about what that is. It is an exemption from one place-based offense, conditioned on the lawful discharge of official duties. It is not a substitute for a permit under 18-12-105, and (2)(b) does not reach a veteran or a Guard member who is off duty.
LEOSA, 18 U.S.C. 926B and 926C. Federal law gives qualified active and qualified retired law enforcement officers concealed carry authority that does not run through Colorado's permit scheme at all. Both sections open the same way: "Notwithstanding any other provision of the law of any State or any political subdivision thereof, an individual who is a qualified law enforcement officer" (926C: "qualified retired law enforcement officer") "and who is carrying the identification required by subsection (d) may carry a concealed firearm that has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce, subject to subsection (b)."
Two features of that sentence matter to this section.
The archive's copy of both federal sections is the Cornell LII mirror, which is tagged in _sources/ as a secondary-tier source rather than a primary government one. Confirm the operative text against the U.S. Code before relying on it in class.
None of this rescues the original claim. There is still no 18-12-105(2) exemption for a veteran or for a retired peace officer as such. What exists is a place-based exemption in 18-12-105.3(2) tied to official duties, and a separate federal authority in 926B and 926C that requires a qualifying agency credential in hand.
Subsections (2)(b.5) and (2)(c) of 18-12-105 pull in opposite directions and the statute does not reconcile them.
Subsection (2)(b.5) says it is not an offense under 18-12-105 if the defendant was "carrying a concealed firearm at a specific location in violation of section 1-13-724, 18-12-105.3, or 18-12-105.5." Read plainly, that channels place-based violations into the place-based statute instead of stacking a concealed-carry charge on top.
Subsection (2)(c) says the permit exemption does not apply, and it is an offense under 18-12-105, if the person was "carrying a concealed handgun in violation of the provisions of section 18-12-214." But 18-12-214(3.5) defines carrying in violation of 214 partly by reference to 18-12-105.5, 18-12-105.3, and 1-13-724, the same three statutes (2)(b.5) carves out.
The scraped text does not resolve which subsection controls for a permit holder who carries into one of those locations. Do not teach a confident answer here. Treat carrying into a prohibited location as exposing you to charges under the place-based statute and possibly under 18-12-105 as well.
The permit is not a statewide pass. C.R.S. 18-12-214(1)(a) grants authority to carry concealed "in all areas of the state, except as specifically limited in this section." The limits, as scraped:
By 18-12-214(6), these provisions also apply to temporary emergency permits issued under 18-12-209.
SB24-131 was approved by the Governor on May 31, 2024 and took effect July 1, 2024. It created C.R.S. 18-12-105.3, which prohibits knowingly carrying a firearm, loaded or unloaded, in state legislative buildings, local government governing-body buildings, and courthouses or other buildings used for court proceedings, including their adjacent parking areas. Violation is a class 1 misdemeanor under 18-12-105.3(3).
Two carve-outs matter to permit holders. C.R.S. 18-12-105.3(2)(e) lets a permit holder carry a concealed handgun in the adjacent parking area of a listed location, not inside the building. C.R.S. 18-12-105.3(5) preserves securely storing a firearm in a vehicle as required by state law at such a location. A local government may permit carry at its own governing-body buildings under 18-12-105.3(4)(b).
SB24-131 also converted the election-location rule from an open-carry prohibition into a prohibition on carrying "in any manner," and exempted members of the general assembly from the state legislative building prohibition until January 5, 2025. For the full location list, see the Prohibited Places section.
Do not confuse this with a lost or stolen permit. That is C.R.S. 18-12-210, three business days to the issuing sheriff, and the permit goes automatically invalid. What follows is the rule for a lost or stolen firearm.
A previous version of this page cited C.R.S. 18-12-114 for lost and stolen firearm reporting. That is the wrong statute. C.R.S. 18-12-114 is "Secure firearm storage required." The reporting statute is C.R.S. 18-12-113, "Failure to report a lost or stolen firearm," known and citable as the Isabella Joy Thallas Act under 18-12-113(6).
What 18-12-113 requires:
Penalties under 18-12-113(2):
| Offense | Grade | Fine |
|---|---|---|
| First | Civil infraction | Twenty-five dollars |
| Second or subsequent | Unclassified misdemeanor | Up to five hundred dollars |
Three more details from the statute. Licensed gun dealers, as defined in C.R.S. 18-12-506, are excluded by 18-12-113(3). The receiving agency must enter available descriptive information into the Colorado Bureau of Investigation crime information center database within five days, under 18-12-113(4). And under 18-12-113(5), a person who reports a lost or stolen firearm is immune from criminal prosecution for a storage offense in part 1 and from the civil infraction of unlawful storage of a firearm in a vehicle described in C.R.S. 18-12-114.5.
C.R.S. 18-12-113 was added by SB 21-078 effective September 7, 2021. Subsection (5) was amended by HB 24-1348 effective January 1, 2025.
SB23-169 raised the legal age to purchase a firearm in Colorado to twenty-one. It was approved by the Governor on April 28, 2023 and took effect August 7, 2023. Unlawful purchase by a person under 21 is a class 2 misdemeanor, and it is unlawful for a licensed or unlicensed gun dealer to facilitate such a sale. The bill summary lists exceptions for active members of the United States armed forces and for peace officers or persons certified by the P.O.S.T. board.
This is a purchase rule. It creates no disclosure duty, and it does not change the concealed handgun permit age, which was already twenty-one. The scraped archive contains no source on the litigation history of SB23-169, so this section makes no claim about its current enforcement status. Verify before relying on it.
| Question | Colorado answer | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Must you volunteer that you are armed? | No | No such provision in 18-12-105 or part 2 |
| Must you answer "are you armed"? | No statutory duty | No such provision in 18-12-105 or part 2 |
| Must you carry the permit while carrying concealed? | Yes, plus valid photo ID | 18-12-204(2)(a) |
| Must you hand them over when asked? | Yes, both, upon demand by a law enforcement officer | 18-12-204(2)(a) |
| Penalty for not carrying or producing? | Petty offense | 18-12-204(2)(a) |
| Can the charge be dismissed? | Yes, if you show the court a permit and photo ID that both predate the charge | 18-12-204(2)(a) |
| Does this apply to a temporary emergency permit? | Yes | 18-12-204(2)(b), 18-12-210(3), 18-12-214(6) |
| Does it apply to out-of-state permit holders? | Yes, a recognized permit is valid "in all respects" as a Colorado permit | 18-12-213(1) |
| Do you need a permit to carry a handgun in your own private vehicle? | No, and the handgun "shall not be considered concealed" | 18-12-204(3)(a)(I) |
| Do you need a permit while lawfully hunting? | No, and the handgun "shall not be considered concealed" | 18-12-204(3)(a)(II) |
| Does the produce-on-demand duty apply to someone carrying under (3)? | No, that person is not a permittee and holds no permit | 18-12-204(2)(a), 18-12-204(3)(a) |
| Does (3) let you carry into a school or a college? | No | 18-12-204(3)(b) |
| Must you tell the sheriff when the address on your permit changes? | Yes, within thirty days | 18-12-210(1) |
| Must you tell the sheriff if your permit is lost, stolen, or destroyed? | Yes, within three business days | 18-12-210(1) |
| Penalty for not notifying the sheriff? | Civil infraction | 18-12-210(1) |
| Is a lost, stolen, or destroyed permit still valid? | No, it is automatically invalid; a duplicate costs fifteen dollars plus a notarized statement | 18-12-210(2) |
| Can an officer take your handgun during a stop? | Yes, temporarily, and it must be returned before you are released | 18-12-214(1)(b) |
| Must you ever let an officer inspect a firearm? | Only the chamber of a rifle or shotgun in a motor vehicle, for a peace officer enforcing articles 1 to 6 of title 33 | 33-6-125 |
| Penalty for refusing that inspection or for a loaded chamber? | Misdemeanor, one hundred dollar fine, fifteen license suspension points | 33-6-125 |
| Is there a military, veteran, or retired officer exemption from the Colorado permit requirement? | No | 18-12-105(2)(a) through (2)(f) |
| Is an on-duty armed forces or Colorado National Guard member exempt from the government-buildings offense? | Yes, when engaged in the lawful discharge of official duties | 18-12-105.3(2)(b) |
| Does LEOSA require carrying a credential? | Yes, the agency photographic identification described in subsection (d) | 18 U.S.C. 926B(a), (d); 926C(a), (d) |
| Does LEOSA override Colorado government-property or private-property restrictions? | No | 18 U.S.C. 926B(b), 926C(b) |
| Deadline to report a lost or stolen firearm? | Five days after discovery | 18-12-113(1)(a)(I) |
| Citation | Subject |
|---|---|
| C.R.S. 18-12-105 | Unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon, and the complete exemption list |
| C.R.S. 18-12-105.3 | Unlawful carrying of a firearm in government buildings, and its exemptions (SB24-131) |
| C.R.S. 18-12-113 | Failure to report a lost or stolen firearm (Isabella Joy Thallas Act) |
| C.R.S. 18-12-114 | Secure firearm storage required (not the reporting statute) |
| C.R.S. 18-12-204 | Permit contents, validity, carrying requirements, and permitless carry in a conveyance or while hunting |
| C.R.S. 18-12-210 | Maintenance of permit, address change, invalidity of a lost or stolen permit |
| C.R.S. 18-12-213 | Reciprocity |
| C.R.S. 18-12-214 | Authority granted by permit, carrying restrictions, local authority |
| C.R.S. 33-6-125 | Possession of a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle, and the chamber inspection duty |
| 18 U.S.C. 926B | LEOSA, qualified active law enforcement officers |
| 18 U.S.C. 926C | LEOSA, qualified retired law enforcement officers |
This page covers one part of our Colorado concealed carry guide.
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