How to get a Colorado firearms safety course eligibility card

Starting 2026-08-01, buying a specified semiautomatic firearm (SSF) in Colorado requires a firearms safety course eligibility card and a qualifying safety course. This page is the full process, step by step. Every step below is drawn from Colorado Parks and Wildlife's published customer journey for the Firearms Safety Program.

The firearms safety course eligibility card is issued by your county sheriff after a name-based background check and is valid for five years. Each county sets its own processing fee and timeline, so the exact fee and application channel depend on where you apply.

The purchase pipeline

1. 1

   Create a Firearm Safety System (FSS) profile online at coloradofss.com. The application portal is live as of July 20, 2026.

2. 2

   Take a government-issued photo ID and a name-based background check to your county sheriff's office. Fees are collected at this step.

3. 3

   The sheriff reviews the application and issues an eligibility card if approved. The card is valid for 5 years.

4. 4

   Find a sheriff-verified firearms instructor anywhere in Colorado. The instructor checks your FSS record to determine which course you need.

5. 5

   Basic course: 4 hours, for applicants with a CPW-verified hunter-education credential. Extended course: 12 hours over at least 2 days, for everyone else.

6. 6

   Pass a written exam and a hands-on practical with a score of 90% or better.

7. 7

   A passing course score is valid for 5 years from the date you complete it.

8. 8

   At the time of sale, the dealer checks your eligibility in the FSS before completing the transfer.

Find your county's eligibility-card process

The card is issued by your county sheriff, and each of Colorado's 64 counties sets its own fee, application channel, and timeline. Open your county for its published status, fee, source, and the date it was last checked, or use the sortablecounty eligibility-card status tracker.

Status reflects the last check of each county's published guidance; a county marked with no guidance yet is the finding, not a gap in research. Every county page ends with its own source and check date.

What this does not change

• Background checks and courses completed for a concealed handgun permit (CHP/CCW) do not count toward this program.

• Firearms already possessed before August 1, 2026 are not affected by this law.

• Rapid-fire devices (for example bump stocks and binary triggers) were classified as dangerous weapons when the governor signed the bill, April 10, 2025. No grandfather provision applies.

What state materials don't say yet

• State guidance says an applicant must “provide” a name-based background check and photo ID to the sheriff's office, but doesn't specify whether the applicant arranges the background check before the visit or whether the sheriff's office runs it during the visit, and it does not name any accepted background-check provider. This page will update once that sequence is published.

• State guidance describes buying from a licensed dealer. It does not address firearms assembled by their owner — for example, a short-barreled rifle completed under an ATF Form 1 after August 1, 2026.

• State materials do not address configuration changes to a handgun that is not on the list — for example, installing a serialized fire-control unit in a chassis system. Some list entries distinguish braced and non-braced configurations of the same model; no published rule covers models the list does not name.

New to the law itself? Start withSB25-003 in plain English. Find your sheriff's county eligibility-card status, fee, and application channel. See theColorado firearms safety course requirements for course details and fees, and the key-date trackerfor every date on this page in one place. The FSS application opens 2026-07-20.Not sure whether a specific model is covered? Check it in thelookup tool or browsethe SB25-003 SSF list. A Colorado concealed carry permit (CHP) is a separate sheriff-issued permit; it does not replace any step of this process. Been through this pipeline? Report or revieweligibility-card and firearms-safety-course costs. The state's own program overview is atcpw.state.co.us/specified-semiautomatic-firearms.