DENVER — Colorado lawmakers are considering a bill to allow people to voluntarily give up their right to buy a gun by placing their name on a “do not sell” registry.
Supporters of Senate Bill 25-034 say it will save lives and help people struggling with a mental health crisis.
New Orleans resident Katrina Brees says her mom, Donna Nathan, had a long history of struggling with bipolar disorder. When Nathan began having suicidal thoughts, Brees said her mother checked herself into inpatient psychiatric hospitals three times to get help.
“It was just so important to her to stay alive that she was willing to give up anything in order to do it,” said Brees. “My mom did every single thing that she could to stay alive. Our entire family did.”
After Nathan came home from the hospital in 2018, the suicidal thoughts returned.
“And then one morning, [she] googled gun stores on her phone and went to the closest gun store and bought the first gun she's ever owned,” Brees said. “She then took it to the park and shot herself and died there.”
To spare other families the pain her family went through, Brees has pushed lawmakers across the country to pass legislation named in honor of her mother. So far, four states have passed a Donna’s Law bill. Brees hopes Colorado will become the latest with SB25-034.
Sponsored by State Sen. Cathy Kip, D-Fort Collins, the bill would allow people to voluntarily waive their right to buy a gun by putting their name on a “do not sell” list with the NICS background check system.
“So they can't walk into a firearm shop and buy a firearm,” said Kipp. “This bill is really to allow people to protect themselves from themselves.”
Kipp said people would be able to remove themselves from the list after 30 days, which supporters say would allow time for their mental health crisis to pass.
People would also have the option to list a contact person when they submit their waiver. That person would be contacted if the person who waived their rights tried to purchase a gun or revoke the waiver.
According to Every Town for Gun Safety, 70% of gun deaths in Colorado in 2023 were suicides.
- Read the bill's fiscal note below
Virginia Mack, a psychiatric nurse practitioner in Fort Collins, brought the idea to Kipp last summer after learning about Donna’s Law.
“I saw that as a tool that could be available to other clinicians like myself,” said Mack. "This is a bill that can really positively make an impact and save lives."
Mack believes the law would have helped save the life of a college student she had been working with in 2016.
“He struggled with depression as well as substance use,” said Mack.
One day, the student bought a gun at a gun show and drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he took his own life.
“It was a very heartbreaking situation that rippled across the university campus,” said Mack. “I really felt like he was someone who I wished a tool such as the voluntary do not sell law had been available.”
Similar laws have been enacted in Delaware, Utah, Virginia and Washington.
Kipp’s bill directs the Colorado Department of Public Safety to develop an online portal where people would be able to submit their waiver and have their identity verified.
“We want something where you can just go into your phone and apply and confirm that you are who you say you are,” said Kipp. “We don't want people applying on behalf of other people.”
Opponents of the bill worry that once people's names are on the “do not sell” registry, they'll never really be able to come off.
"You're putting all this data into the NICS system,” said Ian Escalante with the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners. “When something goes into the NICS system, it doesn't come out. It doesn't magically delete itself."
Escalante said an alternative would be for people struggling with mental health issues to give their guns to a friend or family member.
“There are even gun shops where you can put your firearms and have them store them for a period of time,” said Escalante. “I don't think it is right, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, to put individuals in a position where their previous struggles with mental health follow them around for the rest of their lives.”
The bill, which is also sponsored by State Rep. Andrew Boesenecker, D-Fort Collins, passed its first senate committee last week in a party-line vote. The three Democratic senators on the committee — Matt Ball, Tom Sullivan, and Mike Weissman — all voted in favor of the bill. The two Republicans on the committee — Byron Pelton and Rod Pelton — voted against the bill.
SB25-034 now awaiting a hearing in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
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