Short answer: No. Colorado has no firearm registration requirement — not for guns you buy, and not for guns you inherit. There is no state registry to add your name to, no form to file, and no deadline to meet.
But "no registration" doesn't mean "no rules." Here's what you actually do have to do with an inherited firearm in Colorado.
I'm a licensed FFL holder. I run Gun Legacy in Parker, Colorado, helping families with inherited firearms — and this is one of the most common questions I hear.
Why People Ask
The confusion is understandable. A few things feed it:
- Some states do require registration, and advice from out-of-state relatives doesn't always translate.
- Federal paperwork (the Form 4473 you fill out at a gun shop) feels like registration, but it isn't — it's a transaction record, not a registry.
- Colorado passed SB25-003 in 2026, which created an eligibility-card system for certain semiautomatic firearms. That system tracks eligibility, not ownership — and it only applies to new purchases and transfers of covered firearms, not guns you already own or inherit.
So if someone tells you that you need to "register" an inherited shotgun with the state of Colorado, that requirement doesn't exist.
What You DO Have to Do
1. Keep it secure and legal to possess. Make sure the firearm is stored safely — unloaded, locked, ammunition separate. And confirm that the person receiving it can legally possess a firearm under federal and state law. Certain criminal convictions, restraining orders, and other disqualifiers prohibit possession.
2. Handle the transfer properly. Colorado requires private firearm transfers to go through a licensed dealer (FFL) with a CBI background check. For firearms passing to heirs through an estate, the transfer to the heir is exempt from SB25-003's eligibility-card requirement — but documenting the transfer through an FFL is still the safest way to create a clean paper trail.
3. Know what you have. Write down the make, model, and serial number of each firearm, and photograph them. This matters for estate inventory, insurance, and your own records. If anything looks unusual — fully automatic, short-barreled, suppressed — stop and get professional guidance, because federal NFA rules apply.
4. Check anything covered by SB25-003. If the inherited collection includes semiautomatic rifles or shotguns with detachable magazines, or gas-operated semiautomatic handguns with detachable magazines, those are "specified semiautomatic firearms" under the new law. Inheriting them is fine — transfers to heirs are exempt from the card requirement. But if you later decide to sell one, the buyer will need the eligibility card, which is why selling through a dealer is the practical route.
If You're the Executor
One more practical note: even though there's no registration to file, document every firearm transfer in the estate's records — who received which gun (make, model, serial number), on what date, and through which dealer if an FFL transfer was used. If a question ever comes up later — from a co-executor, an heir, or anyone else — a one-page transfer log answers it in thirty seconds. The families who run into trouble are almost never the ones who did something wrong; they're the ones who can't show what they did.
The Bottom Line
No registration. But safe storage, legal possession, proper transfer documentation, and knowing what you have — those are real obligations, and they're worth getting right.
This is general information about Colorado law, not legal advice.
Questions about an inherited firearm? Contact Gun Legacy for a free consultation — info@gunlegacy.com or gunlegacy.com. I'll help you sort out what you have and what to do with it, with no pressure and no obligation.