A bipartisan bill to make all gun thefts in Colorado a felony passed its first committee hearing Tuesday as two Democrats joined Republicans in supporting it.

House Bill 25-1062 made it through the House Judiciary Committee on a 6-5 vote. Representative Cecelia Espenoza, a Denver Democrat, and Representative Chad Clifford, a Centennial Democrat, voted with the committee’s four Republicans.

The bill would make theft of any firearm, regardless of value, a Class 6 felony, which is the lowest felony level. Penalties for Class 6 felonies can include fines ranging from $1,000 to $100,000 and imprisonment between one year and 18 months.

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Currently, firearm theft is a felony in Colorado if the gun is worth more than $2,000, which lines up with other property theft classifications.

“Colorado must take a stronger stance against gun theft if we want to prevent crime before it happens. Weak penalties do nothing to deter criminals who steal firearms and use them illegally,” bill sponsor Representative Ryan Armagost, a Berthoud Republican, said in a statement to Colorado Newsline.

Armagost is running the bill with House Majority Leader Monica Duran, a Wheat Ridge Democrat. He sponsored the bill, also bipartisan, last year but it died in the same committee.

The 2025 bill is sponsored by Senator Nick Hinrichsen, a Pueblo Democrat, in the Senate. The bill now moves to the full House for consideration. Democrats have strong majorities in both chambers of the Legislature.

An amendment approved in committee strips a provision that could have enabled law enforcement to stack Class 5 felony charges on subsequent thefts or if more than one gun was stolen in an instance. Espenoza said that change helped her vote in favor of the measure.

The multiple hours of witness testimony Tuesday were almost entirely in support of the bill, with a handful of people saying they were neutral on the policy. The support included comments from district attorneys, law enforcement, gun rights advocates and the gun violence prevention group Colorado Ceasefire.

They argued that the impact of a stolen firearm is severe no matter its value, and that harsher penalties could act as a deterrent. They said stolen firearms often land in the hands of minors and people otherwise prohibited from possessing a gun.

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“The theft of any firearm, regardless of its dollar value, presents a serious risk of violence to the community. A cheap gun can kill and maim just as much as a more expensive one,” said Denver District Attorney John Walsh.

“Making the theft of any firearm a felony sends a very clear message to the community and also a message to law enforcement that we take gun violence seriously and that we expect effective intervention and effective enforcement,” he said.

The Democrats who voted against the bill said there is little evidence that the creation of a new felony would deter firearm thefts, but it would result in more people in prison and involved in the criminal justice system.

“Ratcheting up criminal penalties does not solve our problem, and it doesn’t get guns off the streets,” Representative Javier Mabrey, a Denver Democrat, said. “Laws and policies designed to deter crime by focusing on increasing severity of punishment are ineffective, partly because criminals know little about the sanctions for specific crimes.”

He noted that firearm theft charges often accompany other felonies, such as breaking and entering.

A nonpartisan legislative analysis estimates that upping the crime classification could result in about 278 more felony convictions per year and about 28 new admissions to the Department of Corrections, based on historical sentencing data. It could increase state spending by about $380,000 in the upcoming fiscal year and about $930,000 in the fiscal year after that because of increased workloads in the Judicial Department and the Department of Corrections.

“This would be an irresponsible decision on our part to invest these funds under a desire to reduce gun violence, when the reality is that it will not,” Representative Lorena Garcia, an Adams County Democrat, said.

The bill now heads to the House Appropriations Committee.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com.