Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D.) just picked sides between a rock and a hard place.

On Thursday, Polis signed SB25-003 into law. As a result, beginning in August 2026, the manufacture, sale, and purchase of most semi-automatic firearms that can accept detachable ammunition magazines will be outlawed in Colorado. Only those who undergo special vetting from their local sheriff’s office, take up to 12 hours of training over multiple days from a soon-to-be-developed state-sanctioned class, and pay an undetermined amount in fees for both processes will be permitted to buy the common weapons covered under the law.

The new law once again puts Colorado in the national spotlight over gun politics, a potentially uncomfortable place to be for the man who signed it.

Polis, a soon-to-be term-limited Governor regularly floated as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, has worked hard to garnish a reputation as a political moderate with libertarian leanings. Until this week, that work extended to guns.

While he has signed numerous gun-control bills, he never pushed for big-ticket hardware bans and other more controversial measures supported by the progressive members of his party. Indeed, he even opposed two failed previous efforts by Colorado lawmakers to enact an “assault weapon” ban in recent years.

Yet when lawmakers returned earlier this year with an even more sweeping ban proposal, Polis chose not to publicly oppose the bill or threaten a veto. Instead, he settled for a set of amendments that ultimately became the new permit-to-purchase scheme, a fact that he tried to emphasize in explaining his decision to sign the bill over the objections of gun-rights supporters.

“This law is not a ban, and I have been clear that I oppose banning types of firearms,” Polis said at the measure’s signing ceremony. “Proper gun safety education and training, however, are key components of public safety and responsible gun ownership.”

But even with his office’s work to water down the law, his signature officially codified the most comprehensive gun restrictions in Colorado’s history–a fact that will be difficult to downplay in a national election. The bill also includes provisions that have given fellow moderate Democrats pause elsewhere.

A less-discussed section in SB-003 bans the possession and sale of so-called rapid-fire devices.

Democrats included it in the measure as a way to outlaw bump stocks, binary triggers, and other accessories meant to significantly increase a semi-automatic firearm’s rate of fire. However, rather than adopt narrow statutory language explicitly aimed at those devices, the provision instead crafted felony criminal penalties for anyone possessing any part or combination of parts that have the effect of “increasing the rate of fire of a semi-automatic firearm above the standard rate of fire.” As written, that seems to implicate anodyne modifications, like after-market triggers commonly sought out by hunters and competition shooters, right alongside more obvious rate of fire enhancers.

Under pressure to pass any kind of gun restriction in the aftermath of the Lewiston shooting, Maine Governor Janet Mills (D.) still decided to veto a “bump stock” ban that contained similarly broad language last year.

“There are a variety of minor modifications that would meet this definition, such as adjusting the trigger weight or changing the buffer spring or bolt in order to increase speed,” she wrote in her veto statement. “These kinds of alterations are common among those using firearms for sporting purposes. The result is that this bill may unintentionally ban a significant number of weapons used for hunting or target shooting by responsible gun owners in Maine.”

At the same time, the political realities being what they are in a state like Colorado, Polis can claim to have done more to shore up gun rights in the version of SB-003 that became law than nearly any other Democratic figure would have.

His likely replacement as Colorado Governor after next year’s elections, US Senator Michael Bennet, is another moderate-leaning Democrat. He, too, once opposed hardware ban legislation. But now he is spearheading a federal bill that is nearly identical in scope to SB-003’s original version that would have simply banned the sale of semi-automatic firearms that accept detachable magazines.

That suggests he would have happily accepted the bill as introduced had their roles been reversed, rather than push for the same permit process that Polis secured. Perhaps his ability to claim that he headed off a far more sweeping ban will do more to help, instead of hurt, his credentials as a moderate in the end.

Regardless of how it ultimately plays out, that a self-styled “libertarian” like Polis felt compelled to sign the measure this session after years of resisting calls for hardware restrictions highlights the dwindling space for political moderation on guns left among key Democratic party figures.

Restrictions on modern semi-automatic firearms have become a litmus test for Democrats, one that moderates and progressives alike now are willing to pass. Jared Polis may now be a test case for how well his answer plays with those beyond the Democratic base.