Colorado Introduces Sweeping Gun Bill Targeting 3D Printing, CNC Machining, and Digital Files

Audio from a town hall hosted by Colorado State Rep. Andrew Boesnecker last month revealed lawmakers were preparing a bill to regulate 3D printing around firearms. In that discussion, Boesnecker framed the proposal as a way to “close a loophole” in existing law, specifically, the idea that Coloradans could legally 3D-print unserialized firearm receivers at home.

We called bullshit on this, as the conduct he described is already illegal, and then we speculated what the bill would really do. Unfortunately, we were right. 

Now that the bill has been formally introduced, a close look at what it actually does reveals a much broader reach than the public was told. Sponsored by Andrew Boesnecker and Lindsay Gilchrist in the state house, along with Tom Sullivan and Katie Wallace in the state senate, HB26-1144 “Prohibit Three-Dimensional Printing Firearms & Components”, bundles together physical manufacturing, possession of digital information, and distribution of files under a brand-new criminal offense umbrella.

Let’s dig into the bill…

A Brand-New Crime Category

HB26-1144 creates a new criminal offense in Colorado law titled “unlawful three-dimensional printing of a firearm or firearm component.” This offense is codified as a separate section of the criminal code, not as an amendment or clarification of the existing ghost-gun statute as Boesnecker had implied. It establishes an independent crime category with its own definitions, prohibited conduct, and penalties.

What Is Considered A Firearm or Firearm Component?

It’s not limited to frames or receivers. It explicitly includes:

• An unfinished frame or receiver,
• A large-capacity magazine, as defined elsewhere in Colorado law, and
• A rapid-fire device, also defined under existing statute and banned under SB25-003 last year.

What Manufacturing Would Now Be Illegal?

Under this new crime category, it would be illegal for anyone who is not a federally licensed firearm manufacturer to manufacture a firearm or a “firearm component” using certain technologies.

Those technologies are defined broadly. The bill covers not only traditional 3D printers (additive manufacturing), but also CNC milling machines (subtractive manufacturing) and any similar computer-controlled device. While CNC milling machines are explicitly named, the bill does not limit criminal liability to milling machines alone. By including “similar computer-controlled device,” the definition extends to CNC lathes, CNC routers, multi-axis CNC machines, other computer-numerical-control (CNC) fabrication equipment that removes material based on digital instructions. 

To be explicitly clear, this is a prohibition, not a regulatory “loophole” closure as was promised. HB26-1144 does not attempt to bring private manufacturing into compliance; it eliminates it. The only exception written into the statute is for an FFL specifically with a manufacturing license. For everyone else, the act of manufacturing a covered firearm or component using 3D printers, CNC machines, or similar computer-controlled devices would be illegal on its face, regardless of serialization compliance or lack of intent to sell or transfer in the future.

What Digital Files Are Now Illegal?

Where HB26-1144 truly breaks new ground is not in how it treats firearms (Colorado is already drowning in gun laws), but in how it treats digital information. Criminal liability would attach not to an object or an act of violence, but to the possession of files, we’re talking ordinary digital data, based on how the state interprets a person’s intent to use those files.

Under the bill, a person commits a crime if they possess digital instructions, including CAD files, code, or similar data, when “circumstances indicate” an intent either to manufacture a firearm or firearm component in violation of the statute, or to distribute those instructions to someone who would. No firearm needs to be printed and no manufacturing step needs to occur. The offense can exist entirely at the level of “information”.

This represents a fundamental shift in how criminal gun law operates. Historically, firearm laws regulate physical conduct: possession, transfer, manufacture, or use. HB26-1144 moves that line upstream, making information itself the trigger for criminal liability and leaving the determination of intent to post-hoc interpretation.

In practical terms, the bill would make the following situations legally significant:

• Possessing CAD files or code that could be used to manufacture a listed firearm or component

• Retaining those files alongside access to 3D printers, CNC machines, or other computer-controlled tools

• Sharing or storing files in a manner a prosecutor believes suggests future use or distribution

• Maintaining digital libraries or archives without any act of printing or manufacturing

This grants prosecutors wide discretion to decide when possession of digital files crosses the line into criminal conduct. It does not depend on a completed action or measurable harm, only on how surrounding facts are interpreted after the fact.

And Sharing Files Is Illegal Too

The bill does not stop at possession. It also criminalizes the distribution of digital manufacturing instructions to anyone in Colorado who is not a federally licensed firearm manufacturer. In other words, the law would not only punish someone for holding certain files under the wrong circumstances, but also for sharing them at all, regardless of whether a firearm is ever produced.

And HB26-1144 is explicit about the scope of that prohibition. Distribution is defined broadly and applies “by any means,” including via the internet. That language is designed to cover public posting, private file transfers, direct messages, cloud sharing, email attachments, and any other method by which digital information can be transmitted.

This means the following conduct could trigger criminal liability:

• Uploading design files to a website or file-sharing platform

• Sending CAD files privately to another individual

• Sharing digital instructions within online forums, group chats, or repositories

• Transmitting files electronically, even without compensation and even without a completed firearm

Hell, I can link DefCad right here in this article and that would make me a criminal under this law, and now if you clicked my link, you’re in possession of contraband and now a criminal too. That is truly how absurd this bill is written.

The statute does not require proof that the recipient used the files. It does not require proof that the sender intended a firearm to be manufactured. The act of sharing information itself becomes the offense.

This places speech, code, and digital expression inside criminal law, subject to prosecution based not on what someone did, but on what someone else might do with what they shared. And yes, there are First Amendment implications around that, something I intend to write more about later, so make sure you’re on our email list. 

The Penalties

All of the conduct we just covered, the act of manufacturing, possessing digital files, or distributing digital files, falls under the same new crime category and carries the same escalating penalties.

• A first offense is a class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by up to 364 days in county jail and a fine of up to $5,000. This is the most serious misdemeanor level under Colorado law and allows for incarceration, not just a citation or regulatory fine.
• A second or subsequent offense escalates to a class 5 felony, exposing a defendant to one to three years or more in state prison, depending on criminal history, and fines of up to $100,000.

These penalties apply uniformly, whether the alleged conduct involved a physical firearm or component, a CNC-machined part, or only digital files stored or shared electronically.

If passed, the law would go into effect July 1, 2026.

Implications Beyond Guns

While this bill is framed as a firearms policy, its reach extends well beyond gun owners. By tying criminal liability to possession of files and inferred intent, HB26-1144 inevitably touches engineers, hobbyists, educators, makerspaces, and small manufacturers who use the same tools and file formats for many other entirely lawful purposes.

Once digital instructions are treated as contraband, the line between regulating conduct and regulating expression becomes very thin. And once a new crime category exists, it becomes far easier to expand it later by broadening definitions, increasing penalties, or adding civil liability on top. Where will it stop?

It is also not lost on me that the sponsors of HB26-1144, along with the lawmakers most likely to vote for it, routinely describe themselves as criminal justice warriors. These are the same legislators who argue that Colorado relies too heavily on incarceration, that too many offenses are criminalized, that felonies should be reduced to misdemeanors, and jail should be reserved for the most serious conduct. 

And yet, in this bill, those same lawmakers have no problem creating an entirely new crime category; not for violence, not for gun trafficking, but for digital files and manufacturing tools