State 3D-Printed Gun Laws: Enacted Colorado Ban vs. California's Pending Algorithm Mandate

Colorado's HB26-1144, signed into law after committee passage on February 19, 2026, bans the 3D printing of firearms, unfinished frames, and receivers, making it a class 1 misdemeanor (escalating to a class 5 felony for repeat offenses). This is a straightforward prohibition on the act of printing guns—similar to bans in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Washington, and Maine. The Colorado Supreme Court's Colorado House Democrats news release confirms the Judiciary Committee's approval, and legislative records on leg.colorado.gov show its enactment, though the exact signing date is not in this bundle.

By contrast, California's AB 2047 (the Firearm Printing Prevention Act) passed the Assembly on May 26, 2026, according to Everytown for Gun Safety—not the full legislature. It remains pending in the State Senate. If enacted, it would not ban 3D printing of firearms directly, but would require all 3D printers sold in California after March 1, 2029 to contain government-mandated 'firearm blueprint detection algorithms.' The Electronic Frontier Foundation has called this 'censorship-ware' that could criminalize open-source design sharing. This approach raises privacy and free expression concerns distinct from Colorado's ban, which is already in effect.

For litigators monitoring the landscape, the conflation matters: an enacted ban is enforceable now; an unenacted surveillance mandate is a threat to free expression and privacy that has not yet become law. Advocates should track both but treat them separately—applying First Amendment scrutiny to AB 2047 without conflating its status with Colorado's enacted prohibition.