Permission Required: Inside the New Wave of State Gun Laws
15th Aug 2026
Market + Policy · August 2026
Permission Required: Inside the New Wave of State Gun Laws
Permit-to-purchase in Oregon. Sheriff-issued eligibility cards in Colorado. A sweeping "assault firearm" ban in Virginia. Three states, three very different laws — and three court fights that will shape what you can buy for years. Here is what each one actually does, in plain English.
A new generation of state gun laws has arrived, and they share one idea: before you exercise your Second Amendment rights, you first ask the government for permission. Some require a permit before any purchase. Some require a card, a class and a test before buying specific firearms. Some ban entire categories of commonly owned rifles outright. Every one of them is being fought in court right now — and understanding exactly what each law says is the difference between a confident, lawful purchase and an expensive mistake.
Below is the current state of play in the three states writing this playbook: Oregon, Colorado and Virginia.
Oregon · Ballot Measure 114
Approved by voters in November 2022 by a margin of about 1.3 percentage points, Measure 114 is the most restrictive purchase law in the country to reach the books — even though, nearly four years later, it has never been enforced for a single day. If it survives court, here is what it requires:
◆A permit before any purchase. No firearm of any kind changes hands without a government-issued permit-to-purchase — application, fingerprints, fees and law-enforcement sign-off included.
◆Mandatory training first. Completing a state-approved firearm safety course is a precondition of the permit — a class before a right.
◆No transfer without a fully completed check. It eliminates the federal default that lets a sale proceed if the government takes more than three business days — an unfinished check means no gun, indefinitely.
◆A 10-round magazine cap. Manufacture, sale and transfer of magazines over 10 rounds is prohibited, with narrow exceptions — sweeping in the standard-capacity magazines that ship with most modern pistols and rifles.
The law's journey since election night explains why Oregonians can still buy normally today:
DEC 2022A Harney County judge blocks the measure before it can take effect.
JUL 2023A federal judge upholds it under the U.S. Constitution; that appeal still sits at the Ninth Circuit.
NOV 2023The Harney County court rules it violates the Oregon Constitution.
MAR 2025The Oregon Court of Appeals reverses, declaring the measure facially valid.
NOV 2025The Oregon Supreme Court hears argument. The decision is still pending.
MAR 2026Lawmakers pass House Bill 4145, moving the law's operative date to January 1, 2028.
Bottom line for Oregonians: the law is on the books, the state's highest court holds its fate, and even a green light from the justices does not start the clock until January 1, 2028. Until then, purchases run under today's rules.
Colorado · Senate Bill 25-003
Signed in April 2025 and live since August 1, 2026, Colorado took a different route: instead of a permit for every gun, it built a gate in front of a specific category the statute calls "specified semiautomatic firearms" — broadly, semiautomatic rifles and shotguns that accept detachable magazines, plus certain semiautomatic handguns. To buy or receive one now, a Coloradan must:
01Pass a name-based background check through an approved vendor — before the process even starts.
02Obtain a firearms safety course eligibility card from the county sheriff, valid for five years — and the sheriff has authority to deny it.
03Complete an in-person, state-approved safety course and pass its test.
04Then go through the normal purchase — dealer, InstaCheck background check and Colorado's existing waiting period — all layered on top of the state's long-standing 15-round magazine cap.
Know the boundaries of the law. It is not retroactive — firearms you already lawfully own are untouched. And it does not cover everything semiautomatic: most common recoil-operated pistols fall outside the definition, as do lever-actions, pump-actions and bolt guns. The fight over whether any of it is constitutional is already in court, with the Colorado State Shooting Association's challenge, Del Toro v. Polis, seeking to strike the law down.
Virginia · The 2026 Bans
Virginia went furthest of all. A package signed by Governor Spanberger this spring took effect July 1, 2026, and reaches directly into the gun case:
◆An "assault firearm" sales ban (SB 749). A feature-based test that sweeps in the AR-15 platform and most modern semiautomatic centerfire rifles, ending new sales and transfers of them in the commonwealth.
◆A 15-round magazine cap (HB 217). Magazines over 15 rounds can no longer be bought, sold or transferred going forward.
◆Criminal teeth. Violations are criminal offenses, and a willful sale by a licensed dealer is a felony. A companion measure restricting public carry of covered firearms is also being challenged.
◆Grandfathering by possession. What you lawfully owned before July 1, 2026 stays yours — the ban targets commerce going forward, not the safe you already have.
Then the courts stepped in. In Santolla v. Katz, a Washington County circuit judge found the bans likely violate the Virginia Constitution's right to keep and bear arms and entered a preliminary injunction — extended statewide as of July 21, 2026, binding every law-enforcement agency and every Commonwealth's Attorney. A parallel challenge, Crump v. Katz, won its own injunction. The case is now paused until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on "assault weapon" bans, and sales of covered firearms have resumed in the meantime.
One detail every Virginia buyer should understand: an injunction pauses enforcement, but it did not move the July 1 grandfather date written into the statute. If the ban is ultimately upheld, a covered firearm purchased after that date may not enjoy grandfathered status. Buying under an injunction is lawful today — just know exactly what the statute says before you do.
How Americans Answered
The response to these laws has now been measured. Economists from Oregon State University, the University of Oregon and the National Bureau of Economic Research studied Measure 114's passage in the Journal of Public Economics and found firearm background checks jumped 157% the moment voters approved it — roughly 78,000 additional checks before the courts froze the law, with demand still 63,000 checks above baseline eighteen months on. The heaviest buying came from the counties that voted against the measure, and most of it, the researchers found, would never have happened without it. Colorado and Virginia followed the same arc this summer, and the mirror image holds too: when the Bruen decision struck down New Jersey's "justifiable need" test, close to 100,000 carry-permit applications followed.
Buyers aren't panicking. They're paying attention.
What This Means for You
Effective dates are the law's first fact. Every one of these statutes was signed months before it bit — Colorado's more than a year out, Oregon's now set for 2028. Learn the dates in your state the day a bill is signed.
An injunction is a pause, not a repeal. Virginia's bans are blocked, not erased — the statute stays on the books while courts decide, and details like grandfather dates keep running. Read the fine print before treating a blocked law as a dead one.
Grandfathering follows possession. Colorado's gate and Virginia's bans both leave what you lawfully acquired before the effective date untouched. The rules differ state to state — confirm how yours defines lawful possession and when.
Permission systems take time. Colorado's path runs vendor check, sheriff's card, then an in-person class and test — each step with its own clock. If your state builds a gate, start the paperwork early, not the week you want the gun.
Watch the courts. Oregon's Supreme Court decision is pending, Virginia's case is stayed for the U.S. Supreme Court, and Colorado's challenge is under way. Any one ruling can rewrite the rules overnight — your local dealer, official state notices and updates like this one are your early-warning system.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Firearm laws vary by state and change quickly — verify the current law where you live, or talk to your local licensed dealer, before you buy.
Where Derya Stands
Derya builds and imports for law-abiding Americans, and we read these laws so you don't have to — our Virginia, New Jersey and Colorado updates break each one down in plain English as the rules change. The lesson from Oregon holds everywhere: Americans don't shrug when their rights are on the line. They act.
Whatever your state allows, there is a Derya that fits. The MAX line of semiautomatic shotguns. The award-winning DY9Z 9mm pistol. The TM22 rimfire family. And for buyers in permit-and-ban states, our RAN and RANX lever-action rifles typically sit outside semiauto-specific restrictions altogether — ask your dealer about availability where you live.
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