Colorado law lets you renew a concealed handgun permit by showing you shoot competitively. Almost nobody — including most sheriffs’ websites — tells you that.
Since July 1, 2025, renewing a Colorado concealed handgun permit requires demonstrating competence with a handgun. Nearly every source describing that change — news coverage, training vendors, gun-rights groups, and a majority of county sheriff web pages — says the same thing: you have to take a refresher class.
Read the statute and it says something different. The refresher class is one of five alternatives, and the very first one on the list is participation in organized shooting competitions.
If you shoot matches, the legislature already counted that as proof of competence.
This is C.R.S. § 18-12-211(3), added by HB24-1174 and effective July 1, 2025. Read the whole thing — the structure is the argument.
“A permittee seeking renewal pursuant to this section may demonstrate competence with a handgun by submitting:”
Colorado Revised Statutes 2026, Title 18. Added by HB24-1174, effective July 1, 2025.
Note the little word at the end of (d): “or.”
These are alternatives, not a checklist. Any one of them is enough.
That is the whole case. The list is disjunctive, the class sits at the bottom of it as option (e), and competition sits at the top as option (a). A permittee who shoots organized matches has satisfied the statute without setting foot in a classroom.
This is where it gets interesting — and where you need to be careful.
Because the statute is silent, every specific requirement you will see on a county website — “two matches,” “within the past year,” “70% score,” “nationally recognized organization” — is a county-invented standard, not Colorado law. Jefferson County is candid enough to label its own additions on the page as a “JCSO Agency Requirement… not specified in the statute.” Most counties are not that transparent. And no provision of the statute expressly authorizes a sheriff to add competence requirements — but none spells out a documentary standard a sheriff must accept, either, so in practice the person at the counter decides on the day.
We read the official CHP pages for fifteen Colorado counties on August 30, 2026. The picture is a mess — and the mess is the story. Six of fifteen tell renewing permittees flatly that a class is required. Several contradict themselves on a single page.
| County | Competition option? | What its page says |
|---|---|---|
| Jefferson | Explicit | The model page. Reproduces § 18-12-211(3) verbatim; class required only “if they cannot demonstrate competence with a handgun through other documentation.” Adds two-matches/70% conditions but labels them as its own agency requirement “not specified in the statute.” |
| Arapahoe | Explicit | Clearest documentation guidance in the state: wants to know the sponsoring organization, that a handgun was used, and evidence of two or more competitions within one year. Its renewal packet has a check-one box for the competition option. |
| El Paso | Explicit | Quotes the statutory menu nearly verbatim — but the page’s own top summary and its online portal both say a refresher certificate is required. |
| Denver (DPD) | Explicit | Lists it as an exemption, then imposes the heaviest add-ons in the state: at least two competitions within the past year, with a handgun, plus documentation of performance (score or accuracy rating), from a nationally recognized organization. None of those three conditions appears in the statute. |
| Boulder | Explicit | Contradicts itself: a banner reads “All new and renewal applicants must follow the new training requirements… There are no exceptions,” while further down the same page lists competitions “within the past year” as a way to show competence. |
| Douglas | Explicit | Requires “two (2) or more” competitions, one within the last year — and cites the new-applicant statute for a renewal rule. Elsewhere says all renewal applicants “must” have an instructor certificate. |
| Delta | Explicit | Lists the full menu, then contradicts it lower down with a flat verified-instructor-course mandate for all applications after July 1, 2025. |
| Montezuma | Explicit | Lists competitions with no class mandate — but the page appears not to have been updated for HB24-1174 at all, still tracking the older statute. |
| Weld | Contradictory | A subpage lays out the full statutory menu. The FAQ on the main page asks “Do I need to take another firearms training class each time I renew?” and answers “Yes, you do.” The renewal checklist lists only a refresher certificate. |
| Larimer | Contradictory | The renewal page says you must submit a refresher certificate and “all renewing permit holders must take a ‘refresher’ class.” The competition option appears only in a January 2025 news item, which says the class is required “unless” you participate in organized shooting competitions. |
| Adams | Contradictory | “Do I need to retake a training course to renew? Yes.” The word “competition” appears nowhere on its renewal pages — though the county’s own application form does list the statutory alternatives. |
| Broomfield | Contradictory | City page and FAQ say a refresher is required for all renewals; its own permit portal says it will honor competition evidence “in lieu of a training certificate.” |
| Mesa | Contradictory | Only a verified-instructor course is listed. The words “competition,” “military,” and “DD-214” do not appear anywhere on its CHP pages. |
| Pueblo | Contradictory | States that any applicant “to include a renewal” must present a training certificate. No competition option anywhere on the page. |
| Teller | Silent | Describes the refresher regime, then lists alternatives that conspicuously omit competitions. Its linked information packet still reflects pre-2025 law. |
Status as read on August 30, 2026. County pages change; several of these contradict themselves today and may be corrected tomorrow. Verify before you rely on any row above.
Competition is option (a). If it doesn’t fit you, one of these might.
This is the caveat most likely to hurt someone, so take it seriously. Under § 18-12-211(1)(a) you may renew only within 120 days prior to expiration. Under § 18-12-211(2), a late renewal is possible with a fee, but no permit may be renewed six months or more after it expires — after that you start over as a new applicant.
So the risk is not that the competition pathway is unlawful. The risk is burning your window: if you count on it, get refused at the counter, and then have to find, book, and complete a two-hour in-person class with a verified instructor, you can run out of days.
Get the answer before the window opens,
from a named person at your sheriff’s CHP unit — not from the website.
Given that six of the fifteen counties we checked publish something that contradicts the statute or their own portal, a website is not a reliable answer. Call, ask exactly what evidence they accept for § 18-12-211(3)(a), write down who told you, and ask for it in writing if they will give it.
Because clause (a) specifies no document, there is no safe-harbor paperwork — so bring more than you think you need: official match results showing your name and the date, a signed letter from the match director on club letterhead, your USPSA/IDPA classification card and membership record, and printed results pages. Expect the counter to want something showing a handgun was used. If your county publishes its own conditions, satisfying them is the path of least resistance even where they exceed what the statute requires.
A right that requires a permit, and a permit that requires a class, and a class that requires two hours and a fee and a scheduled seat with an approved instructor, is a right rationed by administrative friction. The legislature — to its credit — wrote alternatives into the renewal statute for people who have already proven they can shoot.
Those alternatives are being quietly erased at the county level, not by repeal but by web pages that say “yes, you do” when the statute says you may choose. That is the same pattern documented elsewhere on this site: the law formally intact, functionally diminished, one counter at a time.
The fix is cheap. Read the statute. Ask your sheriff to follow it. If a county tells you a class is mandatory, point to § 18-12-211(3) and ask which clause of the statute requires it.
The statutory text on this page comes from the signed act and the state’s own 2026 printing of the Colorado Revised Statutes, checked against the 2024 edition; as of the 2026 edition, § 18-12-211(3) is unchanged since it took effect. The county descriptions come from official sheriff and police department pages read on August 30, 2026. Several county sites block automated access, and one county’s page (Montezuma) could only be read through an intermediary, so treat that row as second-hand. We found no case law and no published attorney or sheriffs’ association guidance interpreting what “participation in organized shooting competitions” means — because as far as we can tell, none exists yet.
The alternatives in § 18-12-211(3) went almost entirely unreported. Pass this along to anyone renewing a permit — and to any sheriff’s office publishing that a class is mandatory.
The author of this site is not an attorney and does not practice law. Nothing published here is legal advice, no part of it is offered as legal advice, and reading it creates no attorney-client relationship with anyone. This is Second Amendment advocacy and general-interest commentary written by a private citizen, and it includes opinion.
Full terms: Legal Notice & Terms of Use → Page last reviewed August 30, 2026. The law may have changed since.