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KUNC: Colorado’s ‘do not sell’ firearms registry on pace to go live by end of year
Last year, Colorado legislators passed a law to create a voluntary “do not sell” registry in an effort to prevent gun suicides. The registry allows people to ban themselves from purchasing firearms. Colorado became the fifth state to enact “Donna’s Law,” named after Donna Nathan, a New Orleans woman who died from a gun suicide in 2018. Nathan’s death, and the advocacy of her daughter, Katrina Brees, inspired the passage of suicide prevention legislation in Delaware, Utah, Washington, Virginia and now Colorado.
The law comes at a time when a rising number of older Coloradans are dying from gun suicides, which some experts have called a “hidden public health crisis.” Colorado has one of the highest suicide rates in the country, and firearms are the most common means of suicide in the state. More than 950 people in Colorado died in a shooting in 2023; 710 of those deaths were suicides, according to the latest state data.