Colorado HB24-1348 Vehicle Gun Storage: What Actually Meets the Law

Colorado’s new HB24-1348 is now in effect, and every handgun owner who steps out of a car on the High Plains or in downtown Denver needs to pay attention. The statute is short—barely two pages—but the conversations it started on forums this spring are long. Below is a field-tested summary of what the law really says, what Colorado shooters are actually buying, and how to stay legal without turning your ride into a rolling gun safe.

What HB24-1348 Requires

1. Firearm type: handguns only. Long-gun language is in a separate section.
2. Container: locked, hard-sided OR soft-sided, out of plain view, and inside a locked vehicle or trunk.
3. Penalty: a civil infraction—basically a $100 parking ticket—not a misdemeanor or felony.
4. Exemption: people who “live in the vehicle” are exempt. (Yes, tossing a sleeping bag and camp stove in the back and claiming residency is already a running joke.)

That’s it. No thickness spec, no UL rating, no cable diameter. The bar is intentionally low, but “glove box only” or “center console only” does not qualify unless the compartment itself can be locked and is made of rigid material.

Forum Favorites: Containers That Colorado Drivers Admit They Use

1. Console Vault
2. Custom-fabricated 12-gauge steel inserts that drop into the factory console and lock with a barrel key or 3-digit dial. Users like Cirdan and Capt Jack report clean, no-drill installs on F-150, Silverado, 4Runner and Wrangler. Price: $220–$270. Downside: if you drive a late-model Dodge minivan or a Subaru, SKU coverage is spotty.
3. Vaultek / SnapSafe Lockbox
4. 16-gauge steel clamshell with a 4-foot 6 mm steel cable wrapped around a seat frame or spare-tire bracket. Adventurer 2 runs the biometric VE-series in his pickup and says the rechargeable battery lasts “months.” GJeffB bought the $25 key-lock version for “five-minute post-office runs.” Both meet the letter of the law and fit under any seat.
5. Head-Rest Safe
6. Replaces the factory head restraint with a hollow steel tube that opens with a key. 4V50 Gary likes the low visual signature—“no box screaming ‘gun!’ to a smash-and-grab thief.” About $189 and takes 10 minutes to install.
7. Cable-Only Method
8. Bill DeShivs semi-trolls with a bicycle lock through the trigger guard and seat bracket. Funny, but most posters agree it fails the “container” clause because the pistol itself is still in plain view.

Real-World Tips From Colorado Members

1. Lock the car doors first, then the container. A stolen vehicle voids the “locked vehicle” requirement and can turn your citation into a headache.
2. Mounting beats cable-wrapping. Sheet-metal screws through the box floor into seat risers slow down a pry-bar artist far longer than a snipped cable.
3. If you already have a locking glove box or trunk, drop a $20 Hornady RAPiD Safe inside for double duty—locked box inside locked compartment.
4. Kids in the carpool? Go biometric. Finger swipe is faster than a key when you re-holster at school pick-up.
5. Sentry cameras help after the fact, but they don’t satisfy the statute. Ricklin’s Tesla quacks and records, yet the gun still has to be in a locked container.

Bottom Line

HB24-1348 is not California-level safe-storage; it is a “lock-it-and-hide-it” rule designed to slow smash-and-grab thieves. A $25 SnapSafe or a mid-tier Vaultek plus locked doors keeps you legal and your pistol out of the black market. Spend the money once, mount it properly, and you can forget the statute exists—until the day you don’t.