What renewal actually takes in 2026 — and the six-month line that turns a renewal into starting over
In 2021, Colorado approved more concealed carry permits than in any year in its history. Just under 74,000 of them. At the time the state had about 663,000 active permit holders, which means roughly one in nine of every permit in Colorado was issued that single year.
A Colorado permit is valid for five years.
Do the math.
That wave is hitting renewal right now, and most of the people in it are about to discover that renewing a permit is not the thing they think it is.
Renewal Isn’t What It Was
When you sat in that class in 2021, the state required four hours. You took the class, you got the certificate, you filed with the sheriff.
HB24-1174 changed both ends of that, effective July 1, 2025.
The initial class is now at least eight hours, in person, with a live-fire exercise and a written exam.
And renewal is no longer paperwork. To renew, you need proof of a refresher class that is:
- At least two hours, in person
- Live fire — you demonstrate safe handling and accuracy with live ammunition
- A written exam you have to pass
- Taught by an instructor verified by your sheriff
No online course. No home study. No hunter education certificate. In Douglas County, no out-of-state certificate either.
I want to be fair about why this exists, because I hear people call it a money grab. Look at what changed in Colorado firearms law in the five years since 2021. Permit training requirements doubled. SB25-003 rewrote how certain semiautomatic firearms are purchased, effective this past August. The private-manufacture rules changed. A person whose last classroom hour was in 2021 is carrying under a legal framework that has moved several times since they last studied it.
Two hours every five years is not a burden. It’s barely maintenance.
The Six-Month Line
Here is the part that actually costs people, and almost nobody knows it until it’s too late.
You can start your renewal 120 days before your permit expires. That is the window.
If you miss the expiration date, there is a grace period. You pay the renewal fee plus a $15 late fee and you’re still renewing.
But C.R.S. 18-12-211 draws a hard line, and the statute says it plainly:
“No permit shall be renewed six months or more after its expiration date, and the permit shall be deemed to have permanently expired.”
Permanently expired. Not late. Not lapsed. Gone.
Cross that line and you are not renewing anything. You are a new applicant. That means the full eight-hour class, new fingerprints, a new background check, and the new-applicant fee. And in the meantime you are not lawfully carrying concealed, because you do not have a permit.
Sit with the size of that gap. On one side of a date on a calendar: a two-hour refresher. On the other side: an eight-hour class and the whole application over again.
The difference between those two outcomes is a few weeks of not looking at a piece of paper in your wallet.
The Other Six-Month Rule
There is a second six-month window, running the other direction, and it catches the people who are trying to be early.
Your refresher certificate is only good for six months before you submit it. You cannot take the class, put the certificate in a drawer, and file eight months later. Douglas County states it directly: proof of a refresher class taught by a verified instructor within six months prior to submission.
So there is a window on both ends. Too late and you start over. Too early and the certificate is stale.
The order that works:
- Find your permit and read the expiration date.
- Count back 120 days. That’s the day you can file.
- Take the refresher inside the six months before you file — not a year out.
- File with your sheriff, with the certificate and the fee.
What To Do This Week
Find your permit and read the date out loud. I am serious about this one. Most people carry a permit for five years and could not tell you the month it expires. It takes ten seconds and it is the entire difference between the two-hour path and the eight-hour path.
Put two reminders on your calendar. One at 150 days out, so you have time to schedule a class. One at 120 days out, the day you can file.
Confirm your instructor is verified with your sheriff — not someone else’s. The verification is county-specific. Your sheriff’s office publishes the list. Ask before you pay.
Check your county’s fee. It varies by county, and it is not the same as the new-applicant fee. Your sheriff’s office will tell you before you file.
If you are already past your expiration date, count the months today. If you are inside six months, you can still renew and the late fee is fifteen dollars. If you are past it, you need to know that now rather than at the counter.
This is a plain-English summary to help you plan, not legal advice. Requirements vary by county and change. Confirm the current rules with your county sheriff’s office before you act.
Why I Care About This One
I teach the refresher, and I built the curriculum against the statute — C.R.S. 18-12-202.5 and 18-12-211 as amended by HB24-1174 — because a certificate that a sheriff’s office won’t accept is worse than no certificate at all. It costs the student the class and the deadline at the same time.
A student called me about his renewal a while back. He was already past the six-month line and had no idea.
I had to tell him he wasn’t renewing anything. He was starting over — the full eight hours instead of two, new prints, new application, the whole thing.
He was frustrated, and it was with himself, not with me. He understood it and he signed up. But sit with what he was frustrated about. Not a mistake with a firearm. A date.
Nobody sends you a reminder. That is the entire reason I wrote this.
Five years is long enough for the law to change out from under you. In Colorado it changed more than once. The refresher is two hours, and the point of it is not the paperwork — it’s that you walk out knowing what is actually legal today, and you did it with live rounds and a passing score instead of a promise.
Check your date. Then let’s get you scheduled.
John Rader
Colorado Tactics, LLC
Slow is smooth… Smooth is FAST!
720-464-SHOT | 720-464-7468
Sources
- C.R.S. 18-12-204, Permit contents — validity — carrying requirements — five-year validity
- C.R.S. 18-12-211, Renewal of permit — 120-day window, $15 late fee, six-month permanent expiration
- HB24-1174, Concealed Carry Permits & Training — Colorado General Assembly
- Douglas County Sheriff’s Office — Concealed Handgun Permits
- The Reload — Colorado Sets Single-Year Record for Gun-Carry Permits
- Colorado Bureau of Investigation —