Two bills calling for stricter responses by social media companies to credible threat posts are making their way through Colorado’s legislative process in an effort to decrease rising rates of gun violence on school campuses.
Senate Bill 1255, supported and crafted by Democratic state Rep. Tammy Story of Evergreen, Sen. Lisa Cutter of Jefferson County and Jefferson County Sheriff Reggie Marinelli, would require social media companies to cooperate more directly and quickly with police when a warrant is presented or when users pose serious, imminent threats or criminal intentions.
An amended version of the bill was referred to the House Committee of the Whole by the Judiciary House Committee Wednesday and remained under consideration as of Thursday.
The bill was pursued in response to lagging response times for alarming posts made prior to shooting incidents – like those made by 16-year-old Evergreen High School student Desmond Holly, who posted a picture of a revolver and ammunition just an hour before wounding two other students on the high school campus in September with a revolver and then killing himself.
Three warrants were filed during a monthlong FBI investigation launched in July that looked into Holly’s social media posts, but Jefferson County law enforcement reportedly didn’t know until after the shooting that Holly was behind the posts because of the lagging warrant process.
Social media companies are currently allotted 35 days to respond to a warrant under state law.
According to Everytown for Gun Safety, an anti-gun violence advocacy organization, at least 163 incidents of gunfire took place on U.S. school grounds in 2025, resulting in 54 deaths and 149 injuries.
Since the start of 2026, there have been at least 10 incidents of gunfire on school grounds nationally, resulting in two deaths and three injuries, Everytown reported.
“I hear from parents all the time, (and) it’s troubling what they’re seeing in the news,” said Shane Voss, Mountain Middle School executive director, to The Durango Herald in October. “And it’s really not just this year, right? It’s been far too many school-related shootings.”
A similar bill to SB-1255, Senate Bill 11, which was filed in January by Castle Rock Republican Sen. Lisa Frizell, along with several additional bipartisan sponsors, was passed Wednesday.
The bill would require social media platforms to provide a 24/7 hotline contact for Colorado law enforcement, ensure a social media operator acknowledges a search warrant request within eight hours and comply with the warrant within 72 hours or face legal penalties. It was a second attempt at efforts presented in Senate Bill 25-086, which was vetoed by Gov. Jared Polis in April after it passed both the Senate and the House.
Polis said the original bill, which was broader and focused on protecting social media users and regulating how social media platforms operate, had the potential to infringe on free speech rights.
Senate Bill 11, in contrast, places almost its entire focus on how social media companies respond to search warrants from Colorado law enforcement.
Durango Police Department spokesperson Amanda Garrison said the department is in support of legislation that would set clearer expectations and hold social media platforms to a higher standard in urgent communications with law enforcement.
“Our mission is prevention,” she said in an email to the Herald. “When we learn of a credible threat, we move fast – because minutes can matter when you’re trying to stop violence before it happens. Our highest priority is the safety of our community. Anything that helps us identify and interrupt a credible threat sooner is something we’ll take seriously.”
epond@durangoherald.com
