Colorado created the Office of Gun Violence Prevention in 2021 with $3 million in state funding to coordinate statewide efforts reducing firearm deaths. The office now distributes $596,000 annually in federal grants and another $200,000 through mini-grants. In 2025, the director made 45 trips for meetings and community engagement across Colorado. Two went to communities outside the Denver-Boulder corridor.
Granby and Colorado Springs. The remaining 43 trips stayed within metro Denver, plus conferences in Illinois and New York.
Travel records obtained by Colorado Accountability Project’s Cory Gaines through public records request show the director met with Colorado Ceasefire, a gun control advocacy organization that receives grant funding from the Office of Gun Violence Prevention. She met separately with State Senator Tom Sullivan, who sponsored the 2021 legislation creating the office, and Representative Meg Froelich, both gun control advocates. She met once with the Colorado Firearm Safety Coalition, which includes gun dealers and firearms instructors.
Three meetings with gun control advocates. One meeting with balanced stakeholder representation.
HB21-1299 requires the office to collaborate with “gun dealers, shooting ranges, and firearms safety instructors” alongside health providers and advocacy organizations. The statute mandates statewide engagement to coordinate prevention efforts. The director’s January 2026 newsletter described gaining perspective through “conversations I’ve had and continue to have across Colorado.”
The Rose Community Foundation appeared on the director’s 2025 schedule. Rose Community Foundation partnered with Colorado Health Foundation in 2023 to launch the Colorado Safe Futures Fund, which distributed $770,000 to 18 organizations in October 2025. The fund states it “is intended to complement and amplify” the state Office of Gun Violence Prevention. Kaiser Permanente and other foundations have committed nearly $1 million total.
Colorado Ceasefire describes itself as “the preeminent source of research, legislation and information on gun violence prevention in Colorado.” The organization successfully lobbied for multiple firearms restrictions during the 2025 legislative session. Colorado Ceasefire receives grants from the Office of Gun Violence Prevention. The director met with Colorado Ceasefire representatives in 2025.
Foundation-funded advocacy organizations lobby the state office. The state office funds those organizations with federal grants. The foundations fund “complementary” initiatives while describing their work as amplifying the state office. The director meets with all three.
The office operates within the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Jonathan McMillan served as first director from 2022 until February 2024. The current director’s name does not appear on the office website, in press releases, or in grant announcements. Public records show her travel schedule. They do not show her name, appointment date, or qualifications.
Rural Colorado presents different firearms realities than Denver Metro. Law enforcement response times measure in tens of minutes. Wildlife conflicts require immediate response. Ranch operations use firearms as working tools. Hunting provides recreation and food security in communities where ownership rates exceed 50%.
The director highlighted a Routt County gun safe distribution program in her January 2026 newsletter, noting 103 safes distributed at an initial event. Routt County sits in Colorado’s northwest corner—mountainous, rural, conservative territory. The gun safe distribution happened in Routt County. The director’s meeting addressing it happened in Denver Metro. No evidence suggests she visited Steamboat Springs, Craig, or other northwest communities.
Colorado Springs houses military installations and leans Republican despite trending purple. Steamboat Springs in Routt County voted 65% for Biden in 2020. Neither represents the agricultural Eastern Plains, Western Slope energy communities, or southern mountain counties. The director visited both once in 2025.
Between 2016 and 2022, Colorado recorded 6,380 firearm deaths. Suicides comprised 72.1%. The office addresses legitimate public health concerns. The office’s 2025 Annual Report lists collaboration with multiple agencies and community partners. The report does not acknowledge that 43 of 45 director trips remained in a corridor representing less than half the state’s geography.
Federal grants flow to a state office mandated to serve all Colorado. The office funds advocacy organizations while meeting with those organizations and their legislative sponsors. Foundations fund both the advocacy groups and “complementary” initiatives to amplify the state office. The director travels to 43 meetings in the metro area where foundations, advocacy groups, and legislative sponsors operate.
The communities most reliant on firearms for ranch work, wildlife management, and self-protection due to remote law enforcement—the communities where firearms represent cultural heritage and practical necessity—received two visits from an office claiming statewide engagement. The foundations, advocacy organizations, and metro-based health systems supporting gun control received 43.
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