In a little over a decade, about 350,000 Coloradans have applied for background checks to get concealed weapons permits.
Philando Castile had such a permit in his home state of Minnesota when he was stopped by an officer earlier this month. His girlfriend, who was also in the car, says Castille announced he legally had a gun before the officer shot and killed him.
Coloradans don't have to announce they have a concealed weapons permit if they get pulled over by a police officer, according to Frederick, Colorado Police Chief Gary Barbour, who leads the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police.
Permit holders undergo a background check, and must keep a clean record to have their permit renewed every five years.
"Folks with a concealed weapons permit have been very thoroughly checked," Barbour told Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner. "It’s fairly clear that they don’t present a problem."
New training standards for police officers in Colorado include anti-bias training and checks on racial profiling. A 2015 state law requires that all officers complete two hours of training by July of next year. Barbour said the training, so far, has been valuable.
"We all know that there is implicit bias on the part of many officers," he said. "We try to train to overcome that and certainly training on that subject is continuing. It’s a difficult problem and it’s going to be with us for a while yet."
Click the audio player above to hear the full conversation.
