Firearms: voluntary firearm storage program

The law creates a formal option for firearm owners to place guns with participating local law enforcement during a period of concern. It sets public notice, storage, eligibility-check, and disposal rules for those programs.

What the law does ​

• Allows police and sheriff’s departments to create voluntary firearm-storage programs and requires capacity to store firearms for up to one year.
• Requires participating agencies to post instructions for surrender, retrieval, storage deadlines, and options to destroy, donate, sell, or transfer a stored firearm.
• Requires agencies to check and update the Automated Firearms System, including checking whether a firearm was lost, stolen, or involved in a crime.
• Requires agencies to confirm a requester remains eligible to possess firearms before returning one.
• Allows destruction, or donation to qualifying historical or museum collections, of firearms not retrieved by the agency’s deadline, unless the owner has a pending return application awaiting an eligibility decision.
• Exempts transfers and transport to participating agencies from specified firearm-carrying and dealer-transfer restrictions when the person gives the agency prior notice.

Who it affects ​

• Firearm owners who voluntarily place firearms with a participating local police or sheriff’s department.
• Local police and sheriff’s departments that choose to operate a storage program.
• Family law advocates and veterans’ outreach programs that agencies are encouraged to inform about available programs.

Context ​

Participating agencies are not liable for damage to firearms while they hold them temporarily.