Sen. Keith Kelley, R-Anniston, speaks to a colleague on the floor of the Alabama Senate on Feb. 4, 2025 in Montgomery, Alabama. The Alabama Legislature began its 2025 regular session on Tuesday. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
The Alabama Senate passed a bill 31-0 Thursday to allow people experiencing suicidal thoughts to surrender a firearm to a licensed gun dealer.
SB 40, sponsored by Sen. Keith Kelley, R-Anniston, would provide liability protection for Federal Firearms License dealers who choose to participate in the Safer Together Program, where they may accept surrendered firearms from community members.
“Because it’s all voluntary, we hope that more gun owners will do that. More gun shop, retailers will be willing to do that, and so the veteran or the individual going through the crisis can go in and store those arms safely,” Kelley said after the Senate adjourned.
The bill is named after two veterans, Houston Lee Tumlin and Hunter Chase Whitley, who died by suicide after returning from active duty. The proposal was first floated in August at the first Veterans Mental Health Steering Committee, where Jason Smith, an Alabama National Guard Resilience and Risk Reduction coordinator and member of the committee, said the program is designed to be voluntary, confidential and temporary, meant to delay access to firearms during periods of crisis.
Alabama’s veteran suicide rate in 2021 was 35.4 per 100,000 people, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. That was slightly higher than the national average (33.9) but significantly higher than the overall suicide rate in Alabama, which was 20.2 per 100,000 in 2021.
Kelley said that providing additional options in times of crisis is “absolutely critical.”
“I think that has a big role in it. Veterans can understand and talk to other veterans, and a lot of these gun shop owners are veterans themselves,” Kelley said.
The bill now moves to The Alabama House of Representatives. The House passed a similar bill on Tuesday, which was assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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Author: Alander Rocha