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Committee sends bill to floor removing firearm-storage rule for foster parents
Summary
The House Health and Welfare Committee voted to send Senate Bill 10‑34 to the House floor with a "do pass" recommendation. Sponsor Rep. Judy Boyle said the bill moves foster-care firearm-storage language from rule into statute and replaces an explicit lock-and-key storage requirement with department-led firearm-safety training for foster parents.
The House Health and Welfare Committee voted to send Senate Bill 10‑34 to the floor with a "do pass" recommendation after Representative Judy Boyle told members the measure would remove a rule that requires foster parents to store firearms and ammunition separately under lock and key and instead place firearm-safety training expectations in statute.
Representative Boyle, sponsor of the bill, said the rule is discouraging potential foster parents in rural areas because it effectively “disarms” them. “If you live in a rural area like I do, law enforcement is at least 20 to 30 minutes away. And the rule requires foster parents to store their firearms and their ammunition separately under lock and key. So it basically disarms the people who are foster parents,” Boyle said. She added the department will produce videos for foster parents “to teach them about firearm safety and how to store and the proper time and that kind of thing for different ages.”
Committee members asked how exemptions to the training requirement would be determined. Representative McCann asked who would decide which caregivers could be exempted and on what grounds; Boyle replied that “the department would determine that.” When pressed about potential grounds for exemption, Boyle said she did not know specifics but “I would assume if you've had a carry concealed weapon or you've been around firearms your entire life, you probably already know the basics of how to kind of store firearms.”
A motion to send the bill to the floor with a "do pass" recommendation was made and approved by voice vote; the chair recorded his vote as aye and announced the motion passed. Representative Boyle indicated she would carry the bill on the floor.
The bill moves foster-care firearm-storage language from administrative rule into statute and deletes the statutory language that required lock-and-key separation of firearms and ammunition for foster parents; it also directs the department to provide firearm-safety training materials to caregivers. No statutory citations or implementation timetable were given in the committee discussion.
