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Panel hears bill to allow voluntary firearm storage by FFLs and law enforcement with liability protection
Summary
Senator Kaler told the committee Senate Bill 273 would let licensed dealers and police voluntarily store firearms for owners facing mental-health crises and provide liability immunity for participating entities except in cases of malicious intent.
Senator Kaler presented sponsor testimony on Senate Bill 273, called the Keep Them Safe Act, which would authorize Federal Firearm Licensees (FFLs) and law enforcement agencies to voluntarily store firearms for gun owners who are dealing with mental-health or emotional crises.
Kaler told the Armed Services, Veterans Affairs and Public Safety Committee the policy grew from discussions with FFLs, Buckeye Firearms and LifeSite Ohio and was intended to reduce veteran and first-responder suicides by providing a voluntary, temporary storage option. “SB 273 simply creates the ability for FFLs and law enforcement agencies to voluntarily store firearms for gun owners struggling with emotional and mental health issues,” Kaler said.
The sponsor emphasized participation would be voluntary and that the bill would include civil immunity for FFLs and agencies that store firearms in good faith; Kaler said immunity would not apply if an FFL “acts with malicious intent to withhold the return of a firearm.” The senator also described an administrative process: the bill tasks the attorney general with producing a form to document the transfer and return of stored firearms.
During sponsor testimony Kaler cited veteran suicide statistics reported in stakeholder materials, characterizing them as an urgent problem: “The I want to point out the most is that yesterday we lost 17 veterans to suicide,” he said, presenting the figure as coming from a national report cited in the bill materials.
A committee clarifying question established that SB 273 does not itself require locking devices or lock boxes; rather, firearms would be stored at participating FFLs or agencies. No public testimony was recorded and the committee concluded the first hearing on SB 273 without a committee vote recorded on the measure.
The committee requested future proponent testimony from stakeholder groups named by the sponsor to further develop operational details.
