Police and sheriffs could offer voluntary gun storage programs

Police and sheriff’s departments may create voluntary programs to store people’s guns temporarily. The program lets a person voluntarily hand over their own gun to a local police or sheriff’s department for safekeeping. A participating department must be able to store a gun for one year. It cannot be held legally responsible for damage to a gun while the gun is in its temporary custody.

Participating departments must post instructions and check gun records and return eligibility. These duties apply to police and sheriff’s departments that offer the voluntary storage program. Instructions must appear on the department’s website. The gun record check looks for reports that the gun was lost, stolen, or linked to a crime. The department checks gun records when it receives the gun and the person’s eligibility before returning it.

A participating department must destroy a gun that a person does not retrieve by its deadline, unless it donates the gun instead. This applies to guns left in a participating department’s voluntary storage program. Donation may go to a public or nonprofit historical society, museum, or institutional collection. The gun must be made unable to fire before delivery. Neither destruction nor donation may proceed while the person who handed over the gun awaits an eligibility decision on a filed return application. The deadline is the end of the storage period set by the department.

The law provides limited exceptions to gun carrying and transfer rules for taking a gun to a voluntary storage program. The exceptions cover a person taking a gun to a police or sheriff’s department under this program and handing it over there. The person must tell the department before transporting the gun. The open carry exceptions cover unloaded guns. The person must give notice before transporting the gun.