Alabama House approves bill allowing voluntary firearm surrender
The Alabama House of Representatives Tuesday approved a bill that would allow people experiencing suicidal thoughts surrender a firearm to a licensed gun dealer.
HB 216, sponsored by Rep. Russell Bedsole, R-Alabaster, passed the chamber on a 98-2 vote. Bedsole said the bill is named for Houston Lee Tumlin and Hunter Chase Whitley, two veterans who died by suicide shortly after returning from active duty. Bedsole mentioned the over 6,000 veteran suicides nationwide within a year of returning from deployment.
'In the state of Alabama, 85% of the veterans who took their life did so by gunfire,' Bedsole said.
The Houston-Hunter Act provides liability protection for any gun dealer that chooses to participate in the Safer Together Program, where community members can surrender firearms. A substitution from the House Judiciary Committee limits the places where a firearm can be surrendered to the Federal Firearms License dealers. It was adopted 100-0.
According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 840 Alabamians died by suicide in 2022. That ranks Alabama 26th for suicides per capita. In the United States, 54% of suicides were done by gunfire, according to the CDC.
'And I would dare say that each of us in this chamber have a personal account of knowing someone that has made a similar choice to take their own life,' Bedsole said.
The bill goes to the Alabama Senate.
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