unlawful securing of firearms; minors

SB1600 - unlawful securing of firearms; minors

Agriculture Children Crime Firearms Parental Rights

Passed Legislature

This bill passed both chambers and reached final enrollment, even if later executive action is not shown here.

Sponsor: Lela Alston, Flavio Bravo, Eva Diaz, Rosanna Gabaldón, Lauren Kuby, Catherine Miranda, Analise Ortiz, Kiana Sears, Priya Sundareshan, Janeen Connolly
Last action: 2026-02-04
Official status: Senate second read
Effective date: Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Checked against official source text during the last sync.

SB1600: Rules for Keeping Firearms Safe from Minors

This law makes it a crime to negligently leave a loaded gun where a child under seventeen can reach it, but lists specific situations where the owner is not guilty.

What This Bill Does

Creates a new crime called unlawful securing of a firearm for people who are criminally negligent with guns around minors.
Requires owners to lock firearms or use trigger locks and keep them away from places children can enter.
Sets the penalty as a class 6 felony, which becomes a more serious class 4 felony if the child gets hurt or dies.
Provides legal defenses for owners if the minor was supervised by an adult over eighteen for lawful purposes, defending themselves or property, trespassing, farming, or participating in specific activities listed in section 13-3111.
Delays arrest for seven days if the owner is a family member and the incident caused death or serious injury to the minor.

Who It Names or Affects

People who own firearms that are loaded with ammunition
Minors under seventeen years of age
Family members, including relatives by blood, marriage, or adoption; current or former dating partners; legal guardians; and household residents

Terms To Know

Criminal negligence: Failing to take steps a reasonable person would take to stop a minor from getting the gun.
Readily dischargeable firearm: A gun that is loaded with ammunition, even if no bullet is in the firing chamber.
Affirmative defense: A legal reason why a person cannot be found guilty of breaking this law.

Limits and Unknowns

The bill does not state the exact date it will become effective.
The text defines specific activities in section 13-3111 as defenses but does not list what those activities are here.

Bill History

2026-02-04 Senate
Senate second read
2026-02-03 Senate
Senate Rules: None
2026-02-03 Senate
Senate Judiciary and Elections: None
2026-02-03 Senate
Senate first read

Official Summary Text

SB1600 - unlawful securing of firearms; minors

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text

SB1600 - 572R - I Ver

REFERENCE TITLE:
unlawful securing of firearms; minors

State of Arizona

Senate

Fifty-seventh Legislature

Second Regular Session

2026

SB 1600

Introduced by

Senators
Alston: Bravo, Diaz, Gabald�n, Kuby, Miranda, Ortiz, Sears, Sundareshan;�
Representative Connolly

AN
ACT

amending title 13, chapter 31, Arizona
Revised Statutes, by adding section 13-3123; relating to firearms.

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Title 13, chapter 31, Arizona
Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 13-3123, to read:

START_STATUTE
13-3123.

Unlawful securing of a firearm; affirmative defense;
classification; definitions

A. A person commits unlawful securing
of a firearm if a minor obtains access to a readily dischargeable firearm
because the person with criminal negligence:

1. Fails to take steps that a
reasonable person would take to prevent the minor from accessing the firearm,
including placing the firearm in a locked container or temporarily rendering
the firearm inoperable by a trigger lock or other means.

2. Leaves the firearm in a place to
which the person knows or should know that the minor would gain access.

B. It is an affirmative defense to a
prosecution for a violation of this section if the minor:

1. Uses the firearm while being
supervised by a person who is eighteen years of age or older and the use is for
hunting, sporting or another lawful purpose.

2. Uses the firearm in the lawful
defense of a person or property.

3. Obtains the firearm by entering
into another person's property in violation of this title.

4. Uses the firearm while the person
is engaging in an agricultural enterprise.

5. Uses the firearm while engaging in
an activity included in section 13-3111,

subsection B.

C. A person may not be arrested for a
violation of this section until seven days after the day that the person
committed the offense if:

1. The person is the minor's family
member.

2. The minor's discharge of the
firearm caused the death of or serious physical injury to the minor.

D. A violation of this section is a
class 6 felony, except that if the minor discharges the firearm and causes the
death of or serious physical injury to the minor or another person it is a
class 4 felony.

E. For the purposes of this section:

1. "Family member" means
any person who:

(
a
) Is related
by blood, marriage or adoption to the minor.

(
b
) Is the
minor's current or former dating partner.

(
c
) Is acting
or has acted as the minor's legal guardian.

(
d
) Has
regularly resided in the same household as the minor within the previous year.

2. "Minor" means a person
who is under seventeen years of age.

3. "Readily dischargeable
firearm" means a firearm that is loaded with ammunition, whether or not a
round of ammunition is in the chamber.
END_STATUTE