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SB 1476

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2025 Regular Session Introduced by Angelia Graves and 1 co-sponsor

SB 1476 makes it a crime to negligently store a loaded firearm so a minor under 17 can access it, with defenses for lawful uses and stricter penalties if injury or death results.

Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0449)
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Bill Summary · SB 1476

SB 1476 — “SAFETY‑TECH” (Introduced Feb 20, 2025) — Summary

Purpose / Intent

SB 1476 would create a new criminal offense in Arizona for failing to securely store or otherwise prevent a minor from obtaining access to a “readily dischargeable” firearm. The bill targets negligent storage or placement of firearms that permits access by persons under 17, while creating several statutory affirmative defenses and specific arrest and sentencing rules.

Key provisions

  • Adds Arizona Revised Statutes § 13‑3123, “Unlawful securing of a firearm.”
  • Offense (criminal negligence): A person commits the offense if a minor obtains access to a readily dischargeable firearm because the person, with criminal negligence, either:
    1. Fails to take steps a reasonable person would take to prevent the minor’s access (examples listed include placing the firearm in a locked container or using a trigger lock or other means to render it temporarily inoperable); or
    2. Leaves the firearm where the person knows or should know the minor would gain access.
  • Affirmative defenses (not guilty if the minor):
    • Uses the firearm while supervised by someone age 18+ for hunting, sporting, or other lawful purposes;
    • Uses it in lawful defense of a person or property;
    • Obtains it after entering another person’s property in violation of law (i.e., via trespass);
    • Uses it while engaged in an agricultural enterprise;
    • Uses it while engaging in activities listed in § 13‑3111(B) (existing statutory exceptions).
  • Arrest limitation: A person may not be arrested for a violation of this section until seven days after the day of the offense where both (a) the person is the minor’s family member and (b) the minor’s discharge caused death or serious physical injury. (Text requires both conditions.)
  • Penalties:
    • Class 6 felony for a violation generally;
    • Elevated to a Class 4 felony if the minor’s discharge causes death or serious physical injury to the minor or another person.
  • Definitions:
    • “Family member” is broadly defined to include persons related by blood, marriage or adoption; current or former dating partners; legal guardians; and persons who regularly resided in the same household within the previous year.
    • “Minor” = person under 17 years of age.
    • “Readily dischargeable firearm” = a firearm that is loaded with ammunition, whether or not a round is in the chamber.

Who would be affected

  • Firearm owners, possessor(s), and custodians who live with or otherwise have minors in areas where firearms are stored or left accessible.
  • Parents, guardians, other family members, and household members meeting the statute’s definitions.
  • Prosecutors, defense attorneys, and law enforcement (new charge, investigation and arrest timing rules).
  • Minors indirectly, through increased criminal liability for caretakers and possible legal deterrents to unsafe storage.

Procedural status & sponsors

  • Introduced: February 20, 2025.
  • Status shown: Referred to Assignments (Senate).
  • Primary sponsor: Sen. Lela Alston; cosponsors: Sens. Lauren Kuby, Eva Burch, Denise “Mitzi” Epstein.
  • Companion bill noted: HB 1157.

Observations / Implementation notes

  • The bill imposes felony exposure for negligent failure to secure a loaded firearm that a minor accesses; a narrower affirmative defense list preserves lawful supervised uses.
  • The seven‑day arrest delay provision applies only in cases involving family members and severe injury/death and may affect initial investigative practice — prosecutors and law enforcement would need to interpret and follow that timing constraint.
  • Practical effect would depend on enforcement patterns, courtroom application of “criminal negligence” and the availability of the affirmative defenses.

(This summary focuses on the Arizona § 13‑3123 content of SB 1476 as introduced. The file submitted with the bill text also contained unrelated draft text from other jurisdictions; that material is not part of this Arizona statutory change.)

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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