Alabama Safe Storage and Child Access Laws

Alabama's firearms code, Title 13A, Chapter 11 of the Code of Alabama, does not contain a safe storage requirement. Everytown Research and the Giffords Law Center both track this as one of roughly half the states with nothing on the books, and that tracking matches what's actually in the statute: there's no section telling you to use a lock box, a cable lock, or a safe, and no section making it a crime to leave a loaded gun on a nightstand.

That doesn't mean Alabama law is silent about guns and kids. It just regulates the problem from the minor's side of the transaction instead of the adult's. Ala. Code § 13A-11-72(b)(1) says:

"No person who is a minor, except under the circumstances provided in this section, an habitual drunkard, or who has a drug addiction shall own a pistol or have one in his or her possession or under his or her control."

A violation is a Class A misdemeanor under § 13A-11-72(b)(2). The statute then carves out seven exceptions in subsection (f), covering things like a hunter education course, supervised range practice, organized competition, licensed hunting or fishing, being on a parent's or grandparent's property, military duty, and transport to any of those activities with written parental permission and the firearm unloaded and locked away from the driver.

Separately, Ala. Code § 13A-11-57 makes it a crime for an adult to sell, give, or lend a pistol to a minor outside those same exceptions, punishable by a fine of at least $50 on conviction. That statute targets the handoff, not the storage.

Neither of those sections asks how you kept the gun before a minor got hold of it. If prosecutors want to reach an adult whose carelessness around a child created real danger, the tool they're most likely to use is the general reckless endangerment statute, Ala. Code § 13A-6-24(a)(1):

"A person commits the crime of reckless endangerment if he or she... recklessly engages in conduct that creates a substantial risk of serious physical injury to another individual."

That's a Class A misdemeanor, and it applies to any reckless conduct, not firearms specifically. It's a backstop, not a storage law.

A mom in Huntsville keeps a loaded pistol in an unlocked nightstand drawer. Her eight-year-old finds it while looking for a flashlight and nobody gets hurt, but a neighbor sees the kid handling it and calls the police. There's no Alabama statute that makes the storage itself a crime. Unless something more happened, like the mom handing the gun to the child or a prosecutor arguing the setup was reckless under § 13A-6-24, she's not looking at a storage charge, because there isn't one.

A dad in Mobile owns a pistol he keeps in a car console. His 16-year-old takes it without asking and shows it to friends at school. The teenager is the one exposed here: possessing a pistol as a minor outside the § 13A-11-72(f) exceptions is a Class A misdemeanor on its own, and bringing a deadly weapon onto school property with intent to do bodily harm bumps things up to a Class C felony under § 13A-11-72(d). The dad isn't automatically liable for how he stored the gun; what matters is whether he affirmatively gave or lent it to the kid under § 13A-11-57, which is a different question than storage.

A grandfather in Tuscaloosa takes his 13-year-old grandson out to an established range to shoot a .22 under his direct supervision. That's squarely covered by the § 13A-11-72(f)(2) exception. No violation, no storage question, because the minor's possession in that setting is lawful to begin with.

A family in Birmingham reads a news story about a kid finding a gun and accidentally hurting someone, and the parents assume there must be a new law requiring guns to be locked up around children. There isn't one in effect. What they may be half-remembering is legislative history: lawmakers tried twice.

Rep. Barbara Drummond of Mobile filed HB 123 in the 2023 session, which would have required gun owners with children to secure their firearms in a way that "reasonably secures the firearm from unauthorized or unlawful access by the minor," according to reporting from the Alabama Reflector. It would have made a parent whose child brought an unsecured gun to school subject to a Class C felony charge, with exceptions for hunting, range use, competitions, and self-defense. It didn't get a floor vote.

She tried again in 2024 with HB 414, a scaled-back version that would have made the same offense a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $6,000 fine, instead of a felony. The House Judiciary Committee approved it on a voice vote, per the Alabama Reflector, but it ran out of legislative days before reaching the floor.

Neither bill became law. As of today, Alabama still has no safe storage or CAP statute, and nothing currently pending would change that.

The only real "exception" framework in this area is the one built into § 13A-11-72(f), and it exists to let minors lawfully possess a pistol under specific, supervised circumstances rather than to excuse adults from a storage duty that doesn't exist in the first place.

All seven require that the minor have permission from a parent or legal guardian who isn't themselves prohibited from possessing a firearm.

Notice what's missing from that table: there's no line item for "failed to lock up a firearm." That's the whole point. Alabama punishes certain outcomes and certain acts involving minors and guns, but not the act of storage itself.

"Alabama law requires a trigger lock or safe if kids are in the house." No. There's no such requirement anywhere in Title 13A. Plenty of gun owners choose to lock up their firearms anyway, and that's a good practice independent of what the statute demands.

"My dealer gave me a cable lock with my handgun, so Alabama must require that." That requirement comes from federal law, not state law. 18 U.S.C. § 922(z) requires federally licensed dealers to include a secure storage or safety device with every handgun they sell. It's a one-time point-of-sale obligation on the dealer, not an ongoing duty on you.

"If my kid gets hurt by a gun I left out, I can't be charged with anything since there's no storage law." Also not accurate. No CAP-specific charge exists, but reckless endangerment under § 13A-6-24 is general-purpose and firearm-neutral. If an injury or a near-miss results from genuinely reckless conduct, that statute doesn't care that no CAP law applies.

"My city or county has its own ordinance about securing guns around kids." Even if an older local ordinance is still sitting on the books somewhere, Alabama's firearm preemption statute says otherwise going forward. Ala. Code § 13A-11-61.3 states that the Legislature "occupies and preempts the entire field of regulation in this state touching in any way upon firearms, ammunition, and firearm accessories." Cities and counties don't get to layer their own storage or access rules on top of state law.

• Ala. Code § 13A-11-72, Certain Persons Forbidden to Possess Firearm (Justia)
• Ala. Code § 13A-11-72, current text (WomensLaw)
• Ala. Code § 13A-6-24, Reckless Endangerment (WomensLaw)
• Ala. Code § 13A-6-24 Jury Instructions (Alabama Judicial System)
• Alabama State Laws and Published Ordinances Compilation (ATF)
• Child Access Prevention & Safe Storage in Alabama (Giffords Law Center)
• Secure Storage/Child Access Prevention Rankings (Everytown Research)
• Alabama lawmaker files bill requiring safe storage of firearms (Alabama Reflector, 2023)
• Alabama House committee OKs bill requiring safe storage of firearms (Alabama Reflector, 2024)
• Alabama Firearm Laws Overview (Firearm Laws by State)

Last Reviewed: October 28, 2026