To prevent veterans’ suicides, advocates seek to expand safe storage with gun retailers

Alabama veteran suicide prevention advocates are recruiting firearm retailers to a program that allows veterans who feel at risk of taking their lives to safely store their guns with a gun shop.

Statewide, 14 gun retailers in 10 counties have agreed to participate in the program. The organization expects to have gun safes placed in those stores by the end of the month.

“Two per county would be the ultimate goal,” said Jason Smith, founder and chair of S.A.F.E.R. Together, an initiative whose mission is prevent suicides among veterans. “Let’s say 67 counties, at least one. If we reach 67, and we have got coverage throughout the state, that is the ultimate goal.”

Smith made the appeal as the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs Wednesday began the Operation We Remember campaign, an initiative to honor veterans in the state who have lost their lives to suicide. Staff laid down 150 flags to remember the veterans who died by suicide in 2024.

According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, the suicide rate was 20.1 per 100,000 people in 2021 for Alabama, but it was 35.4 per 100,000 for veterans in that year.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, veterans often have high risk factors for suicide, including financial struggles like unemployment or homelessness; pain or trauma from service, or difficulties adjusting to life outside the military.

“When you transition to the civilian world, you don’t put on a uniform, you don’t have anybody telling you what to do next, where to go, what time to be there, what to eat,” said Sandra Lucas, deputy commissioner of Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs. “Now you are left in a spot you are not trained for, and you don’t know what that mission set is. And a lot of times that can be overwhelming, especially if other life triggers come into play.”

In 2024, Alabama ranked fourth for firearm mortality at 23.7 deaths per 100,000 total population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, trailing only Mississippi, New Mexico and Alaska.

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 73% of suicides in Alabama in 2024 involved a firearm, and 48% of all firearm deaths that year were suicides.

Smith said that the organization expects to meet a goal of signing up 20 firearm retailers by the end of the year. He wants to convince more gun shops to participate in the program, particularly in places with high rates of people who commit suicides. He is actively looking for gun shops in Tuscaloosa, Mobile County and Calhoun County.

According to data from the National Institutes of Health, Calhoun County has the fourth highest rate of suicide in Alabama with 22.9 suicide-related deaths per 100,000 total population between 2020 and 2024. The highest was Cleburne County at 31 deaths per 100,000 total population.

In 2025, the Alabama Legislature passed  SB 40, sponsored by Sen. Keith Kelley, R-Anniston, that allows individuals that own a gun to enter into agreement to have the owner of a gun shop take possession of the firearm and keep it for an agreed amount of time before returning it.

The legislation protects the gun shop owner from legal liability after the person returns the firearm to the individual who surrendered it.

“I am asking Alabama’s gun dealers to step up and help us save lives,” Kelley said in a statement Wednesday. “These are people who understand firearms, they understand responsible gun ownership, and they are in a position to provide a safe place when someone says, ‘I need some time away from my gun.’”