II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 926
To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs to establish a program to furnish to certain veterans items
used for the secure storage of firearms, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH11 (legislative day, MARCH10), 2025
Mr. K
ING(for himself and Mr. SHEEHY) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Sec-
retary of Veterans Affairs to establish a program to
furnish to certain veterans items used for the secure
storage of firearms, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Saving Our Veterans 4
Lives Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. PROGRAM OF DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS 1
TO FURNISH TO CERTAIN VETERANS ITEMS 2
USED FOR SECURE STORAGE OF FIREARMS. 3
(a) P
ROGRAM.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 17 5
of title 38, United States Code, is amended by add-6
ing at the end the following new section: 7
‘‘§ 1720M. Program to furnish to eligible individuals 8
items intended to be used for the secure 9
storage of firearms 10
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary shall carry out a 11
program to provide to an eligible individual, upon the re-12
quest of the eligible individual— 13
‘‘(1) a covered item or a redeemable voucher to 14
aid in the distribution of a covered item; and 15
‘‘(2) information relating to the benefits of, and 16
options for, secure firearm storage. 17
‘‘(b) D
ISTRIBUTION OFCOVEREDITEMS.—In car-18
rying out the program under subsection (a), the Secretary 19
is authorized to work with organizations that have experi-20
ence, expertise, and business knowledge regarding secure 21
firearm storage and secure firearm storage devices. 22
‘‘(c) P
UBLICEDUCATIONCAMPAIGN.— 23
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall design 24
and carry out a public education campaign to inform 25
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eligible individuals of the availability of covered 1
items under the program under subsection (a). 2
‘‘(2) P
ARTNERSHIP.—In carrying out the public 3
education campaign required under paragraph (1), 4
the Secretary may partner with organizations that 5
have experience with respect to secure firearm stor-6
age devices. 7
‘‘(3) A
SSURANCE ABOUT LAWFUL OWNERSHIP 8
OF FIREARMS.—The Secretary shall include in the 9
public education campaign required under paragraph 10
(1) material that assures eligible individuals that 11
their participation in the program under subsection 12
(a) does not impact lawful ownership of firearms. 13
‘‘(d) R
EPORTS TOCONGRESS.—Not later than Octo-14
ber 1, 2025, and not less frequently than annually there-15
after, the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate com-16
mittees of Congress a report that includes— 17
‘‘(1) a description of the program under sub-18
section (a) in a manner consistent with applicable 19
law; 20
‘‘(2) during the period covered by the report, 21
the number of covered items distributed by the Vet-22
erans Health Administration and the number of cov-23
ered items redeemed outside of the Veterans Health 24
Administration under the program; 25
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‘‘(3) an assessment of efforts made to increase 1
outreach and distribution of covered items under the 2
program to eligible individuals who are not enrolled 3
in the system of annual patient enrollment of the 4
Department established and operated under section 5
1705 of this title; 6
‘‘(4) an assessment of any obstacles to increas-7
ing outreach to eligible individuals who are enrolled 8
in such system and those who are not enrolled in 9
such system; and 10
‘‘(5) an identification of additional steps that 11
will be taken during the one-year period after the 12
submission of the report to improve the processes 13
through which eligible individuals receive a covered 14
item under the program. 15
‘‘(e) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 16
‘‘(1) The term ‘appropriate committees of Con-17
gress’ means— 18
‘‘(A) the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 19
and the Committee on Appropriations of the 20
Senate; and 21
‘‘(B) the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 22
and the Committee on Appropriations of the 23
House of Representatives. 24
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‘‘(2) The term ‘covered item’ means a lockbox 1
that— 2
‘‘(A) is used for the secure storage of a 3
firearm and ammunition; 4
‘‘(B) is designed, intended, and marketed 5
to prevent unauthorized access to a firearm or 6
ammunition; 7
‘‘(C) may be unlocked only by means of a 8
key, combination, or other similar means; 9
‘‘(D) is in compliance with the standard of 10
the American Society for Testing and Materials 11
F2456–20, or any successor standard; 12
‘‘(E) is manufactured in the United States; 13
and 14
‘‘(F) is not eligible or intended for com-15
mercial or individual resale. 16
‘‘(3) The term ‘eligible individual’ means— 17
‘‘(A) a veteran; or 18
‘‘(B) an individual described in section 19
1720I(b) of this title.’’. 20
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of sec-21
tions at the beginning of such chapter is amended 22
by inserting after the item relating to section 1720L 23
the following new item: 24
‘‘1720M. Program to furnish to eligible individuals items intended to be used
for the secure storage of firearms.’’.
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(b) EDUCATION AND TRAINING.—The Secretary of 1
Veterans Affairs shall— 2
(1) in consultation with representatives of orga-3
nizations and agencies that are subject to a memo-4
randum of understanding with the Secretary on pre-5
venting veteran suicide and other such entities as 6
the Secretary determines appropriate— 7
(A) develop an informational video on se-8
cure storage of firearms as a suicide prevention 9
strategy; and 10
(B) publish such informational video on an 11
internet website of the Department of Veterans 12
Affairs; and 13
(2) publish information to inform individuals 14
who participate in the program under section 1720M 15
of title 38, United States Code (as added by sub-16
section (a)(1)) that any lockbox furnished pursuant 17
to such program is not eligible or intended for com-18
mercial or individual resale. 19
(c) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act 20
or the amendments made by this Act may be construed— 21
(1) to collect personally identifiable information 22
of an individual who participates in the program 23
under section 1720M of title 38, United States Code 24
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(as added by subsection (a)(1)) for the purposes of 1
tracking firearm ownership; 2
(2) to require any such individual to register a 3
firearm with the Department of Veterans Affairs, or 4
any other Federal, State, Tribal, or local unit of 5
government; 6
(3) to require mandatory firearm storage for 7
any such individual; 8
(4) to prohibit any such individual from pur-9
chasing, owning, or possessing a firearm under sec-10
tion 922 of title 18, United States Code; 11
(5) to discourage the lawful ownership of fire-12
arms; or 13
(6) to create or maintain a list of individuals 14
participating in such program. 15
(d) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 16
are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Vet-17
erans Affairs $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 18
through 2036 to carry out this section and the amend-19
ments made by this section. 20
Æ
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