Councilmember Evan Glass introduced the bill in September.
The county council voted Tuesday to pass a bill requiring gun stores in the county to provide shoppers with information about suicide prevention.
Ten councilmembers voted in favor, and Councilmember Natali Fani-González abstained.
Councilmember Evan Glass introduced the Suicide Awareness and Firearm Education (SAFE) Act in September when he was then-council president. He previously said there are 77 gun stores in the county.
“We are in a mental health crisis, guns are an epidemic, and unfortunately Montgomery County is not immune to either,” Glass said Tuesday. There were 95 suicide deaths last year in the county and one-third included a firearm, per a release from his office.
The legislation requires gun and ammunition retailers in the county to display and distribute pamphlets on suicide prevention and how to get help. The county’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) will develop literature about firearm safety and suicide prevention, and sellers would have to show and distribute it, according to council documents. DHHS would be able to issue civil citations as enforcement.
As it was originally introduced, the bill would have required sellers to show and distribute the literature at points of sale. On Tuesday, Councilmember Dawn Luedtke proposed an amendment to require gun shops to make available and provide the literature to each person who enters the shop.
“It’s not just those who purchase a firearm, it’s about people who may be in proximity to a firearm,” Luedtke said. The amendment was approved unanimously.
“We have a mental health crisis in our community and we have an access-to-guns crisis in our community,” Council President Andrew Friedson said. “And when you pair those things together, suicide when combined with a gun is irreversible often times — most times.”
