SB401: SB401 Education; local boards of education shall be required to provide instruction in firearm safety in kindergarten through grade 12; provide

Georgia law currently has a reserved (empty) code section for firearm safety instruction in schools. This bill fills that gap by requiring local school boards to provide age-appropriate firearm safety instruction for every grade from kindergarten through 12th grade, beginning in the 2028-2029 school year. Schools could fold this instruction into existing health and physical education classes rather than creating a separate class. The State Board of Education must adopt content standards for the instruction by January 1, 2028. Local school boards would be allowed to design their own curriculum, which could draw on firearm education courses from the Department of Natural Resources, and must cover safe storage, school safety around firearms, and what to do if a student finds a firearm. The bill bars any use of live ammunition or live firearms in the instruction and requires the lessons to stay neutral on political viewpoints about guns.

• Requires every local school board in Georgia to provide firearm safety instruction for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, starting in the 2028-2029 school year.
• Allows schools to fold the firearm safety lessons into existing health and physical education classes instead of creating a new course.
• Directs the State Board of Education to adopt content standards for the instruction no later than January 1, 2028.
• Lets local school boards design their own firearm safety curriculum, optionally based on Department of Natural Resources courses, covering safe storage, school safety, and what to do if a firearm is found.
• Bans the use of live ammunition, live fire, or live firearms in the instruction and requires the lessons to remain neutral on personal political views about firearms.

Public school students in kindergarten through 12th grade, local school boards and administrators who must design and deliver the curriculum, health and physical education teachers, the State Board of Education, and potentially the Department of Natural Resources if its firearm education courses are used as a model.

Millions of Georgia public school students would receive mandatory lessons on gun safety topics like safe storage and what to do if they find a firearm, changing what is taught in health classes statewide, while giving individual districts flexibility in how they build the lessons.

• Section 1 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 20-2-308 (previously reserved, meaning empty) to create the firearm safety instruction requirement.
• Subsection (a) sets the start date as the 2028-2029 school year and allows the instruction to be part of existing health and physical education courses.
• Subsection (b) requires the State Board of Education to adopt content standards for the instruction by January 1, 2028.
• Subsection (c) lets local school boards create their own curriculum and lists required topics: safe storage, school safety, and avoiding injury from a found firearm.
• Subsection (d) prohibits live ammunition, live fire, or live firearms as part of the instruction.
• Subsection (e) requires the instruction to be viewpoint neutral and bars promotion of personal political beliefs about firearms.
• Section 2 repeals any conflicting laws.

1. 2026-01-16Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
2. 2026-01-15Senate Hopper (Senate)

• Ricky Williams (R, SD-025)Primary sponsor
• Billy Hickman (R, SD-004)
• Max Burns (R, SD-023)
• John Albers (R, SD-056)
• Mike Hodges (R, SD-003)
• Carden Summers (R, SD-013)
• Chuck Payne (R, SD-054)
• Lee Anderson (R, SD-024)

• school safety
• gun safety education
• K-12 curriculum
• Georgia public schools
• firearms