New Michigan gun laws take effect this week

[marmar]

(Detroit Free Press) When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law gun safety measures following the shooting at Michigan State University last year, many gun safety advocates applauded the passage of proposals that previously stalled under Republican leadership. But those celebrations occurred against a backdrop of urgent calls for more.

Before the MSU shooting, Whitmer called on lawmakers to send legislation her way to enact background checks for all gun purchases, firearm storage requirements to keep guns out of the hands of children and a red flag law allowing courts to order the temporary removal of guns from those who pose an imminent risk to themselves or others.

Two months after the MSU shooting, Whitmer signed into law the universal background checks and safe storage requirements. And about a month after that, she approved legislation to temporarily take away guns from those at risk of endangering themselves or others, marking the culmination of her call for the trio of gun safety measures. Those new laws take effect this week.

Tijuana Morris, a 68-year-old retired police officer from Detroit, was among the gun safety advocates who stood behind Whitmer and lawmakers at the red flag law bill signing ceremony last year, holding a sign that said "BAN ASSAULT WEAPONS NOW!" She welcomed the new gun safety laws while expressing hope for additional action. "This is just the beginning," she told the Free Press at the time. ................(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2024/02/12/michigan-new-gun-safety-laws/72494522007/

[70sEraVet]

1. We need to clone that Governor!!!

Send one to Tennessee!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

2. Or send her to the White House in 2028

... maybe ...

AND send her to the White House in 2028

[MichMan]

3. If law enforcement had just done its job, the MSU shooter would have never had a gun.

The MSU shooter was charged with a weapon felony in 2019. Ingham County Prosecutor dropped the charges and let him plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge instead and gave him probation. The felony would have prohibited him from owning or possessing a gun, but with a misdemeanor, once his probation was finished, he could have one.

First opportunity to hold him accountable

Then after that he was shooting at targets in his back yard (in a residential neighborhood) and neighbors called the police. They visited him, yet did nothing and left him to continue on.

Second opportunity to arrest him for discharging a firearm illegally

His dad even confronted him about it and did nothing either. Opportunity #3

Washington Post-- Michael McRae, the father of Anthony Dwayne McRae, said his son had bought a gun sometime after he was arrested in 2019 on a weapons violation, but never admitted he had it in the house. When the father confronted the son about gunshots he heard in his backyard, he said, Anthony McRae told him it was fireworks, even after Michael McRae saw bullet casings on the grass.

“I told him to get rid of the gun,” the 66-year-old father told The Post. “He kept lying to me about it and told me he got rid of it.”

[Johnny2X2X]

4. This is great news

It's a smart law that will save lives.

I've been immersed in gun cluture here in Michigan my whole life. And I want to tell you, the idea that most gun owners are responsible all the time is not what I've seen. Many gun owners I know have a drunken story or two of a gun mishap of some sort. And I am not talking local yokels, I know people who are authorities on gun safety, one who actually trains people in gun safety and conceal carry. That guy has a long list of stories that start with, "well, we started drinking for breakfast and next thing you know we're driving our truck through a creek trying to shoot out the open windows..."

Sure, there are tons of responsible gun owners. But there are just as many people for whom guns are a prop and a toy.

And something that always strikes me is the blokc many parents have in their heads apparently that prevents them from remembering what they were like as kids. When we were kids, we were into everything, there was not 1 square inch in the entire house that we didn't know what it contained or how to get into. We picked lock on safes and jewelry boxes, just because we were interested to know what was there. Kids are going to know where your guns are and they're going to try like heck to get to them. Trigger locks and safes are far from fool proof, but they can make a big difference still.

And I want to talk about suicide too. Mental health experts will tell gun owners who are suicideal a few things. First, get rid of your guns. If you don't do that, at least lock them up and store the ammo in another part of a house. For most people, suicidal thoughts are fleeting, there's just a vital moment or two where they will really go through wit it, guns are a permanent solution to a feeling that might only really last a few seconds. Just the act of having to walk to a different part of the house to get the ammo can save a lot of lives. Locking your guns up can give people time to reconsider. More people kill themselves with their guns than kill other people in this country, and too often that aspect of gun violence is overlooked and not addressed. Gun safes and locks will lower the number of suicides.