Gun Bills on the Horizon for Michigan Following Second School Mass Shooting

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On February 13, a 43-year-old man named Anthony McRae used two guns and lots of bullets to shoot people on the Michigan State University campus. He killed three students and hurt five more. This has made Michigan Democrats decide to make changes to gun laws as soon as possible.

The Democratic Party recently won a lot of elections in Michigan and will now be introducing a package to Congress with 11 bills about gun safety. This is a response to two mass shootings that took place in the last 15 months. The party promises that this is only the beginning of making changes concerning gun laws in the state.

Democratic state Sen. Rosemary Bayer, who leads the firearm safety caucus, said that they are considering everything in order to maintain Michigan’s culture. The package includes safe storage laws, background checks and “red flag laws”. This happened less than three years after some people with guns came into the statehouse during a protest.

Republican Rep. Angela Rigas said on the House floor last week that our right to have guns was put in the Second Amendment by the Founding Fathers so people will be protected from a tyrannical government like what we’re experiencing now.

A few days after a shocking shooting at Michigan State University, the authorities called for the students in the university to stay safe inside their buildings for four hours while they were trying to find the shooter, named McRae. After finding him, police discovered that he had killed himself near his house back in Lansing. Three students were reported dead due to this attack – Arielle Anderson (19 years old), Brian Fraser (20 years old) and Alexandria Verner (20 years old). All of them were from Detroit.

When four students were killed and seven were hurt in a school shooting at Oxford High School, Democrats made certain changes in the law. But because Republicans were leading the House and Senate, nothing much happened with these changes.

Recently, Democrats took control over the state government and proposed some bills. People who have been affected by gun violence or their families came to these committee meetings and spoke to the lawmakers with lots of emotion behind their words.

Reina St. Juliana, a senior at Oxford High School, had an urgent request to the lawmakers — ‘Please help me by making a change! My sister Hana was killed in the Oxford shooting.’

Ms. Krista Grettenberger also visited the hearing on Wednesday and talked about her 21-year-old son MSU student Troy Forbush whom she received a phone call from on February 13th.

Grettenberger’s son called her cellphone and told her: ‘Mom, I love you. I’ve been shot. There’s someone shooting.’ Unfortunately, Forbush was gravely hurt in the shooting but he still made it through.

Grettenberger said that we are victims of a broken system that can’t protect us from people who want to do terrible things with guns.

Across America, mass shootings have caused people to be more divided on the issue of gun ownership. In states where Democrats are in charge, elected officials have responded to shootings by passing laws that make owning guns more difficult. But in many Republican-led places, it looks like no new laws will be created, because people think that those who commit acts of violence are the real issue rather than their access to weapons.

In Michigan, you must be 18 or older to buy a rifle or shotgun, but if you want to purchase a handgun, you have to be at least 21 years old. However, some licenses can allow 18-year-olds to still get handguns from private sellers.

Police said they found a lot of ammo and two guns with the MSU shooter that he legally bought but never registered. New laws passed in the House mean that sellers now need to do background checks and register any purchased firearms with the police. Democrats also think if people use safe storage for their guns, like lockers, it would have prevented Oxford from being attacked.

A US Rep named Elissa Slotkin from East Lansing said that a student in Oxford took his parents’ gun to school withoutlocking it up. The student, who was 15-years old at the time and named Ethan Crumbley, plead guilty for shooting four fellow students and seven others with the weapon purchased by his father.

James and Jennifer Crumbley are in trouble for not taking care of their son Ethan when he was showing signs of mental problems. They also gave Ethan access to a gun which caused a crime. Bayer, an important person, believes that new laws should be proposed to protect everyone from similar incidents as this one by making background checks more thorough and proper storage of guns mandatory.

Republicans want existing gun laws to be followed more closely rather than changed. A prosecutor stopped a criminal charge from happening against McRae in 2019 which would have prevented him from owning a gun.

Republican state Rep. Luke Meerman said that even if people don’t use guns, they can still cause harm. He suggests we need to try and get these people help with their mental health issues before it’s too late. He also added that for those who have a criminal history, we should make sure the punishments fit the crime, and when they leave prison, they are okay. Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt and House Republican Leader Matt Hall haven’t yet commented on if they will support the package.