Whitmer, Other Michigan Dems Call For Still More Gun Control

Michigan has passed a lot of gun control over the last few years. Anti-gun lawmakers have patted themselves on the back and pretended they’ve accomplished great things.

Of course, violent crime is down across the nation, likely due to the fact that more people are carrying guns than ever before, but that never factors into anti-gun decision-making.

And Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, along with some of her fellow Democrats, want more of the gun control that doesn’t seem to do anything.

The state’s leading Democrats on Wednesday joined a crowd of anti-gun-violence advocates to celebrate progress on past reforms to the state’s gun laws, while pushing for further changes intended to protect Michigan communities. 

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) and House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) joined End Gun Violence Michigan, the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan and several individuals working in violence prevention in reflecting on the impact of various reforms passed in the wake of the 2023 mass shooting at Michigan State University. 

Michigan’s Legislature, controlled by Democrats at the time, passed several measures later that year requiring universal background checks, setting safe storage requirements and creating the legal framework for judges to issue extreme risk protection orders to confiscate firearms from individuals at risk of harming themself or others, sometimes referred to as a red flag law.

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Brinks called on Republican leadership in the Michigan House to act on legislation banning the sale of bump stocks, which rapidly increase the rate of fire on semi-automatic weapons. She also called for the passage of a ban on ghost guns – firearms constructed using a kit or other parts without a serial number –  alongside legislation placing the ban on firearms in the state Capitol into state law.

While the bills passed through the Democratic-led Michigan Senate last summer, the Republican-led Michigan House has yet to act on the legislation, with Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) declaring them “dead on arrival” shortly after they received the Senate’s approval. 

In a statement shared with Michigan Advance on Wednesday, Sarah Lightner, the chair of the House Judiciary committee said the bills violate Michiganders’ Constitutional rights and do not address public safety. 

Of course, they don’t. None of these does a blasted thing to curtail violent crime.

They’re not about that, though, are they? All too often, gun control feels like a checklist for anti-gunners to follow, even if there’s no evidence that these measures really work. Whitmer and people like her treat suicides and homicides as the same thing, then blame guns for the problem, all without recognizing that people take their lives without firearms all the time. They know it, intellectually, but they won’t acknowledge it because it doesn’t advance the idea that gun control is needed.

So, they pretend it’s not a thing, push for gun control, and then find some other way to distort reality to push for measures that don’t make a damn bit of difference.

If Michigan wants to address public safety, the place to start is understanding the criminal mindset and figuring out how to disrupt it. If you want to reduce the number of suicides, you focus on mental health resources. You stop these problems by addressing the causes, and those causes don’t include firearms. People were robbed and murdered long before guns were a thing.

But Whitmer and company don’t want to do that.

While it’s entirely possible that she has a good reason why that doesn’t make every pro-gunner in the nation angry, I doubt it. This feels like pushing for gun control for gun control’s sake, which is par for the course from anti-gunners like Whitmer.

At least there are some lawmakers with some sense who are keeping her from flooding the state with anti-gun stupidity.

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