LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Senate responded Thursday to last month's deadly shooting at Michigan State University by approving bills that would expand background check requirements for firearm purchases and allow guns to be taken from those deemed a risk to themselves or others.
The main proposals in the 11-bill package, which also includes measures to require guns to be secured if they are kept in homes where children are present, passed along party lines in votes of 20-17 with Democrats in support and Republicans in opposition.
GOP lawmakers contended the measures wouldn't prevent shootings but would infringe on constitutional rights. Meanwhile, Democrats said the bills were the first steps needed to combat gun violence following the Feb. 13 shooting at MSU that left three students dead and five injured.
Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, labeled the bills "history-making" and "long overdue." Sen. Rosemary Bayer, D-West Bloomfield, said the bills were some of the most important lawmakers would vote on.
"We are finally taking action to begin the process of making our state safer, making our kids, our families, all the people of Michigan safer today," Bayer declared in a speech on the Senate floor. "Today, we are finally going to do what the people of Michigan are overwhelmingly demanding that we do."
The 11-bill package would expand criminal background check requirements for gun purchases, mandate storage standards for firearms in homes where children are present and permit "extreme risk" protection orders, also known as a red flag law, to allow guns to be taken away from people deemed a risk to themselves and others.
But Sen. Joe Bellino, R-Monroe, countered that criminals don't care what the law says.
"They will give people a sense of false security, all while infringing on everyone’s right to own a firearm, to hunt or even defend themselves and their family,” Bellino said of the Democratic bills.
Thursday's votes occurred 31 days after a gunman killed three students on MSU's campus and 482 days after another gunman killed four students at Oxford High School.
The MSU shooting, which occurred about four miles from where senators cast their votes Thursday, spurred a wave of rallies and protests urging the Legislature to take action. The push culminated Wednesday with former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head during a mass shooting in 2011, visiting Lansing to advocate for reforms.
"Now is the time," Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared during the event on Wednesday.
Giffords was in the Senate gallery for some of Thursday's votes.
In November, Democrats won control of the state Legislature for the first time in 40 years. Republicans had previously resisted new restrictions on guns, even after the Oxford shooting.
Debate over bills' impact
Michigan law currently requires an individual to obtain a license before purchasing a pistol, which forces buyers to undergo a background check. But long guns purchased from private sellers can be transferred without a check.
The current check prevents people with a previous felony on their record or a court order for involuntary hospitalization related to mental health from owning a pistol, according to the nonpartisan Senate Fiscal Agency.
Under the bills approved Thursday, the licensing and background check requirements would be expanded to all types of firearms. The change wouldn't apply to purchases that occurred before the bill's effective date.
Sen. Kevin Hertel, D-St. Clair Shores, said background checks "save lives."
“They keep guns out of the hands of individuals who should not have them,” Hertel said.
The background check bills exempt people under the age of 18 who use their guns for hunting or who possess the guns under the supervision of a parent or guardian.
Sen. Michelle Hoitenga, R-Manton, said the Democratic bills would only impact "law-abiding" citizens. Saying the bills would "save lives" was irresponsible, Hoitenga said.
"If gun control was definitively effective, cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and Baltimore would experience very little gun violence," Hoitenga said. "We keep hearing America has the gun problem.
"What America does have is an affliction that is common to most nations: a culture of violence and a mental health crisis.”
Storage and red flag
The storage bills would require individuals who have firearms at home where a minor is present to keep the guns in a locked box or have them unloaded and locked.
A violation of the storage standard would be a misdemeanor. If a minor obtained an improperly stored gun and committed a crime, the level of the penalty would increase.
The "extreme risk" bills would allow a spouse, family member, a former spouse or a mental health professional to seek a court order temporarily barring someone from owning or purchasing a firearm. The request for the order would have to show the person posed a "significant risk of personal injury" to themselves or others.
Sen. Mike Webber, R-Rochester Hills, proposed an amendment on Thursday that would have allocated $1 billion for bolstering school safety and enforcement of current gun laws.
Democrats rejected the amendment. They argued that they plan to address funding for school safety in the near future.
Webber and other GOP lawmakers referenced the MSU shooter and said current laws could have prevented him from owning a gun, an argument that some legal experts have rejected.
“We now know if existing laws were enforced, the Michigan State murderer would have been banned from owning a gun," Webber said.
The shooter, 43-year-old Anthony McRae, was arrested in Lansing and charged in June 2019 with carrying a concealed pistol without a concealed carry permit, according to Ingham County court records. The initial charge was a felony that carried a potential penalty of five years in prison, according to the records.
McRae was eventually allowed to plead guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge, and prosecutors dismissed the felony charge, which could have prevented him from legally owning a gun.
But the plea to a lesser, misdemeanor charge was not unusual, Birmingham defense lawyer Wade Fink, who was not involved in the case, told The Detroit News last month.
“It is exceedingly common for someone who doesn’t have a criminal history and was carrying a concealed weapon,” Fink said. “If everybody went to prison for that, you would have an overcrowding problem and you would be giving a lot of younger people felonies, which hurts them their whole life."
Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, also said the "extreme risk" bills could have given McRae's father the chance to raise concerns about his son.
Immunity protections stay
Senate Democrats changed the bill package on Thursday to keep legal protections for firearm dealers and manufacturers in the law.
In the form the bills passed out of committee last week, they would have deleted about two pages of law that say federally licensed firearm dealers are not liable for damages "arising from the use or misuse" of a gun if the sale was executed legally and that ban local governments in Michigan from suing gun manufacturers.
But the removal of the liability protections was excluded from the versions the Senate passed.
"It needed a little bit more work," Bayer said.
"I think it's important," Bayer added. "I think we are going to move forward in that direction at some point. We just have to do the homework."
The Michigan Association of Justice, which represents trial lawyers, had advocated for the committee-approved change to drop the legal protections from state law.
The association said Thursday on Twitter that it was unfortunate Senate Democrats reversed course.
Opponents of dropping the legal protections have contended doing so would lead to gun businesses being forced to close.
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(Detroit News staff writers Beth LeBlanc and Robert Snell contributed to this story.)
