Michigan has some of the laxest gun policies in the country, according to researchers at the Rand Corp. “Despite pleas from Oxford families, these issues never even got a hearing in the legislature,” Whitmer said in her State of the State address last month, calling on lawmakers to pass a series of proposed reforms. “This year, let’s change that and work together to stop the violence and save lives.”
For the first time in decades, there’s a chance that Whitmer’s plea could become a reality. The governor cruised to re-election last fall and Democrats flipped both chambers of the state Legislature — their first such trifecta since the 1980s. So far, the package under consideration includes legislation that would institute universal background checks for gun purchases; enact a “red flag” law that would allow for courts to keep guns away from people who are a threat to themselves and others; and establish safe storage requirements for gun owners.
The Democrats’ majorities are slim enough that just one could effectively veto any bill in the state House if Republicans stand firm against it. But the above proposals should be considered the bare minimum for acceptable reforms. Already, Michigan Democrats are combing through other draft legislation and proposals from years past that could finally become law.
I can’t stop thinking about what it will be like to have that loss hanging over the building, for a fellow student and for any feeling of safety that that campus once provided
It’s hard to emphasize the level of disrespect it would be for lawmakers not to act. Monday’s shooting took place only a 10-minute drive from the state Capitol in downtown Lansing. Some of the students who sheltered in place on Monday are interns in the Capitol. Many of them likely got up, donned a blazer and rode the bus to their representative or senator’s office on Wednesday, despite the trauma they and their friends had just experienced. Dozens of their classmates gathered on the Capitol’s steps on Wednesday, all of them already school shooting survivors before this week, to give faces to the failure of their elders.
A detail that I can’t let go of is that one of the two buildings the gunman attacked was the Union. (Authorities have not identified which of his three victims died there; the other two died in nearby Berkey Hall, a classroom building.) The Union is a place students can meet to study, relax in the game room, or simply cross through as a way to avoid the winter chill. I can’t stop thinking about what it will be like to have that loss hanging over the building, for a fellow student and for any feeling of safety that that campus once provided. It’s a thought that I hope will linger with Michigan lawmakers in the coming weeks and months, one that will hopefully provide some semblance of protection for the 50,000 students on the banks of the Red Cedar whose well-being is in their hands.
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