I’ve have the clearest view on Michigan and the landscape isn’t all bad news. In fact there is room to make gains and solidify 2A ground in many places. However there are also potential places to lose if support is not found to oppose such nonsensical and egregious violations of the state citizen’s rights.
Status of Firearms Legislation – MCRGO
| The 101st Session of the Michigan Legislature began last month. It will run until December 2022. Already several firearms bills have been introduced. The status of all firearms bills can be found HERE and will be updated as new bills are turned in. MCRGO’s member elected Board of Directors takes positions on recently introduced legislation at its quarterly meetings. All of the bills introduced to date this session are re-introductions of bills from last session. The MCRGO position listed on the website reflects that of last session and may change this session. Current MCRGO members are welcome to inquire about the reasoning behind MCRGO’s position on any legislation by emailing the executive director at brady@mcrgo.org or contacting your representatives on the MCRGO Board of Directors HERE. |
Here is they spread for the mitten state.
You can explore these at your leisure and interest by clicking through either image, but the one I want to focus on is SB 11.
We know, and we have the numbers to illustrate that demand for CPL’s jumped drastically for the nation during this pandemic. We are in a banner year. MCRGO course demand was high, even with occupancy restrictions to work around and the general concern with infection, arming up legally outweighed those concerns.
The problem was… the state was closed. Michigan, among many states, failed to provide an avenue for a crucial service that it requires its citizens perform prior to carrying their firearms to defend themselves. They just stopped processing applications, a move that is totally unacceptable and in violation of the State and Federal constitutions. They denied rights by denying a service that they require to exercise them under the guise of ‘safety’ by assuring training and a background check are performed.
That is all well and good (well, I’ll say so for brevity but there are significant problems here too) but it stops being a legally arguable step that you can enforce the moment the state stops providing the service. They took no actions to supplement the crucial county clerk processing services either, if they were closed you were hosed.
That is unacceptable. There were plenty of options to both legally abide and protect the state workers during lockdown and not stop processing applications. Implement a lockdown alternative (like they did with driver’s licenses, a service not constitutionally protected) for entry and data processing. The ATF uses one for From 1’s, but the state couldn’t be bothered to implement any measure, even after it was clear the lockdown would be longer than 2 weeks.
The state could have suspended the need to renew your license. They could have implemented a modified suspension of enforcement for pending licensees where there receipts acted as their licenses. They could have implemented an online portal where they processed most of the information and implemented a temporary solution with a temporary license that would expire once services renewed.
We live in the age of digital workaround for nearly every problem, and this is far from an insurmountable one. But the state took no action, preferring to instead let a state requirement languish because the administration is hostile to gun owners and does not consider their needs a priority. SB 11 seeks to correct that ‘allowable’ oversight on the part of the government by taking away the option of the government ignoring their mandated responsibility in the process.
