(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Michigan Democrats pledge to pass gun laws following Michigan State University mass shooting [1]

['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2023-02-15  

Democrats were already working on bill addressing those issues, taking time to craft them to be as lawsuit-proof as possible, but are now expected to speed up the process.

“We didn’t throw them at the wall this time because this time we’re going to pass them,” state Sen. Rosemary Bayer said. “We are trying to move along more quickly than planned … but we still want to make sure we’re doing it right.”

It’s not clear if any of the laws under consideration would have stopped Anthony McRae, the alleged shooter, from having guns. In 2019, he took a plea deal on a gun charge, reducing it from a felony to a misdemeanor. But it wouldn’t be hard to find shootings in Michigan that would have been affected if these proposals had been law.

Lawmakers should not hesitate to pass these bills on either policy or politics grounds. It’s the right thing to do, and voters support it: According to a July 2022 poll, universal background checks have 91% support and red flag laws have 67% support … among Republican primary voters. Public pressure has also started building for action in the state following this latest mass shooting:

x MSU students have begun a sit in at the Michigan Capitol following the shooting at MSU, sitting in the same formation they would for lockdown drills at school. pic.twitter.com/QxjGwp3Dak — Beth LeBlanc (@DNBethLeBlanc) February 15, 2023

“We’re all broken by an all-too-familiar feeling — another place that is supposed to be about community and togetherness shattered by bullets and bloodshed,” Whitmer said following the MSU shooting. “We know this is a uniquely American problem.”

It’s time to do something about it.

RELATED STORY:

'Second mass shooting that I have now lived through,' Sandy Hook survivor says of MSU shooting

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/15/2153146/-Michigan-Democrats-pledge-to-pass-gun-laws-following-Michigan-State-University-shooting

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/