Michigan Senate OKs proposals to expand gun safety measures in step forward for Democrats

[marmar]

(Detroit Free Press) Michigan Democrats moved one step closer Thursday to putting in place new gun safety measures after Senate lawmakers advanced a trio of proposals to expand background checks as well as establish gun storage requirements and a new "red flag" law.

The votes came about a month after a gunman went on a deadly rampage on the Michigan State University campus. Michigan Senate Democrats passed gun safety measures that previously stalled in Lansing the last time a mass school shooting at Oxford High School rattled the state.

The legislation taken up Thursday would subject all those purchasing firearms to a background check, allow law enforcement officers and family members to petition a court to temporarily take away guns from those deemed dangerous and establish penalties for those who fail to keep their guns out of the hands of children.

State Sen. Rosemary Bayer, D- Beverly Hills, who leads the Firearm Safety and Violence Prevention Caucus, called the votes on the bills the most important ones lawmakers will ever take and said they had the Michigan public on their side.

"Today, today we are finally going to do what the people of Michigan are overwhelmingly demanding that we do," she said ahead of the votes. .............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2023/03/16/michigan-gun-safety-proposals-senate-vote-background-checks-storage/70004578007/