(The Center Square) – The Michigan Senate approved “red flag laws” that empower courts to temporarily remove guns from those posing a danger to themselves or others.
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Senate Bill 83 moves to the desk of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her signature after a vote of 20-17 along party lines. Senate Republicans in the minority opposed the package.
Last week, Whitmer signed bills to expand background checks to all firearm purchases and safe storage requirements around children.
Whitmer pushed the bill package after a February shooting at Michigan State University that killed three students and wounded five others. None of the bills would have stopped the shooting if enacted beforehand.
Senate Bill 83 is tie-barred with SB 84. SBs 84, 85, and 86 have passed the Senate but not the House.
Collectively, the bill package would enact the extreme risk protection order act, which would allow specified individuals to request that a circuit court enter an extreme risk protection order for an individual.
If the court justified an ERPO because the individual posed a significant risk of personal injury to himself or herself or others by possessing a firearm, the court would have to issue the order for law enforcement to temporarily seize firearms.
An ERPO would prohibit the restrained individual from possessing or purchasing a firearm, among other things. The bills also would prescribe penalties for noncompliance with an ERPO and for knowingly and intentionally making a false statement to the court while filing a red flag action.
However, Great Lakes Gun Rights and Michigan Open Carry sued to challenge the rules. The lawsuit, filed in the Court of Claims, says that the House and Senate – both dominated by Democrats – suppressed speech by not allowing gun rights activists to testify against the bills, thus violating the Open Meetings Act.
“We were repeatedly denied the opportunity to testify in public hearings before our elected officials – the officials who work for us,” Tom Lambert of Michigan Open Carry said in a news release. “No legislative body is allowed to supersede our natural rights which are affirmed in the U.S. Constitutional and Michigan law itself. Our lawsuit plainly explains the unconstitutional actions which took place, and what we’re asking the court to do to rectify the injustices that were carried out by legislators in the House and Senate.”
“The legislature is a place for debate and testimony, not a place for scripted theater. Imagine if there was a bill to limit racial profiling and only police unions were allowed to testify?” Lambert said.
Attorney General Dana Nessel backs the bill. In March, she testified before the Senate Civil Rights, Judiciary, and Public Safety Committee in support of the gun safety bills.
“This law will save lives. What is clear, after years of witnessing horrific gun violence across school campuses, places of worship, and elsewhere, is that some people simply should not have firearms,” Nessel said in an April 19 statement. “And often, whether the need to remove a person’s access to a firearm is acute or enduring, there are egregious and abundant warning signs. This law will allow concerned friends, family, and law enforcement to act in a way that prevents senseless gun violence and deaths in our state.”
Nessels said she stands ready to defend the gun bills in court.
“If these recent gun safety laws should be challenged in court, I want the people of Michigan to know it will be my duty and honor to defend them. When these laws are enacted, I will use every tool of my office to ensure Michigan residents are informed of these laws and that they will be vigorously enforced.”
