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The only movement on significant firearm bills so far this fall in the Michigan Legislature has been on the domestic violence package. Time is quickly running out this year for the consideration of other state firearms legislation.
The domestic violence bills are Senate Bill 471 , Senate Bill 472 , Senate Bill 528 , House Bill 4945 , and House Bill 4946 . The stated intent of the bills is to prohibit a person convicted of specified misdemeanors involving domestic violence from possessing, using, or transferring a firearm or ammunition for eight years after they have completed their sentence for the violation. Federal law already provides for an eight-year prohibition for misdemeanor domestic violence.
If these bills simply mirrored federal law to facilitate state enforcement they would not be contentious. Keeping guns out of the hands of people with a recent history of domestic violence is something most reasonable people agree with regardless of their political leanings. However the legislation being considered in Lansing goes well beyond federal law in many ways that are almost certainly unconstitutional by prohibiting the exercise of self-defense rights for convictions of many non-violent misdemeanors not included in federal law. A much more detailed explanation can be found in this legislative analysis . MCRGO opposes these bills.
House Bill 4945 and House Bill 4946 were reported out of the House Criminal Justice Committee on October 3. Senate Bill 471, Senate Bill 472, and Senate Bill 528 passed the full Senate on October 11 and were reported out of the House Criminal Justice Committee on October 17 on party-line votes. Consideration by the full House is anticipated on the next session day when Democrats have all their members present due to the razor thin Democratic majority. The Senate would then need to approve them.
That thin Democratic majority is in danger due to the upcoming mayoral elections in Warren and Westland on Tuesday, November 7 where Rep. Lori Stone (D) and Rep. Kevin Colman (D) are running respectively. If they are elected, they will vacate their House seats, leaving a 54-54 split House until special primary and general elections would occur in spring 2024.
Because legislation moving Michigan's presidential primary date to February 27, 2024 did not receive the necessary support from Senate Republicans to take immediate effect while legislators are still in session for the year, Democrats will need to adjourn for the year at least 90 days beforehand (November 28, 2023) to guarantee the new election date takes effect in time. As neither the House nor the Senate are scheduled to be in session the third and fourth week of November, there is a strong probability of adjournment on November 9 although no date has officially been set. Early adjournment would also mean that gun control legislation passed this spring -Red Flag, storage mandates, and background checks for private party long gun transfers- would become effective in February 2024 rather than the end of March 2024.
The Michigan House failed to take up the Safe Schools Package (House Bills 4088-4100) this fall. This bipartisan package addresses school emergency operations plans, student mental health, expansion of the Okay2Say reporting program, and school safety and security training. Because the bills do not contain any gun control measures, they are of little political value to Democratic leadership which has been focused on adopting controversial progressive priorities rather than policies with consensus appeal.
Due to dissent within the Democratic caucus, no movement has taken place on other gun control legislation this fall including the elimination of local government preemption, the expansion of pistol free zones to state and local government properties (other than the Capitol), a 14- day waiting period on firearms purchases, restrictions on modern rifles, and the elimination of liability protections for firearms manufacturers. All these issues could yet come up in 2024 as the Michigan Legislature is on a two-year session cycle.
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