LANSING, Mich. – In the wake of the Oxford High School shooting and the slaughter of 19 elementary school children in Uvalde, Texas, Michigan’s lawmakers have remained at a standstill over any changes to Michigan’s gun laws -- that’s despite two dozen attempts to do so.
Since 2021, 24 bills have been put up in either the state senate or the state House to beat back gun violence. None of them have passed.
- 8 were part of a package of bills to give resources for safe gun storage and tougher laws against unsafe storage.
- 6 would have created guidelines for universal background checks.
- 4 would have made for better protections for domestic violence victims.
- 4 would have imposed limits on magazine capacity and would require owners of high-capacity magazines to register their stockpiles.
- 2 separate bills would have created funding for gun violence prevention in Ingham County and would have allowed local governments to ban guns on their property, respectively.
“I think it’s particularly noteworthy that even after the oxford shooting that state lawmakers have not enacted a law that would subject people to criminal liability if they leave a firearm accessible to a minor,” said Allison Anderman the local policy director for the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
When it comes to the strength of gun laws, Michigan ranks 18th according to the Law Center which tracks nationwide gun laws, The center gives Michigan a C+ ranking.
Michigan is one of a few states that does not have child access protection laws or CAP laws which some have pointed to after the shooting at Oxford high school and a deadly winter of accidental shootings of and by children.
“I do think that Michigan has not done a lot on gun violence,” said Anderman.