LANSING, Mich. – In a late-night session, the Michigan House voted for universal background checks along party lines 56-53—the first of proposed new gun legislation in the wake of the mass shooting at Michigan State University.
The bill makes a background check mandatory on all firearm purchases but exempts transfers between family members.
Before the full House vote, house members heard testimony in committee from one of the parents of an MSU student who was shot the night of Feb. 13 and survived.
“My beautiful 21-year-old son called me right after being shot to tell me he loved me,” said Krista Grettenberger during her testimony. “He wanted to tell me first that there was a shooter, that he had been shot, and that he loved me. He didn’t want me to hear it from the police, the news, or the hospital.”
Other gun legislation being proposed includes safe storage laws and red flag laws. The action by the House is the first portion of these bills to make it through a chamber. It now heads to the Senate.
“We won’t know if this tragedy could have been prevented by universal background checks, safe storage laws, and extreme risk protection orders, but the reality is any one of these measures might have stopped this man from shooting my son,” Grettenberger said.
Michigan House approves gun law changes by brandon carr on Scribd
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