LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — According to State Superintendent Michael Rice, guns are in the wrong hands.
Rice is looking to the state legislature to put gun laws in place for the safety of students and school staff across Michigan.
“The state legislature needs to do what should’ve been done years ago — pass meaningful gun legislation,” Rice said at Tuesday’s State Board of Education meeting.
The superintendent referenced a poll conducted in September 2022 to demonstrate that Michiganders, regardless of their political affiliation, agreed on multiple poll questions, including:
- Requiring background checks on all gun sales, including sales at gun shows and other private sales.
- Enacting a child access prevention law that would hold gun owners accountable for the safe storage of firearms.
- Preventing sales of firearms to those who have been reported to law enforcement as dangerous to themselves or others.
- Requiring a waiting period of at least three days after a gun purchase before the gun can be taken home.
- Imposing criminal penalties or fines for those who buy firearms for another person.
- Requiring a person to be 21 instead of 18 to be able to purchase an assault-style weapon.
- Establishing a court-issued protection order called an “extreme risk protection order.”
To read EPIC-MRA’s full report, click here.
Rice additionally brought up a resolution that the State Board of Education adopted in October 2022, that called upon the state legislature to pass gun laws.
“We’ve lost too many young lives to gun violence,” Rice said. “It’s well past time for common sense gun safety laws.”
