Efforts to ban assault weapons may have taken a turn for the better with the departure of the chief NRA opponent who successfully fought the ban for years but has now quietly resigned as the head of the progun lobby. Wayne LaPierre is charged with living high on the hog and allegedly using NRA funds to do it. With him out of the loop, what’s next on this gun battle?
While we wait for that story line to unfold in the nation’s capitol, back home in the state capitol there’s been an important development on the prohibition of assault weapons here.
“Personally, I think it would be the right thing to do.”
For the first time, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has checked in on the proposed ban and if the polling data is correct, she’s got lots of company. A majority of Michigan voters want that and that includes some gun owners and supposed NRA members who live up North.
Last year at this time the newly installed Democratically controlled legislature launched a gun control mission and when the smoke cleared, there were new laws, which the GOP legislature steadfastly refused to vote on for forty years. Those included lock boxes for weapons in the home, beefed up background checks before weapons could be purchased, and socalled Red Flag laws giving the courts the power to remove weapons from those who might use them for the wrong reasons.
But there was nary a peep about moving from that low hanging fruit to outlawing these high powered multi-bulleted weapons of choice for mass murders. Back in 2017 such a shooter, sitting in the window of a high-rise Las Vegas hotel, fired at hundreds of persons attending a music festival below as he picked them off like ducks in a pond. When they counted the injured there were over 500 and 58 body bags were also needed to carry off the dead.
The governor reflects, “I do think that weapons of war do not make sense and for sale to the average persons in the public. I do have a problem with that, and I would be very open to having that dialogue.”
The law enforcement community is mostly on board with this as they are on the front lines of battling these weapons now in the hands of so many users on the streets.
The education community, charged with protecting your kids when they are in school, is on board as the headlines continue with what seems like one school shooting after another.
So, what are the prospects for this in the new legislative year?
The Michigan House is divided with 54 votes for each party. That means no bill can pass until and unless one party member or the other crosses over to vote with the other side.
The house has a long history of many Republicans and some Democrats backing the NRA, but the gun safety lobby is counting on using this election year as a way to persuade at least some to vote yes.
That lobby could run ads, especially in districts where either one party or the other could win, claiming Rep. Y is against a ban on assault weapons which means someone could use one to enter your child’s school. Enough said.
With the governor favoring such a ban, it’s a good bet she would sign such legislation. That’s if the absence of Mr. LaPierre from the debate and the fear of some legislators losing their seats, a.k.a. political self-preservation, clears the way for some pro-gun lawmakers to cough up a yes vote.
