Michigan Moms Demand Action, Everytown Criticize Committee Vote Advancing Dangerous Permitless Carry Legislation

LANSING, Mich. – The Michigan chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, part of Everytown for Gun Safety, today responded after the Michigan House Military, Veterans and Homeland Security Committee voted to advance House bills 4770 and 4771,  dangerous legislation that would not only dismantle the state’s requirement of a concealed pistol license (CPL) in order to carry a concealed firearm in public, but also allow people to carry hidden, loaded handguns in some of Michigan’s most sensitive areas — including courthouses, college campuses, and bars. States that enact permitless carry see a substantial increase in gun violence. 

“Our lawmakers should be working to strengthen — not weaken — Michigan’s public safety laws,” said Emily Durbin, volunteer chapter leader with the Michigan chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. “Our concealed pistol license protects the public and helps law enforcement officers do their jobs. Getting rid of this sensible system would make all of us less safe.”

In stark contrast to the legislation advanced today, bipartisan legislation that would help keep guns out of the hands of Michigan domestic abusers has not yet even received a hearing in either the Michigan House or the Michigan Senate. In the last five years, at least 201 Michiganders were killed in intimate partner homicide and 51 percent of them were shot and killed with a firearm. 

More information is here on the need for Michigan to pass legislation keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. The parents of Maggie Omillian, a Kalamazoo College student fatally shot by her ex-boyfriend in 1999, have urged lawmakers to take up this proposal in a recent Op-Ed and interview.