On the national stage, Sikorski said 
money and resources have been provided 
to religious institutions through the anti-
terrorism grant from the U.S. Department 
of Homeland Security known as the Urban 
Areas Security Initiative Program. And last 
year, Jewish Federations of North America 
launched the $130 million LiveSecure 
grant program for additional resources, 
with the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan 
Detroit receiving an undisclosed allocation 
from this fund. 
Sikorski said a common thread between 
many facets of professionals working 
on the issue — from law enforcement, 
education and mental health — is the 
emphasis to conduct behavioral risk 
assessments at schools, soon to be 
mandated thanks to a bipartisan law 
signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 
June of 2022. Under the legislation (HB 
6012), beginning in January 2023, the state 
will fund risk assessments and critical 
incidence mapping to help protect students 
and create safety plans in the event of an 
emergency. 
“The behavioral risk assessment 
programs are backed by multidisciplinary 
boards, which investigate every incident 
to determine if a person has the ability 
to carry out a threat or was just making 
a poor choice of making a false threat,” 
Sikorski said. “In either case, all threats, 
perceived and real, will be investigated. 
The days of calling in a threat just for a 
prank are gone.” 

RESPONSIBLE GUN OWNERS 
WANT REFORM
In the year since Oxford, gun owner and 
former private investigator Jonathan 

Jonathan 
Gold

Gold, founder of the Michigan 
chapter of Giffords 
Organization, said he has 
been steadily recruiting a 
diverse group of gun-owning 
members to the grassroots 
organization founded by 
gunshot victim and former 
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
The goals of Giffords are to teach 
members the responsibilities of gun 
ownership while advocating for sensible 

policy changes at the local and national 
levels. Giffords has chapters in seven states. 
Ultimately, Gold said that change will 
come through one conversation at a 
time between gun owners who ascribe to 
common sense regulations such as locking 
up guns from children, not lending out or 
selling weapons through private channels, 
and keeping guns away from domestic 
abusers and those with a confirmed 
mental illness. 
Speaking before the midterm election, 
Gold said his organization was promised 
hearings on legislation that would keep 
guns away from children and other matters 
in the months following Oxford. But the 
promises in Lansing went unfulfilled. 
“Giffords is a bipartisan organization, 
but I’ll be frank in saying that the only 
people who are talking about gun safety 
in this state are the Democrats,” Gold said. 
“
After Oxford, we were promised a hearing 
on domestic gun violence laws and child 
access protection laws, but we never got a 
hearing under the Republican leadership 
in the Michigan State Legislature after 
multiple requests.” 
Coming off what is being described as a 
“blue trifecta,” where Democrats hold the 
governor’s office and the majority in the 
State Legislature at the same time for the 
first time in 40 years, the Jewish delegation 
in Lansing hopes that proposed gun 
legislation packages can finally reach the 
floor for discussion and 
become law. 

Reforms on gun safety legislation have 
been a centerpiece of the work of many 
Jewish organizations, such as the National 

Linda Levy

Council for Jewish Women. 
Linda Levy, state policy 
advocate for NCJW-Michigan, 
pointed to the success of 
grassroots efforts as a lesson 
learned from this election. 
With victories for 
reproductive freedom and 
increased ease of voting access in the 
books for the midterm election, Levy said 
NCJW can now refocus its efforts on gun 
reform legislation. 
“We have been involved with gun 
violence prevention for a while and have 
met with leaders in the past, but with no 
success,” Levy said. “We are now more 
optimistic because we expect gun violence 
prevention to take a more prominent role 
in the State Legislature. We have seen that 
grassroots efforts are very effective when it 
comes to saving on access to abortion and 
voting rights, and we now want these same 
grassroots efforts to reduce gun violence.” 
West Bloomfield Treasurer Robert 
Wittenberg, who served three terms in 

Robert 
Wittenberg

the state legislature as a 
representative and founded 
the body’s Gun Violence 
Prevention Caucus in 2016, 
said he hopes that common 
sense gun control legislation 
can finally get a hearing in 

continued on page 16

NOVEMBER 24 • 2022 | 15

