16 | NOVEMBER 24 • 2022 

OUR COMMUNITY
ON THE COVER

Lansing. Working within the parameters 
of the Second Amendment, he believes 
more can be done to create barriers so 
guns will not get into the hands of the 
wrong people. 
“There are certain guns, like assault 
rifles, that should not be widely accessible, 
and there are certain people who should 
not be allowed to possess guns in the 
first place,” Wittenberg said. “This is the 
work the legislature has been charged 
with, and with new leadership coming in, 
it’s the kind of work they will be able to 
accomplish to reduce gun violence, deaths 
and increase safety in our communities. 
“
And we want to make it clear that we 
are not trying to take people’s guns away. 
We respect our right to bear arms, but 
we do want it to be in a safe, responsible 
manner.” 
State Senate President Pro Tempore 

Jeremy 
Moss 

Jeremy Moss (D-11), who 
worked on founding the Gun 
Violence Prevention Caucus 
with Wittenberg, said after 
years of stagnation on gun 
safety policy, even after the 
Oxford mass shooting, the 
voters spoke for change by 
casting their ballots. He hopes that there 
will now be movement on comprehensive 
background checks, gun safety storage, red 
flag and magazine capacity laws. 
“Legislation that we have put forward 
— like red flag laws — has passed in 
other states with proven metrics,” Moss 
explained. “Florida passed a red flag 
law immediately following the Parkland 
shooting. This allows law enforcement or 
a family member to identify somebody 
who has made credible threats to others 
or themselves and petition the court to 
have a temporary restraining order against 
that person from being able to act on 
those motivations with a firearm. We’ve 
also proposed safe storage laws, which is 
directly applicable to what happened in 
Oxford, to make sure that if a gun is in a 
home, where a minor can access it, it has 
to be safely stored away.” 
Moss said background checks can be 
strengthened by rewriting the current 
law by changing the word “pistol” to 

“firearm.” Lastly, another potentially 
lifesaving law that can now be in reach 
is limiting the capacity of magazines. 
Magazines can carry up to 30 rounds of 
bullets and are used in semi-automatic 
rifles such as the AR-15. According to the 
Giffords Organization, Michigan has no 
laws banning assault rifles and no large 
magazine capacity ban. According to 
website Statista, semi-automatic rifles were 
featured in many deadly mass shootings, 
including the Orlando nightclub, Sandy 
Hook Elementary School and Texas First 
Baptist Church massacres.
“In shootings involving an AR-15 with 
the shooter using high-capacity magazines, 
the only time the shooter was stopped, 
and when people had a chance to flee, was 
when the shooter had to stop to reload 
their rifle with another magazine,” Moss 
said. 
Speaking the day after Michigan 
Democrats elected leadership for the 
House Democratic Caucus in Lansing, 

Noah Arbit 

Representative-Elect Noah 
Arbit (D-20), who ran on a 
gun violence prevention 
platform, said gun safety 
reform will be a top priority 
in 2023. 
“The Democratic House 
caucus is committed 
to ensuring that we are protecting 

Michiganders, especially children from 
gun violence. Everyone has the right to 
navigate their way through life being safe 
from gun violence.” 
Representative Samantha Steckloff 
(D-37) said her constituents want more 

Samantha 
Steckloff

stringent gun laws passed. 
Before that happens, she said, 
the existing proposed 
legislation will need to be 
reworked and updated, but 
she sees the Democratic win 
as an exciting opportunity to 
accomplish what she says is 
what 70% of Michiganders want — gun 
safety reform. Steckloff said she would like 
to raise the age of assault rifle sales to 21, 
or ban them altogether, and would 
especially like to see the passage of red flag 
laws. 
“It is crazy that we have not been able 
to get things passed or that we have 
not even been able to get a hearing 
about red flag laws,” Steckloff said. “The 
current proposed legislation is a good 
foundational baseline, but we can rework 
the packages of bills to increase efficiency. 
We have never had the opportunity to 
even get a hearing on the House floor. 
But now, we have an opportunity to get 
some legislation passed because we have a 
Democratic majority, so we have to make 
sure it is perfect.” 

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