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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