Michigan GOP lawmakers oppose commonsense gun safety laws

Before the September 2024 mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, Michigan communities had endured horrific shootings in November 2021 at a high school in Oxford and in February 2023 at Michigan State University. While Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Democratic-led Legislature responded with a series of laws aimed at preventing future gun violence, many Republican lawmakers voted no on the bills. 

Some, including first-term Republican state Rep. Jamie Thompson, pushed to roll back the state’s existing gun safety laws. 

For more than a decade, Republicans held majorities in the Michigan House of Representatives and Senate and used their power to block gun safety proposals, including universal background checks, red flag laws to temporarily disarm those judged to be an imminent threat, and safe storage requirements to keep guns out of the hands of kids. 

In November 2022, Democrats won narrow majorities in both chambers. On the same day, Thompson defeated Democrat Robert Kull in the 28th state House District 51%-49%. As a candidate, she had touted endorsements from the National Rifle Association and other extreme pro-gun groups and signed a pledge circulated by a right-wing conspiracy-theory group called Pure Integrity Michigan Elections that included: “Stop the passage of new laws that make it harder for people to acquire firearms or ammunition, or that restrict/ban certain types of firearms or accessories. Oppose any effort to deprive individuals of their right to keep and bear arms without due process of law. Oppose the enactment of schemes such as firearm registration, waiting periods, and ‘universal background checks,’ all of which undermine individual liberty as well as the security of our republic.”

With their new majorities in 2023, Democratic lawmakers quickly passed a series of gun safety bills over the opposition of Thompson and other Republicans.

A law requiring background checks for all gun purchases passed along party lines in both the House and the Senate, as did a red flag law. A law requiring safe firearms storage passed with five Senate Republicans voting yes. Most Republicans also voted against a law prohibiting convicted domestic abusers from owning guns or ammunition.  

After the Michigan State Capitol Commission, which oversees the state Capitol, voted in August 2023 to ban visitors from carrying guns into the building, Thompson wrote: “The Democrat party in Michigan would have you believe that they are enacting Common Sense firearm policies in order to keep people safe. They would have you believe you are a radical gun waving lunatic if you speak out against this. The truth of the matter is that the Democrats in Michigan are removing your rights one at a time.”

Beyond opposing new gun safety rules, Thompson and 25 other House Republicans introduced a bill in April 2023 that would have prevented employers from choosing to bar their employees from bringing concealed weapons into the workplace. Days later, Sen. Lana Theis and other Senate Republicans proposed a bill to allow people to carry concealed guns without a permit. 

Thompson and 11 other House Republicans proposed a bill in June 2024 to designate the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, the style of weapon most commonly used in mass shootings in the United States, including the shootings in Winder, as the official Michigan state firearm. 

None of those proposals have advanced, but they could resurface should Republicans win legislative majorities in November.

Thompson’s Democratic opponent in the November 2024 election, Janise O’Neil Robinson, says on her campaign website that she backs the right to own guns for recreation and hunting and also supports commonsense safety laws: “But as a teacher, I’ve seen first hand how challenging it can be to protect our most vulnerable children in the event of an active shooter emergency in aging schools with limited escape routes. Guns that are used as weapons of war pose a growing risk to the safety of our communities, and I will fight to protect our district’s citizens from the ongoing threat of these dangerous weapons.”