Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed into law expanded background checks and stiffer penalties for not keeping guns’ out of childrens’ hand yesterday.
The Detroit Free Press reported that one of the new laws fortifies the state penal code in expanding background checks from only requiring a license to buy a pistol to needing a license to buy any firearm.
The other new law states that gun owners must store their firearms in a locked container or use a locking device if there’s a child living with them or otherwise make the gun inaccessible to the child.
“If a child injures themselves or someone else with an unlocked firearm, the gun owner would be guilty of a felony punishable up to five years’ imprisonment and/or a $5,000 fine. If the minor kills themselves or someone else, the individual who failed to secure or lock their firearm would be guilty punishable up to 15 years’ imprisonment and/or a $10,000 fine,” the article states.
These new laws—and the “red flag” bills currently being working on in the state legislature—are a response to the mass shooting at Michigan State University in mid-February.
“We don’t have to live like this and today we’re showing that we’re not going to,” Whitmer said at the signing.
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