With clock ticking, Michigan Dems eye ‘ghost gun,’ bump stock bans

• Democrats have little time left with trifecta control of Michigan  government, but hope to finish year with additional gun reforms
• A ban on bump stocks, enabling people to bring civil lawsuits against gun manufacturers, ghost gun crackdowns and more on the table
• Michigan House and Senate are scheduled to return to Lansing next week for lame-duck session

LANSING — Michigan Democrats are mounting a push for additional firearm reforms before they lose control of the state House at the end of the year, pursuing potential votes on proposals to ban "ghost guns," allow lawsuits against manufacturers and more. 

“The priority wish list during lame-duck is long, and time is short,” said Jess Travers, a spokesperson for House Democrats, who will lose their two-seat advantage to Republicans in January.  

But there is a “hopeful optimism — in fact, it is very likely that firearm violence prevention legislation will be part of the remaining weeks of this year," Travers added.

Many of the gun reform bills Democrats are eyeing in the final weeks of their majority have yet to receive public hearings. And in some instances — such as a plan to open up parts of the firearm industry to legal liability for gun-related deaths — legislation has not been publicly introduced. 

But that doesn't mean Democrats are going to "shove anything haphazardly through" the legislative process, said state Rep. Kelly Breen, a Novi Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee. 

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Breen has worked consistently on firearm reforms in recent years and was integral in passage of the state’s Extreme Risk Protection Order — or “red flag” — law approved in 2023. 

She said that just because gun violence and prevention bills may still be introduced late in the term doesn’t mean Democrats aren’t considering “what is going to have an impact.”

But the timing is concerning to House Republicans, who are poised to take over the lower chamber and end a two-year Democratic trifecta with a Democratic-led Senate and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. 

“If this is what you’ve got to do to appeal to your donor base, and you feel that being unconstitutional is going to appeal to your donor base — go ahead,” joked state Rep. Phil Green, R-Millington, who told Bridge Michigan he is not entirely surprised Democrats are attempting to advance more gun reform bills. 

“We know that it has no impact on crime,” Green continued, “and we know that it has no impact in creating public safety.”

With the Legislature not expected back in Lansing until Dec. 3, there will be little time left for Democrats to move legislation through both the committee process and each chamber in time to make it to Whitmer’s desk before the end of the year. 

But when lawmakers return, here are some possible pieces of firearm legislation they could take up — and pass — in the lame-duck session. 

Concealed pistol ban in Michigan Capitol

The Michigan Capitol Commission in recent years has banned most guns in the building, and Democrats are now pushing to write those rules into law under legislation that would also ban most firearms in state House and Senate office buildings. 

Lawmakers with concealed pistol permits would be exempt from the proposed bans, meaning they could still carry weapons to work. Others could face a misdemeanor charge punishable by up to 90 days in jail, a $100 fine or both. 

Arguably the most likely legislation to pass, the two-bill package made waves this month after an opponent to the proposed change used a racial slur during a Senate committee hearing. 

While that person was quickly gaveled down and admonished by lawmakers from both parties, the bills themselves continued through the legislative process and are now awaiting a vote before the full Senate.

Industry regulation reforms

Perhaps the heaviest lift for Democrats hoping to finalize gun reforms by the end of the year is a three-bill package that would give victims of gun violence the ability to file civil lawsuits against firearm manufacturers in Michigan under certain circumstances.

While the proposal has not yet been introduced, a draft obtained by Bridge proposes repealing consumer protections the firearm industry has in Michigan by creating a narrow exemption to the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). Enacted in 2005, the PLCAA protects firearm dealers and manufacturers from being held liable should a crime be committed with one of their products.

Michigan is one of 32 states which already provides additional immunity to the gun industry similar to the PLCAA, but the House-backed package would strip that from current law. 

The new bills would require gun manufacturers “establish and implement reasonable controls” surrounding their products. 

That could include preventing the loss of a “firearm-related product or theft of a firearm-related product” and requiring a person selling, manufacturing, marketing or importing a firearm to deny selling a gun to someone they “believe is at substantial risk of using a firearm-related product to harm … or unlawfully harm another.” 

Rep. Ranjeev Puri, a Canton Democrat and one of the sponsors on the bill package, told Bridge the bills “are going to improve the fairness for victims and also just help save lives.”

“The corporate gun industry does have responsibility, like any other, to take reasonable precautions to protect human life and prevent unnecessary harm and suffering,” Puri said. 

While Democrats don’t have much time to act on the proposal, Puri is a powerful backer. Fellow Democrats selected him to serve as House Minority Leader, beginning next year. 

Puri, however, told Bridge he is not sure whether his bills will advance in the next month. He noted that Rep. Joe Tate, D-Detroit, “is still the Speaker of the House.”

Bump stock ban

After the US Supreme Court struck down a federal bump stock ban earlier this year, Michigan Democrats are hoping to ban them at the state level. 

A bump stock, or bump fire stock, replaces a semi-automatic firearm’s standard stock and enables the gun to fire at a much quicker rate.

The item was effectively made illegal in late 2018 through a rule published by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after a 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas which injured or killed over 900 people. The shooter used myriad firearms, some of which were AR-15 rifles equipped with a bump stock, enabling him to fire more rounds than typical.

That regulation was overturned by the Supreme Court in June, though bump stocks remain illegal in at least 15 other states and the District of Columbia.

Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, recently told Bridge she is “definitely hoping to take up” the state-level bump stock ban bill when lawmakers return to Lansing in December. It currently awaits a hearing before her Civil Rights, Judiciary, and Public Safety Committee.

Ghost gun crackdown

Democrats are also discussing potential legislation to crack down on purchasing, selling, or creating “ghost guns,” which lack a serial number so are effectively untraceable if used to commit a crime. 

While the bills have not yet been introduced, gun violence prevention groups like Everytown for Gun Safety, Brady’s and the Michigan Coalition to End Gun Violence are pushing for its potential passage.

“We want to make sure that we can at least attempt to regulate this industry in a manner” so that people who do commit crimes using them “can be caught,” said Breen, who told Bridge the proposal is likely to originate in the Senate.

The ghost gun bills, along with Puri’s plan to open gun manufacturers up to civil lawsuits, “are likely, I think, to succeed,” Breen said, predicting both will reach Whitmer’s desk before the end of the term. 

Gun buyback programs

A three-bill package introduced this month in the Michigan House would require state police to fully destroy any weapons purchased by local communities through a “gun buyback program.”

The proposal aims to ensure that guns meant to be destroyed are not resold for parts, which happened last year in Flint and other communities, according to a New York Times investigation. 

Should state police determine a gun meant to be destroyed was actually lost or stolen, officers must try to locate the original owner and give them 30 days to reclaim the weapon if authorized to do so. Otherwise, the gun would be destroyed and the department would be prohibited from reselling any parts.

No sell lists

In the Senate, Democrats are making a last-minute push to establish a statewide “no-sell” list for firearms — though bill sponsor, Sen. Rosemary Bayer, is hesitant to call the policy an attempt at firearm reform.

“It has the word ‘firearm’ in it, there’s no way to avoid that,” said Bayer, a Keego Harbor Democrat, “but, really, it’s a suicide prevention bill.”

Under Bayer’s legislation, people could opt to put themselves on a temporary or permanent do-not-sell list for firearms.

Bayer stressed that no one could place another person on the list, and those who opt to place themselves on the do-not-sell list would be voluntarily removed after 180 days. An individual could also request to be removed from the list after 90 days. 

Medicaid intervention services

House legislation sponsored by Democratic Rep. Christine Morse of Texas Township would codify into law that Medicaid dollars could be used for community violence intervention programs in hospitals across the state. 

While the proposal has not yet caught on with many other lawmakers, it is a priority for gun violence prevention interest groups.

Under the legislation, the state would also be required to create a 15-member technical advisory group, which would be responsible for creating a violence-prevention strategy programs for hospitals and health care workers. 

The hope is that those programs — which could range from teaching violence deescalation techniques to conflict mediation — would help stymie gun violence, said Ryan Bates, executive director of End Gun Violence Michigan.

“In addition to saving lives, it will save long-term dollars in the health care system,” Bates said, “because if you can interrupt that cycle of violence, you are not re-hospitalizing people multiple times for gunshot wounds.”

Prior and pending reforms

Michigan Democrats, who took full control of state government in 2023, moved quickly to enact a trio of gun reform laws that year. 

The new laws require gun owners to safely store their firearms, expanded background checks to all gun sales and created a new process to remove guns from people at-risk of hurting themselves or others, otherwise known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders or a “red flag” law.

More recently, Democrats approved and sent Whitmer a pair of bills to ban openly carried firearms within 100 feet of polling locations, ballot drop boxes, clerks’ offices, early voting sites and absentee ballot counting boards. 

Democrats had attempted to ban guns at polling locations since at least 2020, when Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson tried to do so on her own. She was quickly sued by gun rights groups who argued she was violating their Second Amendment rights.

Courts eventually struck down Benson’s ban, ruling she had exceeded her authority as secretary of state, not that the policy itself was inherently unconstitutional.