Lead photo: Brenden Boudreau delivering thousands of petitions to Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey’s opposing “Red Flag” laws.
By: Brenden Boudreau
Last week, MLive reported that Michigan Republican Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey is planning on holding hearings on Democrat-sponsored “Red Flag” gun confiscation laws in the next couple months.
Senator Shirkey initially promised to give the sponsor, Democrat State Senator Rosemary Bayer, a hearing on her “Red Flag” bills the same day as the 2019 Second Amendment March in Lansing.
So while gun rights activists were rallying outside the Statehouse, Senator Shirkey was apparently cutting deals with anti-gun Democrats to hold hearings on radical gun control measures.
Also known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs), “Red Flag” Gun Confiscation would allow government agents to seize your lawfully owned firearms based on a mere accusation.
All because an angry family member, nosy neighbor, or abusive ex claimed you might be a threat.
No due process, the opportunity to face your accuser, or any crime even being committed.
“Red Flag” laws are the soup de jour of the gun control lobby and Senator Shirkey is giving them the hearing they want to push this garbage on Michigan gun owners, while stonewalling hearings on Senator Tom Barrett’s legislation to repeal pistol registration (SB 646-648) and Sen. Lana Theis’ Constitutional Carry bills (SB 489-492).
So the Republican-controlled Michigan Senate is currently on schedule to hold public hearings on “Red Flag” laws before Constitutional Carry, the top priority for gun rights activists nationwide.
It is shameful that while Republicans in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania are working to pass Constitutional Carry, the “best” Senator Shirkey can do for Michigan gun owners muster is a hearing on gun control.
This is just the latest example of a Michigan Republican currying favor with anti-gun Democrats instead of working to restore your Second Amendment rights.
And it isn’t even Shirkey’s first betrayal…
After all, he joined the anti-gun bandwagon that ultimately led to the Michigan Capitol Commission acting unilaterally (and unconstitutionally) to ban lawful carry in Michigan’s State Capitol building.
This promised hearing for gun confiscation orders is just Senator Shirkey wheeling-and-dealing with the gun rights of Michiganders is a cutesy political ploy to get something from Democrats.
And nothing the Democrats can give him is worth giving the anti-gun Left a platform to push gun control in a Republican-controlled Senate committee.
Brenden Boudreau is the Director of Field Operations for the National Association for Gun Rights, writing from Michigan. Contact him at [email protected]. In addition to his work with the National Association for Gun Rights, the author is also Executive Director of Great Lakes Gun Rights.