MI: School Sued for Violating Gun Law

Every one of the 50 states has some kind of firearms preemption law.   This makes perfect sense, as otherwise each town, county, and local government could enact a local ordinance to invalidate your right to keep and bear arms.   You could easily be placed in jail for an inadvertent violation of an ordinance that you never knew existed, just because you crossed an invisible political boundary.  Michigan has such a law.   MCL 123.1101(a) and MCL 123.1102 preempt local units of government from regulating firearms.

School Districts are local units of government.  In Michigan, a number of school districts are unwilling to abide by State law, and routinely violate it.  From Michigan miopencarry.org:

As set forth in the precedent setting opinion of Capital Area District Library v. Michigan Open Carry, Inc, school Districts are barred from making rules forbidding the lawful carry of a pistol. Yet, many districts throughout the state continue to do so with illegal policies and bullying. Michigan Open Carry, Inc (MOC) has partnered with Kenneth Herman to file suit against Clio Area Schools (CAS).  Mr. Herman is a dues paying member of MOC.

The defendants are listed below.  From the lawsuit(pdf):

• Clio Area School District
• Fletcher Spears III, the Superintendent of the Clio Area School District
• Dr. James Tenbusch as the preceding Director of the Clio Area School District 
• Katrina Mitchell as the Principal of the Edgarton Elementary School, located within the Clio Area School district.

 Another example of public bullying of an open carrier exercising his rights occurred in Ann Arbor last Thursday.  From the dailycaller.com:

A Michigan man was not acting erratically or threatening other people at an Ann Arbor high school music recital, but he was openly — and legally — carrying a firearm.

That was enough for a school choir director to call police and for a music professor to publicly shame him at the event.

The incident happened Thursday evening at Pioneer High School when Steven Lorenz, the director of choirs at the school, spotted the man openly carrying a gun and called police.

Legislative support for removing the ban on people with concealed carry permits carrying concealed in schools was strong in 2012.  A bill to allow legal gun carriers to conceal their defensive firearms on school property passed the legislature by large margins.   It passed the Senate 27-11, and the House 68-41.  School districts lobbied hard against it.  It was vetoed by Governor Snyder.  From mlive.com:

LANSING, MI - Gov. Rick Snyder on Tuesday vetoed legislation that would have allowed gun owners with extra training to carry concealed handguns into public schools, public arenas and other so-called gun-free zones now off limits.

The Republican governor said the bill would have made a number of necessary reforms to Michigan's weapons laws, but he decided to veto it because it only went "part way" in lifting the prohibition on carrying concealed weapons into certain zones in exchange for prohibiting the open carry of pistols in those areas.

 One school called for a school lockdown and called 911 simply because a woman asked if she could openly carry at the school.  A poll taken after the incident showed 79% of respondents agreed with allowing law abiding adults to openly carry handguns at schools:

A poll at the article has the question:

Do you think law-abiding citizens should be allowed to openly carry handguns in schools?

79% if the respondents answered "Yes".

The lawsuit puts school districts on notice that they may not violate the law with impunity.   I will report further developments as I become aware of them.

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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