Earlier this week, Michigan’s Gun Violence Prevention Task Force rolled out its report. It included a whole lot of various things, and it made a lot of headlines in the state.
Yes, we covered it here, too. After all, when you call for things like assault weapon bans, we’re kind of going to notice.
But there’s an interesting quirk about the report that you might not know if you just followed much of the initial media coverage. There was a certain form of framing in those stories that we need to pay close attention to.
A group that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer created with the goal of making policy recommendations to save lives is urging state lawmakers to ban the possession of assault weapons and large capacity magazines.
Whitmer, a Democrat, formed the Michigan Gun Violence Prevention Task Force in June 2024. The panel released its final recommendations Monday in a 50-page report, which called for a prohibition of the manufacture, sale, possession and transfer of assault-style weapons. The task force also said devices that convert semiautomatic guns into fully automatic firearms — known as Glock switches — should also be banned.
“With lives on the line, incremental change is not enough,” the report said. “We must act with urgency and conviction to adopt policy solutions that will save lives and create a safer future for all Michiganders.”
In addition to banning assault weapons and large capacity magazines, the task force also said the state should require waiting periods for all firearm purchases and mandate gun dealer licensing and inspections, among other policy changes. The report didn’t provide details on what specific weapons the recommended ban would impact.
Cam, when covering this earlier, also noted the anti-gun proposals:
The task force, which includes longtime gun control supporters like Dr. April Zeoli, Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller, and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, is calling on lawmakers in Michigan to adopt eight other new gun control measures besides the “assault weapon” ban.
- Requiring waiting periods for all firearm purchases
- Increasing the age of firearm purchase to 21
- A prohibition on the possessionof large capacity magazines
- Requiring gun dealer licensing,record keeping and inspectionsat the state level
- Ban “ghost guns”
- Allowing for “legal accountability for the gun industry”; i.e. making it easier to sue gun makers and sellers for the actions of criminals
- A prohibition of gun carriage in government buildings
- A ban on automatic conversion devices
The report claims “With lives on the line, incremental change is not enough. We must act with urgency and conviction to adopt policy solutions that will save lives and create a safer future for all Michiganders.”
For us, that’s absolutely what we’re more likely to cover, because those are the attempts to infringe on the right to keep and bear arms. That’s our wheelhouse. That’s what we do.
But the mainstream media? They don’t have an official wheelhouse. They should be looking at the overall report, and if you look at it, there’s a lot of stuff in there that isn’t gun control. There are a lot of things that aren’t entirely terrible.
For example, one proposal is an increase in access to services for people who are in some kind of psychological distress. Another calls for liability protection for FFLs who voluntarily store someone’s firearms while they’re dealing with mental health issues.
Many of these things are actually going to be easier sells in Michigan, with one chamber of its legislature currently under GOP control. They’ll address any lingering problems–as Cam also noted in his piece, violent crime is dropping already, thus it seems that interventions aren’t necessarily needed along that front–and preserve the right to keep and bear arms.
But the media didn’t want to talk about that.
They preferred to frame things as if it were gun control alone that this task force says is needed. That’s troubling since some gun rights advocates were reportedly on the task force, but since it’s also untrue, it’s not really.
Remember that no matter how much you hate the mainstream media, you don’t hate them enough.
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