LANSING, Mich. (WOOD) — Several new gun laws went into effect Tuesday, one year since a shooting at Michigan State University left three students dead and five injured.
Michigan is expanding universal background checks for all firearm purchases, requiring guns to be properly stored , unattended weapons unloaded and locked and instituting a “red flag” law .
The red flag law is aimed to keep guns out of the hands of people in crisis.
“It is heart-breaking every time we have a story about an incident like what happened at MSU and you have so many people say, ‘What if? What if somebody had stepped in? What if somebody had done something?’” said Chelsea Parsons, the senior director for implementation for Everytown for Gun Safety. “It’s so often people just don’t know what to do.”
Formally known as the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act, it allows a judge to order police to temporarily take away someone’s guns if the court finds the person poses a significant risk to others or themselves by having a firearm.