Responsible Gun Ownership

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

GAGE SKIDMORE Though it faced obstacles gaining a foothold with in-person meetings, seminars and training opportunities due to the pandemic, the Michigan chapter of Giffords Gun Owners for Safety (Giffords) — in the aftermath of the horrific Oxford High School mass shooting — hopes to grow its membership of gun owners in 2022. The goal is to teach them the responsibilities of gun safety and handling while advocating for sensible gun control policy changes at the local and national level. Giffords is growing and has chapters in seven states. Giffords was founded by former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a lifelong gun owner, who in 2011 was shot in the head by a mass shooter while greeting constituents in an Arizona shopping center parking lot. Six people died in the attack and 13 were wounded. Giffords built her organization around its mission of valuing gun ownership and the Second Amendment as well as pushing for reforms in gun control to save the thousands of lives that are lost in the United States each year to gun violence.

Giffords spent years relearning how to walk, talk and regain her mobility and cognitive skills. Recently, she celebrated becoming a bat mitzvah at her hometown synagogue in Tucson.

“My heart breaks knowing three high school students in Michigan will never receive their diplomas because their lives were taken in a senseless act of gun violence,” Giffords told the JN in a released statement regarding Oxford. (Since then, another student died.) “Their families and their community will never be the same.”

Giffords added that all the outrage and heartbreak over mass shooting deaths will make no difference if politicians at state and federal levels refuse to act to instate stricter gun control measures.

“Every day that our country does not pass lifesaving gun laws is another day that we fail our children. This tragedy didn’t have to happen. It’s long past time for our elected leaders to stand up to the gun lobby and pass commonsense gun safety laws. Our children’s lives — all of our lives — depend on it,” she wrote. VIA WIKIPEDIA

The Michigan chapter is headed by newspaper journalist-turned-private- investigator Jonathan Gold. A gun owner and firearms instructor with more than 25 years of experience, Gold has used his activism calling Jonathan for gun control reform ever Gold since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

A member of Moms Demand Action

before beginning the Michigan Giffords chapter, the Novi resident was the victim of a shooting while investigating a drug sale, has lost friends to self-inflicted gunshots and knew victims in the 2016 Orlando Pulse nightclub mass shooting. He said most of the country’s gun owners want to see common sense gun control reform to avoid yet another mass or school shooting as witnessed in Oxford, but Republicans in Lansing are impeding legislation from moving forward.

“The Republicans in Lansing will not let policy reform on guns get out of committee,” said Gold, 51, of Novi. “They will not let them be heard on the state floor, and we are talking about common sense things like making sure weapons are locked and kept away, and those who are convicted of a domestic violence felony should not be allowed to purchase a gun.”

Examples of such legislation, which have been proposed by the Michigan Firearm Safety and Violence Prevention Caucus since 2016, include requiring guns to be properly stowed and locked, barring those convicted of domestic abuse from purchasing a gun, and implementing in Michigan the Red Flag law, which allows courts or law enforcement to confiscate guns from owners if there is proof the gun owner could be of danger to themselves or others.

Red Flag laws exist in civil courts to temporarily take away the firearms of a loved one in a mental health crisis who may harm themselves or others. According to Pew Charitable Trusts, as of 2021, 19 states and the District of Columbia have adopted Red Flag laws. Fourteen of those laws came after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

In further efforts, the Michigan Firearm Safety and Violence Prevention, chaired by Sen. Rosemary Bayer (D–Beverly Hills) and Rep. Brenda Carter (D-Pontiac), announced the introduction of more bills that might help prevent future gun violence and tragedies on Dec. 9.

Senate Bills 785 and 786, introduced by Sens. Bayer and Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield), respectively, and House Bills 5627 and 5628, introduced by Reps. Cynthia A. Johnson (D-Detroit) and Carter, would prohibit selling or possessing a magazine capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition, beginning on Jan. 1, 2023. Currently in Michigan, semiautomatic firearms with high-capacity magazines can be purchased without any background check or sale record.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2020 more than 45,000 people were killed by guns, a 15 percent increase from 2019. In 2019, the CDC reported 38,826 gun-related deaths nationwide; in Michigan in 2019, there were 1,187 gun deaths. About 60 percent of these deaths were suicides.

“Responsible gun owners have to come out and come to the table to clean up the mess that has been created by irresponsible gun culture,” Gold said. “As responsible gun owners, we believe that the public safety is just as important as our Second Amendment rights, and that means handling and storing guns in a safe responsible manner. It also means that it is not acceptable to open carry a weapon to the grounds of a state capitol or to a protest to intimidate politicians or those expressing their First Amendment rights. That’s not what it is about.”

Gold said he is averse to gun rights advocates who believe that the Second Amendment cannot be infringed upon, though it is written as such in the Constitution.

“There is not one Amendment in the Constitution that has not been interpreted or regulated,” said Gold. “For example, one cannot practice their freedom of speech by yelling fire in a crowded theater. No child should fear for their lives when they are at school. The tragedy in Oxford, Michigan, was preventable. As responsible gun owners, we must stand up to protect children from the devastating effects of gun violence.

“Giving a child access to guns, without proper supervision, endangers that child and those around them and possibly the entire community. Responsible gun owners must fight for comprehensive gun safety laws that save lives. Michigan deserves better, our children deserve better and America deserves better.”

For more information on upcoming events in Michigan with Giffords, go to www.giffords.org. or email gunowners@giffords.org.