Michigan gunowners are celebrating an important decision by that state’s Supreme Court that lets stand a lower court ruling that cities cannot ban concealed handguns from public buildings.
The Sept. 2 refusal by the state’s highest court to hear an appeal of the lower court ruling leaves anti-gun city administrators and city councils with no authority to ban law-abiding, licensed Michigan residents from carrying concealed guns in city halls, public libraries and other buildings.
The Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners (MCRGO), which spearheaded the legislative drive two years ago to reform the state’s concealed carry law, was delighted with the decision. The case was an appeal by the city of Ferndale and other Michigan communities, which had passed bans on concealed carry in public buildings in 2001. Signs posted at the Ferndale city library and Saline City Hall banning guns were to have come down. Saline’s ban was adopted earlier this year, and Saline Mayor Gretchen Driskell reportedly acknowledged that ordinance is now moot and will have to be repealed.
In May, a three-judge appeals court panel ruled unanimously against the city, noting that state law preempts local municipalities from passing such bans, and has since 1990, according to MCRGO attorney Carol Bambery. The Ferndale ruling sends a signal to other Michigan cities that they cannot arbitrarily pass regulations on where licensed citizens may or may not carry, but Bambery acknowledged that some cities are deliberately not getting that message.
Bambery told Gun Week that MCRGO has written letters to several communities advising them that their signs banning guns from public buildings were clearly in violation of state law.
“We are monitoring that,” she said.
MCRGO Executive Director Chuck Perricone told Gun Week, “We need to get out there and let these local officials know what they can and cannot do. They are going to lose in court. They have nothing to stand on, and they are misinterpreting statutes.”
Perricone, a former state lawmaker, said many local officials are attempting to set up what amounts to fiefdoms, pressing their own gun ordinances despite state preemption.
“At the end of the day,” he observed, “they are just plain afraid of guns. You’ve got others that don’t understand them, and others who believe that any local unit of government should have the right to adopt any ordinance they see fit.”
But Perricone offered a word of caution to such communities. “There is no municipality on earth that is an island,” he stated.
State law also allows licensed residents of other states to carry their own state licenses while in Michigan.
Michigan’s reformed concealed carry statute took effect July 2001, and immediately, anti-gun municipal officials tried to throw up roadblocks to prevent citizens from carrying in public buildings. Even in the wake of the high court’s action, some local officials are still looking for ways to keep constituents unarmed on public property.
According to The Detroit Free Press, East Lansing City Manager Ted Staton said his office will study the decision in search of an avenue for appeal. He also suggested that the city may seek legislative action to expand municipal authority over gun regulations.
Bambery does not see that happening. She said when the legislature reformed the state’s concealed carry law, state lawmakers debated the decade-old preemption statute, and left it alone. She said the decision to leave the preemption law as is was not an oversight.
She said another challenge on the horizon will be to force county gun boards to follow the state law.
“We’ve got county gun boards imposing more requirements than the state law allows them,” Bambery said. “We’ve got one county requiring a physician’s statement that you are mentally stable, and other counties that make you wait a long time and impose more fees.”
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