Bill in the works to ban open carry in gun-free zones

As some school officials have been confronted with gun owners openly carrying weapons on or near their campuses, causing lockdowns for students and faculty and startling parents and law enforcement, a state lawmaker is drafting legislation that will close the loophole in state law that makes it legal.

State Sen. Mike Green, R-Mayville, wants a bill that will change the law that allows gun owners to openly carry their weapons in gun-free zones, like schools. The flip side is that the bill also would allow people with concealed weapons permits and “much, much more extensive training,” to carry a concealed weapon in the gun-free zones.

A similar bill sponsored by Green was vetoed by Gov. Rick Snyder in 2012 in the days following the deadly shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut where Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 students and six staff members before killing himself on Dec. 14, 2012.

That bill allowed for concealed weapons to be carried in gun-free zones, but not openly carried. The veto created the loophole which has caused havoc in some schools — including recently in Madison Heights — when gun enthusiasts have entered a school openly carrying their weapons.

Randy Speck, the superintendent for Madison District Public Schools, said he was encouraged by news legislators were tackling the issue. A neighboring district, Lamphere Schools, was the target of an open-carry advocate earlier this month who attempted to enter Lamphere High School with a rifle slung over his shoulder and a semi-automatic pistol in a holster. The school went into lockdown, and police stopped him from entering.

“I’m glad there is some movement because it seems to me that schools should not be in the line of fire,” Speck said. “You want to open carry, do it in a courthouse, where there’s lots of police officers around, rather than doing it around children.

“Look, I believe in gun rights, but these tactics are not education, they’re selfish acts for self-attention.”

The open-carry advocate Speck spoke of, Shawn Nixon, 39, taped the incident and posted it on YouTube.

“We’re going to try and do what we can do and close the open-carry loophole in the gun zones, not out and about,” Green said. “I can understand why folks in schools would be nervous about somebody carrying a gun down the halls of a school and nobody knows who they are or where they came from.”

He acknowledges that some gun groups won’t be happy with the bill for a variety of reasons, ranging from the more extensive training as well as the restrictions on open carry.

“I’ll work with the gun groups and the majority leader is working with the governor’s office trying to explain the reality of some of the schools wanting to make some changes,” Green said.

Brady Schickinger, executive director of the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners, said his group supported Green’s bill in 2012, which included the prohibition on openly carrying weapons in gun-free zones.

“But we’d have to see the details of the new legislation before we can say if we support it,” he said.

But Phillip Hofmeister, president of Michigan Open Carry Inc., which will oppose the legislation, said it’s not the gun owners who are causing problems in schools — it’s the school administrators.

“It’s not the children who are afraid of the guns, it’s the school administration who are really causing a panic,” he said. “Banning open carry in schools, that’s a compromise that we’re not willing to make.”

Currently, those licensed to carry a concealed pistol by Michigan or another state are prohibited from taking their concealed weapons into established “gun-free zones,” which include schools, public and private day care and child placing agencies, hospitals, sports arenas, stadiums, casinos and taverns where most of the liquor is sold by glass.

CPL holders also are prohibited from carrying their weapons into churches, synagogues and other places of worship, unless officials there allow them. And they can’t carry them into entertainment venues that seat more than 2,500 or in college dormitories and classrooms.

Gun owners have to go through at least eight hours of training, including classroom and live-fire training, to get a concealed pistol license. They would have to get an undetermined amount of additional training to get a special permit to carry a concealed weapon in the gun-free zones, Green said.

Ann Arbor Public Schools in recent days has pledged to ban all guns — concealed or openly carried — from school property, even if the action prompts a lawsuit by open carry advocates. The move stemmed from a March 5 confrontation when a man carried a gun into Pioneer High School during a concert. The district will call police if a person arrives with a weapon, and ask the person to leave.

“We view the presence of any kind of weapon at school as a disruption to the work that goes on there,” said Jeanice Swift, superintendent. “We feel pretty strongly that the weight of emergency preparedness over the last decades, and the direction of state and federal agencies would suggest that our responsibility lies in providing a safe and nurturing environment for our children to learn.”

“It has nothing to do with gun laws,” she said, acknowledging that the district is prepared for litigation over the issue. “But rather our sacred obligation to keep our children safe and provide them with a productive environment from disruption.”

Educators statewide are discussing the matter. And many want guns out of schools and support legislation for a ban.

“We’re really strong in that position, and that is supported by our members,’’ said Chris Wigent, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators. “Where we come from is our focus on children: to provide them with a safe haven, where they never have to go on lockdown, where we can focus on teaching those children in a place they feel safe. We understand there is another side to this, that there is a loophole, but we do not think schools are any place for any sort of weapons.”

Even districts that have not had to deal with the issue firsthand are watching to see what legislators will do.

Kerry Birmingham, a spokeswoman for the Troy School District, said the district had not been tested by open-carry advocates, but that the district has a procedure in place should that happen. The school board has not taken a public position on legislation to curb or restrict open-carry laws, but officials meet regularly with the Troy Police to discuss safety.

“Obviously, it’s on the radar,” she said. “The safety and security of our students and staff are our top priority.”

West Bloomfield School District passed a resolution in 2013 calling for a ban on weapons in schools, said school spokeswoman Pamela Zajac.

“The permission to allow that possession in schools does not provide a safe environment for students and staff, and results in a disruption of the educational environment,” she said in an e-mail.

The bill is still being drafted, Green said, adding he’d like to see it taken up quickly once it’s introduced.