I just wanted to share a little something in my life before the vote on this. Back when my son was in kindergarten which was so long ago, kindergartners used to walk to school. We lived about a block from the school, so my son used to walk to school and he started coming home with a big kid. Back then, big was 4th or 5th grade. I said, What are you doing with this big kid? You shouldn’t be hanging around the big kids. He said, His name is Bobby. Kids were picking on me after school and they were bullying me so he walks me home every day and nobody picks on me anymore. I thought, Wow. He didn’t even know my son; that was so kind.
A couple years later, Bobby’s brother—his younger brother—shot and killed him with a gun that was left out by his father in his home. My son is 35. Bobby will always be a kid. So, on the safe storage, Senate Bill No. 79, I’m asking all my colleagues in honor of Bobby and every other child who has died this way to please support safe storage.
Senator Chang’s statement is as follows:
I want to make a couple of things clear. One, these bills will absolutely make an impact and they will save lives. The reason that we know that the extreme risk protection order bills, as others have made some comments about whether they will be effective and commented on various critiques that they have—it’s actually very clear that extreme risk protection orders work. We have seen that from other states. Suicide rates in states like Connecticut and Indiana went down by 14 percent and by 7.5 percent. I also wanted to make it really clear that in the extreme risk protection order bill that if a person files a false report there is a criminal penalty. I don’t think from the evidence that we’ve seen from the other states and just from common sense that people are going to be filing false reports. I think that is a false narrative.
I also want to just address this last point about women and empowerment. I think that the greatest thing we can do in terms of empowering women when it comes to gun violence is to make sure that we take the guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to them. We know the bills that are before us—whether it’s the extreme risk protection order or universal background checks—will actually save women’s lives in domestic violence situations and in many others. So to me it is very clear that if we want to move forward with empowering women, we have to start by ensuring we are protecting people’s lives.
Lastly, this package of bills is common-sense gun violence prevention. We all know that not only are these bills overwhelmingly supported by the majority of Michiganders, but these are bills that have been thought out. They have been well researched. We have data from all across the country that shows that these bills will absolutely make an impact.
I want to thank the individuals who came to committee and shared their tragic, heart-wrenching stories of losing their loved ones to gun violence. I want to thank especially those who shared about how, if we had passed an extreme risk protection order bill already, two of their children would still be alive today. So I think folks on the other side may have critiques, may have these ideas about what might happen or what might not happen, but I think that we need to really remember that the votes that we're taking today are history making, they are long overdue, and they absolutely will save lives and are common sense.
The following bill was read a third time:
Senate Bill No. 80, entitled
A bill to amend 1927 PA 175, entitled “The code of criminal procedure,” by amending section 11b of chapter XVII (MCL 777.11b), as amended by 2016 PA 234.
The question being on the passage of the bill,
The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows: