(Source: MIRS.news, Published 12/10/2024) All firearms -- including those made from a kit or a 3D printer – would require a serial number under legislation that moved out of a Senate committee Tuesday. Later in the day, the same Senate Civil Rights, Judiciary and Public Safety Committee passed a ban on "bump stocks," an apparatus that, when added to a gun, makes it shoot bullets like a machine gun.
First Tuesday, the panel moved SB 1149 and SB 1150, which would require anyone creating what is called a "ghost gun" to have a license and to immediately get a serial number on it.
Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) addressed the rising threat ghost guns pose to the safety and security of communities, pointing out the recent high-profile assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was carried out by the use of a ghost gun.
"Currently, anyone, including dangerous individuals who are prohibited from possessing firearms under Michigan law, can go online and buy all the parts needed to build an untraceable firearm at home," McMorrow said.
The bill will not ban guns, but it will require all firearms to be serialized.
"What we don't want to do is penalize responsible gun owners, including many of our state's hunters who may own or use some form of a kit firearm," McMorrow said. "The bill now gives residents up to three years to have their weapons serialized, which they can do through any federally licensed firearms dealer up from the initially proposed one-year period."
Gun advocates, however, argued the term "ghost guns" was a fear tactic used to restrict the gun rights of law-abiding citizens.
Thomas Lambert, director of Michigan Open Carry, said the bill would ban firearms already lawfully possessed without serial numbers.
"There's a huge difference between regulating the commercial manufacture of firearms and the possession of personal property by individuals that this bill will target," Lambert said.
But Denise Wieck, member of Moms Demand Action, said her son was shot by her son's 17-year-old best friend.
"Ghost guns should be regulated. There's no reason that a minor, someone with a mental illness, a domestic abuser, or a criminal should be able to get these kits so easily and put them together," she said.
Ryan Bates, executive director for End Gun Violence Michigan, said a ghost gun kit could be assembled in a little over half an hour.
"In the eyes of the law, the kits are considered parts rather than a fully functional firearm," Bates said. "This is a loophole criminals will use to get their hands on a firearm without having to do a background check."
In other news from the committee, the panel passed legislation (SB 942) banning the use or sale of bump stocks, which were used by the shooter in the deadly Las Vegas shooting of 2017, the nation's most deadly mass shooting, where 60 people were killed and more than 800 were wounded by a weapon that fired off more than 1,000 bullets in minutes.
Bump stocks are a firearm accessory which convert a semi-automatic assault rifle to fire as if it is a machine gun. Bump stock modified assault rifles can fire 400–800 rounds per minute.
The Sen. Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia) bill comes in response to a U.S. Supreme Court opinion from June that the U.S. Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) exceeded its authority in banning bump stocks, ruling instead that it's up to the states to ban these devices, if they want.
"There is no legitimate reason to own one of these horrific weapons," Bates said. "Criminals with a bump stock rifle can even outgun law enforcement, which puts all of our communities and families at risk."
