Friends-
On February 13, we had a school shooting at MSU, killing three students and leaving 5 more in critical condition. Unfortunately, this is the second school shooting in Elissa’s district in 14 months, since the Oxford High School shooing in November 2021. This means she’s part of a small and unfortunate club of Members of Congress who have experienced more than one mass shooting while in elected office.
When there is a school shooting, the phone won’t stop ringing. But the calls Elissa started getting after Oxford have now turned into a torrent: Republicans who are avid hunters and sportsmen, calling to say that something must change to protect our kids.
These callers know what we all know in our gut: There is no need to choose between having a gun for hunting or sport and caring about protecting our kids in places that should be their sanctuaries. You can do both. But some elected officials somehow think it’s heresy to even come to the table to discuss how to keep our kids safe from gun violence. Our community is hurting, and the bottom line is that everyone should be focused on the simple act of keeping our kids safe.
In the last Congress, after a horrible shooting at Oxford High School in which a student accessed a gun provided by his parents, Elissa introduced H.R. 6370, the Safe Guns, Safe Kids Act. The bill was targeted at preventing minors from accessing deadly weapons. All it said was that gun owners have to secure and store any firearms when children are present — and they’re held responsible if that child causes harm with their weapon, as a result of their failure to secure it. The same bill was introduced in the Michigan Senate.
In June 2022, the bill passed in the US House, but did not advance in the Senate. It couldn’t secure the 10 GOP votes needed to pass it into law.
But now, we are in a position to get real things done at the state level. In Michigan, we are putting our first Democratic majority in 40 years to good use. There is a whole package of bills being put together that address things like universal background checks, red flag laws, and the state-level version of Elissa’s safe storage bill. Hearings start Thursday on these bills.
For most people, it’s a no-brainer that we should be able to keep our kids safe. But this is just the beginning: Michiganders have to keep up the pressure on the people who want to maintain this deadly status quo.
It’s going to take all of us, working together, to help push for this progress we desperately need. We’ll update you on what comes next, and in the meantime, thank you for being an ally in this fight.
Thank you,
Team Slotkin
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