Local gun store owners react to proposed firearms legislation

LANSING — Local gun store owners say expanded background checks and registration requirements, as well as liability changes now advancing through the Democratic-led Michigan Legislature will not improve safety and will only cause problems for legal buyers and sellers.

"It's not going to change anything," about gun violence, said Ralph Myer, who owns Ralph's Gun Shop in Stockbridge.

Hartland Township gun store owner Mike Paige, who owns Oakland Tactical, said he's not sure universal background checks stop gun violence.

"Wackos will be wackos," Paige said. "If someone comes in and is prohibited, they are going to come in and lie, and the ATF probably knows, but they aren't filtering. I think if they followed the laws on the books, it would be a better situation. There are plenty of laws on the books about firearms."

House Bill 4138 passed 56-53 along party lines Wednesday. The bill, introduced by Rep. Jaime Churches, D-Wyandotte, expands background checks for gun sales and purchases in Michigan to include all "long" guns, rather than just handguns, and to cover all sales. Additional legislation could strip liability protections from firearm sellers.

Democrats had planned to introduce gun safety legislation before a mass shooting at Michigan State University Feb. 13 that killed three students and injured five others, but lawmakers said the events at Michigan State spurred the faster introduction of a series of bills addressing background checks, safe storage laws and extreme risk protection orders, sometimes called “red flag” laws.

"What it’s doing, it’s making it harder for people to legally buy (firearms)," Myer said of the legislation.

Legislation includes background checks, other changes

Federal law currently requires background checks for gun sales by licensed dealers while Michigan's law requires first obtaining a license for purchasing pistols from private sellers. But current state law means those buying firearms longer than 26 inches from private sellers don't need to first obtain a license to purchase.

House Bills 4142 and 4143, also passed Wednesday, amend Michigan’s penal and correction codes to reflect the new background check requirements for all firearms.

The bills advanced Thursday in the Senate, although there is no timeline for when they might see a vote in that body.

Package of bills now in Senate

A state Senate subcommittee Thursday made its own changes to a package of bills that would remove current legal protections for licensed firearms dealers and manufacturers, before voting to advance it to the full Senate.

State law currently exempts federally licensed firearms dealers from liability if the sale was legal. The proposal would end the exemption and also end a ban on local governments from suing gun manufacturers.

"As far as the seller being liable, does a Ford dealership have be responsible if someone who drives drunk kills someone?" Myer said.

Bills received support, but GOP legislators oppose them

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Tim Carey, law and policy adviser at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, cited research data that indicates fewer gun-related injuries and deaths take place in states with more stringent firearm access laws.

"The data shows us that states that implement stronger gun laws have lower rates of gun death than states without these laws,” Carey said.

State Rep. Robert Bezotte, R-Livingston County, who voted against the bills, commented on gun control laws in a March 2 post on his Facebook account.

"This is a very emotional issue for all of us," Bezotte said. "I understand and agree with our youth in Michigan as well as our entire country, (gun violence) is unacceptable. Unfortunately, adding more laws or restricting law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms will not stop the tragedies we have seen around our country. We already have laws that will address negligence on those gun owners who fail to secure their weapons properly.

"Mental health has to be addressed from an early age. My generation has failed to address this issue, matter of fact we closed mental hospitals and then started putting many of these individuals in jails and prisons," he said. " Please keep in mind that this issue needs to be addressed on so many different levels. Passing gun legislation will never solve school shootings."

Firearms dealers say legislation will slow system, block law-abiding citizens

"If they would enforce the laws they already got on the books, they would cut down on crime," Myer said.

As a federally licensed dealer, Ralph's Gun Shop already completes background checks, for the guns it sells. He also processes inbound gun transfers.

He said, if adopted, the legislation will cause delays.

He said the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System can get "overloaded" at times and sometimes he has to wait on hold for a long time.

"I call in and they say, 'Due to an overload, you're going to have to wait and we'll take your call in the order they come in,'" he said.

"People who buy on the internet must ship it to a licensed dealer, and they can't ship it until they have a license. We have to do all the paperwork here," he said.

He said licensed gun stores do not profit off transfers.

"I make $30 and it will usually take a half hour to 45 minutes. That's why some won't do transfers," he said.

He said some people do not like it when they find out they need a background check "because they don't want the government to know too much about them."

Paige said background checks could be a good idea for first-time gun buyers, but not most people.

"Most of our customers aren't buying their first gun, and they aren't going to buy their last gun to commit mass murder," he said. "Maybe first-time gun owners, yeah, universal background check the crap out of them.

"The big thing that's going to make it an issue is transfers," he said. "A dad can't just give it to his son. In my opinion, its an invasion of privacy for private transfers."

Universal background checks "are going to clog up the system more," he said. "It's not going to stop any of the handgun violence. They are going after rifles and long guns, which isn't the tool of choice for mass murderers. I don't have much confidence it will move the needle."

He also said processing more transfers is not good for business.

"As a gun store, I don't want that extra business," he said. "It's not a profit-making thing. It takes time, and we have to be the bad guy and ones to tell people they can't (buy a gun) or how to get reinstated.

"And it increases scrutiny of the ATF. If we do an extra thousand for private transfers, we have to prove where did it come from and where it is going," he said. "When we have an inspection, that's a thousand points of inspection we have to go through. It's a lot of extra time and work."

Detroit Free Press reporter Arpan Lobo contributed to this article.

Contact Livingston Daily reporter Jennifer Eberbach at jeberbach@livingstondaily.com. 

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Local gun store owners react to advancing firearm legislation