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MICHIGAN FACES PUSHBACK WITH GUN RED FLAG LAW SET TO PASS

Michigan could become the 20th state to pass a red flag law as the state looks
for ways to address gun violence after its second mass school shooting in 15
months

ByJOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press
May 7, 2023, 5:04 AM




LANSING, Mich. -- Karen Kobylik knew her daughter should not have a gun. She had
repeatedly called the police since her daughter turned 21, pleading with them to
take her firearms because of the risk she posed to herself and others.

"They said we can’t take any guns away from her because we cannot step on her
Second Amendment right,” Kobylik told The Associated Press. “I was like, ‘I’m a
mother telling you that this kid’s got a mental issue that is not currently
being addressed.’”

Kobylik’s daughter, Ruby Taverner, shot and killed her brother and boyfriend
before taking her own life in the early morning of May 8 last year. Kobylik
believes all three lives could have been saved had red flag laws, also known as
extreme risk protection orders, existed in Michigan that would have allowed
police to remove her daughter’s guns and prevented her from purchasing more.

Now Michigan is poised to become the 20th state — and the first in nearly three
years — to pass a red flag law. It would allow family members, police, mental
health professionals, roommates and former dating partners to petition a judge
to remove firearms from those they believe pose an imminent threat to themselves
or others.

Kobylik said her daughter had been treated for mental health problems including
depression since the age of 7 but had stopped taking her medication at 18. Just
days before the killings, Taverner purchased the Glock 43X used in the shooting
after she had been released from a psychiatric hospital for threatening to take
her own life, Kobylik said.



Taverner and her brother, Bishop, were both 22. Her boyfriend, Ray Muscat, was
24.

The red flag measure faces pushback on the local level in a state where
gun-owning culture runs deep. Over half of the state’s counties have passed
resolutions declaring themselves Second Amendment “sanctuaries,” opposing laws
they believe infringe on gun rights. Some sheriffs have said they will have
trouble enforcing something they believe is unconstitutional.

“At the end of the day, the utmost responsibility for a sheriff is to uphold the
Constitution,” Van Buren County Sheriff Daniel Abbott said.

The U.S. is on a record pace for mass shootings so far this year.

Touted as the most powerful tool to stop gun violence before it happens, an
Associated Press analysis in September found red flag laws are barely used in
the 19 states and the District of Columbia where they exist. Firearms were
removed from people 15,049 times since 2020, fewer than 10 per 100,000 adult
residents, according to the analysis.



It will be the first time since New Mexico in 2020 that a state has passed a red
flag law, but similar legislation is being considered elsewhere as lawmakers
seek solutions.

The Minnesota House advanced a wide-ranging public safety bill last month that
includes a red flag law. It remains uncertain whether the provision will make it
through a conference committee.

After a Nashville school shooting in March killed six people, Tennessee Gov.
Bill Lee is calling lawmakers back into session after fellow Republicans
declined to take up his “temporary mental health order of protection” proposal
at the end of the legislative session they concluded in April.

The Biden administration has sought to foster wider use of state red flag laws
and recently approved more than $200 million to help states and the District of
Columbia administer those laws and similar programs.

Red flag legislation introduced following a shooting at Michigan State
University, which left three students dead and five others wounded, passed the
Democratic-controlled Michigan Legislature last month and is expected to be
signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the coming weeks. It would not take effect
until next year at the earliest.



A judge would have 24 hours to decide on a temporary extreme risk protection
order after a request is filed. If granted, the judge would then have 14 days to
set a hearing during which the flagged person would have to prove they do not
pose a significant risk. A standard order would last one year.

Lying to a court when petitioning for a protection order would be a misdemeanor
punishable by up to 93 days in jail and a $500 fine.

Livingston County Sheriff Michael Murphy has already said he will not enforce
the protection orders because he said they lack due process and are “ripe for
abuse.” With 72 of Michigan's 83 counties voting Republican in the last
presidential election, many sheriffs will have to choose between following the
law or appeasing constituents.

Local officials “do have discretion as to which laws they will enforce with the
resources of their office," Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement to
the AP. She added that arguments against the orders are “based not on the law
but the personal whims of what they want to support."

In the Upper Peninsula's Marquette County, Sheriff Greg Zyburt said that while
he doesn’t agree with everything in the legislation, he “doesn’t pick and choose
what laws to enforce.”



“It’s not my place," Zyburt said. “That’s why we have different branches of
government.”

In Colorado, 37 counties that consider themselves “sanctuaries” issued just 45
surrender orders in the two years through 2021, one-fifth fewer per resident
than non-sanctuary counties. New Mexico and Nevada reported only about 20 orders
combined.

The laws have continued to receive widespread support from the public even with
the lack of usage. An AP-NORC poll in late July found 78% of U.S. adults
strongly or somewhat favor red flag laws.

Kobylik is a gun owner who considers herself a conservative. She spoke in favor
of the red flag law at a Michigan Senate committee hearing in March.

“I’m not here to excuse Ruby’s actions," she said. "Far from it. What I am here
to tell you is that this never had to happen.”

___

Associated Press writers Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, and Steve
Karnowski in St. Paul, Minnesota, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Joey Cappelletti at http://twitter.com/Cappelletti7

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