A commission tasked with managing the Michigan State Capitol has rejected a motion to enact an immediate ban on firearms inside the building.
On Monday, the Michigan State Capitol Commission met to hear from two of its members who’ve been researching a potential ban.
After debating the implications of security equipment and traffic flow, the commission voted to consult with House and Senate Republican leaders before taking further action.
That dismayed commissioner Joan Bauer, who argues the body has the authority to act on its own.
During public comment, Democratic State Representative Sarah Anthony tearfully recalled the events of April 30, when several armed protestors entered the Capitol.
She pleaded with the commission to act.
“By not banning firearms in this building, you’re telling me that my life does not matter,” Anthony said.
Commissioner William Kandler co-led a fact-finding mission to determine the feasibility of a gun ban.
He’s concerned about how to enforce such a measure.
“If we pass this today, tomorrow nothing changes,” Kandler says. “There’s no magnetometers at the doors; X-ray machines…and no security people. And so people can just flout it. It’s a bad example to have a law or a policy in place that is just flouted and ignored.”
Commissioner John Truscott says as an unelected body, enacting a firearms ban would be an overreach of the commission’s authority.