Michigan Apparently Has No Laws Against Open Carry in the State Capitol

[MineralMan]

Frankly, I think that's very strange. The situation simply is not covered by any law, so it's apparently OK to carry your AR-15 inside the Capitol building in a protest.

What's more, it's not even illegal for those firearms to be loaded. Open carry laws in some states require firearms being carried openly to be unloaded while carrying. But, since there is no law at all in Michigan about open carry, there is also no requirement that they be unloaded.

So, that group of armed protesters could well have been carrying their AR-15s and other firearms with full magazines, and even with a round in the chambers and the firearm ready to fire. There's no law prohibiting that.

So, the guys with the silly chin beards and mustaches could have opened fire at any time, I guess. Have you ever noticed that most of those folks have the same style of beard?

How does that make sense? That's my question. How is it OK for armed men, angry at the legislature of Michigan, to show up to intimidate legislators, fully armed with ready-to-fire weapons?

I say that it makes no sense whatsoever. It's long past time for the Michigan state legislature to pass a law protecting itself from intimidation by armed men, it seems to me.

[roamer65]

1. We will change the law after we flip the legislature in November.

This crap will give us a fully Dem legislature IMO.

In the meantime, we have the state police and the Michigan NG to keep order.

[MineralMan]

2. I certainly hope so.

[roamer65]

3. I emailed my governor to consider using the NG to secure the capitol grounds.

I hope she does it.

The situation warrants it.

[MineralMan]

5. Lacking any laws prohibiting the carrying of firearms in the

State Capitol, I'm not sure what she can do. I don't know the laws of Michigan, I'm afraid, that would affect her ability to prohibit such activities.

As it now stands, it looks like armed men could sit in the public areas of the legislative chambers fully armed at all times when the legislature is in its chambers. How does such a thing make any sense in a Democratic country?

[roamer65]

11. Keeping up the pressure.

That’s what it does.

[uponit7771]

4. "... officer, there's some gun with a rifle here looking like he's up to no good..." Would've been

... call to the police if the MAGA KKKluckers were black

[MineralMan]

6. Oh, I'm sure if a group of armed black men showed up and did

exactly what that group of white protesters did, the results would have been different. No question in my mind.

And there's the rub.

[uponit7771]

8. I just posted that's probably how to get the MAGA KKKluckers to stop doing the same move Putin

... did in the Ukraine; get bus loads of armored and armed non-whites in the same building at the same time.

The police get called and everyone has to leave.

But KKKluckers are violent and would start shooting ... that move is straight from Putin's playbook in Ukraine.

[bluestarone]

7. Sounds like that's the RETHUGLICON way

People are idiots. and the rethugs know HOW to get their support. GUNS GUNS GUNS, That's all fucking people think about!

[The Magistrate]

9. Certainly It Is Disorderly Conduct, Sir

And the response to being told so through bull-horns would certainly provide just cause for the necessary action.

These insurrectionists need to be put to the test of whether they shoot at an officer of the law, or obey the lawful commands of an officer of the law. Their pretense they are law-abiding patriots of heroic mien must be stripped from them, revealing they are outlaws or cowards.


"Kill one, warn one hundred."

[Aristus]

10. It's okay to open-carry if you're white.

If a black or Muslim person walked in carrying heat, the Capitol cops would have started blasting.

[jmowreader]

12. This has been a problem for a while

After Michigan legalized open carry of loaded long guns, a lot of videos of people just strolling down the street dressed up like they were going on patrol in Fallujah showed up on YouTube. They called them “Second Amendment audits.”

There’s a famous video of two of these pillars of society walking into a Dearborn police station wearing hoodies and ski masks and carrying multiple guns.

The best thing for the state of Michigan would be to return to the previous condition of concealed carry of handguns, cased carry of long guns and no open carry at all in built-up areas.

[MineralMan]

13. Well, I don't live in Michigan, so I have no influence there regarding

that state's laws. It is a very strange thing, however, to watch.

[ooky]

14. SMH.

Unthinkable stupidity.

[oasis]

15. Even Charlton Heston would face palm if he could see these a-holes.