As a Michigan Senator and Representative for the last two plus decades, Sean McCann has kept busy sponsoring bills on firearms. Since 2011 McCann has sponsored more than 20 firearm bills, almost half of those were in 2023 and 24.
Four recent firearm bills McCann supported all went into effect at the same time, February of 2024. Following is a breakdown of those four laws as well as questions to consider.
These background checks require a license in order to purchase a firearm from private, non-federal sellers. This requirement includes personal exchanges. If someone inherits or is gifted a firearm, that person must go to a law enforcement agency to clear a background check and attest to being eligible under Michigan law to obtain a license for the purpose of purchasing a firearm.
• Will someone who is intent on committing a crime choose to inform law enforcement about private gun purchases? If not, then what does this law accomplish besides adding more cost and government red tape to law-abiding gun owners?
• Is the requirement to obtain a license giving the government data with which to track gun ownership?
• Does this law infringe on the Second Amendment's provision of the “right to bear arms?"
These Red Flag Laws allow judges to issue an extreme risk protection order (ERPO) based on their determination of whether individuals pose a threat to themselves or others. If an ERPO is deemed warranted, individuals must relinquish all personal firearms and ammunition to law enforcement and are banned from purchasing firearms for one year. The law also provides that a law enforcement officer, mental health professional, or those close to the individuals, can submit a request for an ERPO.
• If individuals are intent on hurting themselves or others and their guns are take away, won’t they use something else to carry out their intent?
• If the intent behind licensing isn’t for tracking gun ownership, then how is it law enforcement will know if individuals own guns that need to be relinquished?
• Isn’t allowing law enforcement to seize firearms a violation of the Second Amendment, especially in light of the fact that no crime has been committed?
The Safe Storage Law requires that firearms in the home must be kept in a locked box or container or unloaded and locked with a device that renders the firearm inoperable by anyone other than the owner or authorized user, especially if minors are present.
• If law-abiding citizens have their firearms unloaded and locked, wouldn’t this hinder their ability to defend themselves when someone who is not law-abiding enters their home intending to commit a crime?
• Doesn’t this law add to the rules and restrictions for law-abiding citizens thus infringing on the Second Amendment and doing nothing to deter criminals?
This restriction requires that those with a domestic violence misdemeanor will warrant an eight-year ban on the ability to possess, purchase or distribute firearms after completing their sentence. (A misdemeanor is a first offense, committed with or without a weapon, with or without a resulting injury, and can include destruction of property, internet communication, harassment, or anything that would make the victim feel terrorized, intimidated, threatened, or molested.)
• Again, doesn’t this law infringe on the Second Amendment by seizing firearms?
• Again, if the intent behind licensing isn’t for tracking gun ownership, then how is it law enforcement will know if individuals own guns that need to be relinquished?
• Again, wouldn’t individuals intent on harming someone choose to use a different weapon?
Senator McCann supported the above four laws as well as almost twenty other firearm bills and has referred to this legislation as “common sense reforms.”
Are these reforms “common sense” if they don’t stop criminals from committing crimes but rather allow for more overreach of the government and more red tape to those who follow the law?
McCann has said that he remains “committed to evidence-based solutions.” Does the evidence he’s referring to include the gun-related crime rates?
Compared to Michigan, Chicago has more gun restrictions and Wyoming has fewer. How does the amount of restrictions impact gun-related homicides?
With some of the strictest gun control laws in the country, Chicago is more restrictive on firearm ownership, types, carrying, reporting, and self defense than Michigan.
On the flipside, Wyoming is a state with minimal gun laws, requiring no purchase or carry permits, allowing full open carry, and requiring no red flags, storage, or reporting.
Following is a side-by-side comparison of the approximate number of gun-related homicides since 2019:
As populations differ (Michigan: around 10 million, Wyoming: less than 600k, and Chicago: around 2.7 million), a per capita comparison is included.
Per Capita:
Michigan ranged from approximately 4.8 in 2019 to approximately 6.0 in 2022 gun-related homicides per 100,000 residents.
Wyoming ranged from approximately 2.1 in 2019 to approximately 2.6 in 2021 gun-related homicides per 100,000 residents.
Chicago ranged from approximately 16.4 in 2019 to approximately 26.6 in 2021 gun-related homicides per 100,000 residents.
The Chicago and Wyoming data appear to indicate that more gun laws result in more gun-related deaths.
More gun laws also could hinder citizens who carry from helping to prevent crimes.
On Saturday, July 26, 2025, 11 people were injured as a man walked around a Traverse City Walmart randomly stabbing people.
Thanks to Derrick Perry, a gun-carrying citizen, and Michael W, who assisted, the man with the knife was detained until law enforcement arrived and there were no further incidents.
Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael Shea praised the citizens who stepped in and took action but asked the media to give them privacy. Shea told reporters, “I cannot commend everyone that was involved enough. When you stop and look at time of call to time of actual custody it actually the individual was detained within one minute. And that is remarkable.... And that mitigated, Lord knows, how many additional victims.”
In a statement on X from Governor Whitmer following the incident she says “our thoughts are with the community” and “I am grateful to the first responders.” As of yet, at least on social media, the governor has not acknowledged the two men, unless they are whom she’s referring to as the “first responders.”
The incident calls attention to how “brutal acts of violence,” as Whitmer called the ordeal, can happen with weapons other than firearms, and that there are times when guns prevent rather than cause a criminal act.
How much worse or how many more could have been hurt if more and more legislation had made it so that Perry wasn’t carrying a gun? And do those heroic citizens truly want privacy or is it more about quieting that part of the story in a state where the message is that guns need to be restricted?
As a predominantly conservative area, people in West Michigan revere and affirm the Second Amendment. Meaning, those who own firearms don’t want the government tracking, restricting, and controlling what they own, how many they own, what types they are, how they were acquired, or where they’re kept.
The harder it is for law-abiding citizens to own a firearm and protect themselves, the easier it is for increased power to be given to the criminally minded, and to the government.
The added gun legislation makes no "common sense," as it does not appear to be the answer to reforming those who don’t follow laws. Anyone running to represent this area should understand that. Just as anyone running on a platform of intruding on the Second Amendment, should not expect to do well.
Krista Yetzke is a native of Ottawa County. A jeep-driving, guitar-playing wife, mom, and everyday adventurer, Krista was raised on the love of Jesus, the great outdoors, the arts, the value of frugality, and the beauty of food as medicine.
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