Push for schools to guide safe firearm storage, only half complying a month from annual deadline

Filed 2h ago · Via Michigan Advance · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

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Michigan's Safe Homes, Safe Schools law requires districts to distribute safe firearm storage information to families each year before October. With the Oct. 1 deadline days away, advocate Sherri Masson said only half of the state's school districts had complied as of Sept. 1.

The push comes after two incidents this month: an accidental gun discharge in a third-grader's backpack at a Battle Creek elementary school on Sept. 22, and the death of 3-year-old Michael McClendon, shot by an unsecured firearm in Pontiac on Sept. 16. Rep. Sharon MacDonell, a sponsor of the law, and gun violence prevention advocates held a press conference urging districts to comply before the deadline.

Advocates noted some districts are exceeding the requirement, with Detroit distributing gun locks and Jackson requiring parental acknowledgement forms. End Gun Violence Michigan plans to release a compliance report card after the deadline passes, and cited polling showing 70% of Michigan voters support safe storage requirements.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A law that says 'tell people by October' and gets followed by half the class isn't much of a law yet, it's a suggestion with a due date. The state didn't build in much of a stick here, and a stick tends to be the part that makes a rule actually a rule. Ask any parent who's tried to get a kid to clean a room using only reminders how well that works.

Source: Read the original at Michigan Advance → Scored: Gypsy Shoegazer No Voices · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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